les huit quartiers du sommeil ==

les huit quartiers du sommeil de Montreal -1990-2006

a new web map writing project by J. R. Carpenter

http://luckysoap.com/huitquartiers

I moved to Montreal on the night train. I've lived in eight neighbourhoods since and each has had a different quality of sleep. There are eight hours for sleeping in. There are four quarters in each hour. But there are many quarters in each city. Some quarters never sleep, or so they say. Others seem built for dreaming in. These are les huit quartiers du sommeil: Car Crash Sleep, Bamboo Blind Sleep, Waterbed Sleep, Louvered Door Sleep, Purple Parakeet Sleep, Break and Enter Sleep, Gondola Sleep and Greek Sleep.

To navigate these neighbourhoods of sleep, take the night train to Montreal (warning: this method may take 16 years). Or do a Google Maps search for “J. R. Carpenter les huit quartiers du sommeil de Montreal 1990-2006” and view user generated content (warning: this method may return variable results). Or follow the direct link to the Google Map of les huit quartiers du sommeil here: http://luckysoap.com/huitquartiers

A Note on the Type: I wrote the text of les huit quartiers du sommeil during a bout of insomnia at Yaddo January-February 2007, thanks to everyone at the Yaddo dinner table who listened to the thunks and whirrings of this text coming to life. I built the Google Maps and HTML versions in Montreal May-July 2007, thanks to Sandra Dametto for the brilliant idea and to Michael Boyce and Lisa Vinebaum for their careful readings. The aerial photographs are totally copyright Google Earth. Thanks in advance Google, for having a sense of humour. The other images were found using Google Images and then altered using Photoshop filters until they looked like something I would do. Except for the street maps, those I drew by hand as you can probably tell. Merci Daniel Canty, your English is better than mine. Et merci Stephane Vermette pour tous.

J. R. Carpenter is a poet, fiction writer and web artist based in Montreal. She is a two-time winner of the CBC Quebec Short Story Competition and a Web Art Finalist in the Drunken Boat Panliterary Awards 2006. More of her writing and web art projects can be found at: http://luckysoap.com