--------------3FB94A216053
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Jonathan Chiu writes:
> As this is my assigned article, here are some questions to mull over:
>
> 1. Does hypertext really mean "The End of Books" as Coover says, or will
> books continue to serve as an important tool for humanity? Does hypertext
> evolve from the book? Or is hypertext another completly different type of
> communication? Hypertext entails interaction, and the tradition "book" does
> not.
Books still have some advantages: they are cordless, they keep well,
they are ideal for distributing information in underdeveloped areas. If
it is true that new technologies only replace old ones when they do the
same thing better, then the book will be around
for a while, probably quite a while--but some things that now take the
form of books
will no longer take that form. BTW: anyone want to take issue with the
assertion that books are *not* interactive?
> 2. Should man try to hold on to the book as an object, i.e., putting books
> onto microfilm to preserve "reality" of it? Hardison says: "We no longer
> know things directly, we only know what our machines tell us about
> them; that
> is to say, we know insturmentalities." Should man try to hold on to things
> in our own physical reality, or should we give in, give up our physicial
> reality for a virtual one?
I'm not sure microfilm of a book counts as "holding on to the ...object"
--it's a translation. By the same token, I'm not sure that computers
are "virtual" rather than "physical"--they have a very definite
materiality, and the electronic text is as grounded in that physical
materiality as the print text is grounded in paper and ink.
> 3. Does hypertext mean the death of the author?
Yes.
> 4. Will the transition from book to hypertext present a great deal in
> resistance? Or will people accept it?
>
Well, both. See "Gutenberg Elegies" by Sven Birkerts for the
resistance, and my modest reply,
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/~jmu2m/mla-94.html, for the resistance to
resistance.
--------------3FB94A216053
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii; name="0059.html"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline; filename="0059.html"
Content-Base: "http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/
lists_archive/ensp481/0059.html"
<BASE HREF="http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/lists_archive/ensp481/0059.html">
<!-- received="Sat Sep 28 16:02:01 1996 EDT" -->
<!-- sent="Sat, 28 Sep 96 16:01:47 EDT" -->
<!-- name="Jonathan Chiu" -->
<!-- email="jkc6a@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu" -->
<!-- subject=""Traveling in the Breakdown Lane: A Principle of resistance for hypertext" -->
<!-- id="199609282001.QAA05621@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU" -->
<!-- inreplyto="" -->
<title>mbox: "Traveling in the Breakdown Lane: A Principle of resistance for hypertext</title>
<h1>"Traveling in the Breakdown Lane: A Principle of resistance for hypertext</h1>
Jonathan Chiu (<i>jkc6a@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu</i>)<br>
<i>Sat, 28 Sep 96 16:01:47 EDT</i>
<p>
<ul>
<li> <b>Messages sorted by:</b> <a href="date.html#59">[ date ]</a><a href="index.html#59">[ thread ]</a><a href="subject.html#59">[ subject ]</a><a href="author.html#59">[ author ]</a>
<!-- next="start" -->
<li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0060.html">Chesney Gordon Floyd: "Schedulese"</a>
<li> <b>Previous message:</b> <a href="0058.html">Jonathan Chiu: "schedule"</a>
<!-- nextthread="start" -->
</ul>
<!-- body="start" -->
As this is my assigned article, here are some questions to mull over:<br>
<p>
1. Does hypertext really mean "The End of Books" as Coover says, or will<br>
books continue to serve as an important tool for humanity? Does hypertext<br>
evolve from the book? Or is hypertext another completly different type of<br>
communication? Hypertext entails interaction, and the tradition "book" does<br>
not. <br>
<p>
2. Should man try to hold on to the book as an object, i.e., putting books<br>
onto microfilm to preserve "reality" of it? Hardison says: "We no longer<br>
know things directly, we only know what our machines tell us about them; that<br>
is to say, we know insturmentalities." Should man try to hold on to things<br>
in our own physical reality, or should we give in, give up our physicial<br>
reality for a virtual one?<br>
<p>
3. Does hypertext mean the death of the author?<br>
<br>
4. Will the transition from book to hypertext present a great deal in<br>
resistance? Or will people accept it?<br>
<!-- body="end" -->
<p>
<ul>
<!-- next="start" -->
<li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0060.html">Chesney Gordon Floyd: "Schedulese"</a>
<li> <b>Previous message:</b> <a href="0058.html">Jonathan Chiu: "schedule"</a>
<!-- nextthread="start" -->
</ul>
--------------3FB94A216053--