> 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.
book's history is too long and too evolved wherein anything could mean
The End for the medium. Hypertext is also very new and surrounded with
questions, misconceptions,confusion-people will not be surrendeing the
book any time soon.what eould become of libraries? also, it's going to be
a long while before it is more conviennent for the majority of the
population to bring along their laptop for leisure-travel readin to the
ebach than a good book. Hypewrtext does evolve from the book in the
tradition of the wriitne world and reching a wide audience. However,
there are many differences-the volatile nature of hypertext, the abscence
of a single author, and the sector of the population who is able to read
hypertext. Yes this is a vastly abvailable and expanding medium, but
think of the percentage of the world's populatin who have access to--never
mind knowledgeof--computers. third world countries still find books novel
in areas. As with all new technologies, it will take a long time to
"fully absorb" hypertext into society (and what does it mean to fully
absord them into society anyway?)>
> 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?
>
> 3. Does hypertext mean the death of the author?
>
Not only does it MEAN the death of the author, it EQUALS the death of the
author.
> 4. Will the transition from book to hypertext present a great deal in
> resistance? Or will people accept it?
>
I commented on thsi earlier, but i think people are afraid of the computer
medium. it is still very new and overwhelming. if some 45 year old
parent's kid is just your average joe, he knows a lot about computers. for
the kid, it is normal--all of his friends use them and they are common
place in his school. for the paretn, or the older sibling even, this is
intimidating. they feel out of touch and don;t always want to open their
eyes to all that they don't know. it's hard to teach an old dog new
tricks, especiallyif they are blind.
resistance..you bet.