Editing Vurt (section)

==Allusions and references==
Jeff Noon says ''Vurt'' originally began as an adaptation of [[Octave Mirbeau]]'s ''[[The Torture Garden (novel)|The Torture Garden]]'', an anti-authoritarian novel written at the turn of the 20th century. Noon, recently exposed to [[virtual reality]] technology by the magazine [[Mondo 2000]], depicts the torture garden as a virtual world. Noon also credits [[Joseph Campbell]]'s book ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'' for inspiring the narrative structure of ''Vurt''.<ref name="Noon" />

The character of Desdemona is based on the character of the same name from [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Othello]]''.
The Curious Yellow feather is a possible allusion to the 1967 Swedish film ''[[I Am Curious (Yellow)]]'', which uses non-linear narrative structures and postmodern techniques like the novel. It might also be a reference to [[computer worms]] (the Vurt is riddled with virtual reality serpents which propagate from game to game, like computer worms replicate themselves by hijacking computer programs).<ref>{{Citation |last=Wiley |first=Brandon |title=Curious Yellow: The First Coordinated Worm Design |url=http://blanu.net/curious_yellow.html}}</ref>

''Vurt'' has been described as a retelling of [[Orpheus]]' visit to the [[Underworld]].<ref>Sawyer and Seed 2000, p. 196.</ref> Orpheus and Scribble are both poets and musicians, and each attempts to rescue their idealised lovers from an alternate reality. As Joan Gordon points out, cyberspace represents "the underside of the human condition" and therefore the journey to virtual reality is comparable to the mythic journey to commune with the dead.<ref>Gordon 1990</ref> In addition, the myth of Orpheus, like ''Vurt'', explores what it means to be human in relation to the non-human; Orpheus encountered the dead, and Scribble the virtual simulations created by computers.<ref>MacCracken 1998, p. 127.</ref>

There are multiple allusions to stories by [[Lewis Carroll]], such as a club the main character walks into, referred to as the Slithy Tove, which is a quote from Carroll's poem, [[Jabberwocky]].