First Dutch online (.nl) novel surfaced

On 10 March, the web archivist of the KB National Library of The Netherlands placed a call on Twitter for a copy of the first Dutch-language novel, Roes der Zinnen, published on the Internet in 1994. The novel is no longer available on the internet, but it would still be available on a floppy disk. A search for the floppy disc was short-lived, as it was stored in my private E-media collection (CJB). A search for a floppy disc player took longer. But on June 25, 2020, the content of the floppy disk was transferred to the Web Archive of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek.

Photo of the floppy disc with box and seal. The author wrote on the disc: Mr Bouman, 8/12/1994 and Marcel. The disc was handed over at a congress on Internet in the Reehorst in Ede, organized by the Multi Media Research Institute (MMRI).

The author and his novel

The author of Roes der Zinnen was Marcel Bullinga (1958-2019). He had already published eleven books in 1994, including the novel Jongensboek (Boy's Book). Then he discovered the internet. His explorations on the new medium made him curious and began to explore future perspectives. On XS4ALL he was one of the first three Dutch people to set up his own site. After he offered Roes der Zinnen's manuscript to various publishers without result, he saw an internet production in the project, using new techniques such as multimedia and hyperlinks and new distribution techniques. At his own expense and risk he produced the site http://www.xs4all.nl/~roesderz/ and brought it online on 15 October 1994, in anticipation of a congress on the Electronic Book, which was held in Rotterdam on 17 October 1994. The book Roes der Zinnen was never published in printed form and never had an ISBN publisher's number.

The novel
The novel is 'a personal quest for ecstasy' and is about the experiences of a boy, who worked as a model and dancer and now looks back on this life.  This search for ecstasy develops into 52 chapters of text, fifteen photographs and a musical fragment.

Electronic book
The time when the novel was published on the internet was a confused time for the media. Various electronic information carriers fought for dominance: floppy discs, CD media and online. Since 1982 the digital CD had appeared on stage, first with music (CD-Audio), then with text (CD-ROM), then with multimedia (CD-ROM, CD-i, 3DO, CDTV) and in 1991 Sony appeared with a mini-ROM for the (multimedia) e-book. The American Voyager Company experimented with books, movies and music on floppy disks, CD-ROMs and image plates and became especially known for the Expanded Books, hypermedia books.  Online was introduced at the same time as the Internet for consumers; in the Netherlands on 1 April 1993 by the provider XS4ALL. There appeared sites for literature such as the Opkamer and Forum, on which stories were published, but no novels.

Media choice
With the internet, new possibilities for a novel were explored. There are two series of chapters: those of the past and those of today. In addition to texts, photos of about fifteen photographers have been added and later a sound clip for a dance performance has been added.

Why in the national web archive
Literature reviewers have never ventured into a review, but that may also be because of their unfamiliarity with the computer and the Internet. Marcel Möring stated at the Electronic Book Congress that a book produced without an editor of a publisher only leads to more mess; incidentally, without having read the book in question. Rob van Erkelens van de Groene Amsterdammer calls it a downright dragon.
But it was the first novel published on.nl and was not a flat copy of a printed book. It had multimedia (text, photos, music and a graphic novel.
Moreover, it had a new distribution formula, using the first chapter as a signboard, and after ordering a 25 guilder floppy disk a password was issued, which gave access to the rest of the novel.

The trove so far:

What has surfaced so far:
- 52 text files of chapters;
- 4 text files for copyright, assignment, index and beginning;
- Graphic file with choreography, thumbnails and logos;
- Technical files: web (Cello) and Winsock, a program that gave access to the internet;
- A screenshot, printed in a newspaper article;
- Five newspaper articles, available on Delpher.nl.
Still missing are fifteen photos and a music fragment are still missing.

A screenshot from the Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant (PZC), 11 March 1996 (Source: Delpher.nl)

What can the national web archive do with it?
The web archive can store and reproduce the text and technical files, including zapping between chapters, from past to present and v.v. A contemporary web browser can replace Cello, as the text files are html coded.

But with this reconstruction there is not yet the experience of the first publication, because the photos are missing and the music fragment. These missing multimedia assets are still being researched in the writer's private archive.