Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 17:55
From: Jami
Subject: Thought for the day
This is a pretty low key thought, but here goes...
I really enjoy books. I like the texture of the paper, the smell, and the feel of the book in my hand. I like old, worn books and brand new, slick-covered ones. I often find reading texts online difficult and constraining. I want to know how a hypertext/hypermedia environment is going to reconcile this dilemma. While hypertext offers great new opportunities for presenting texts, if they're not enjoyable/easy to read, what's the point?
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 10:23
From: John D.
Subject: A Luddite's response: clinging to print
Some of the claims made in the articles for this week (and also looking ahead to the early chapters of Landow), particularly " The Rationale of Hypertext," suggest that hypertext and hypermedia forms represent a radical departure from the traditional book (in its print/codex form). While I agree that new developments represent a technological breakthrough, making it possible to link and access multiple resources almost instantaneously, I don't know if this constitutes a true revolution in terms of a paradigm shift.
For example, take texts like Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch or Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine (Landow mentions Tristam Shandy in the same context): these works ask the reader to participate in the construction of meaning by using multiple cross-references, footnotes, and various textual fragments. The dominant authorial mode is deliberately undercut, and the practices of authoring and reading are called into question. Does hypertext truly represent a departure from this type of textual form, or merely a contemporary, cutting edge realization of what's already been done in metafiction?
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 13:38
From: John D.
re books and their appeal as physical objects: Kodansha International, one of the leading exporters of Japanese fiction in translation, has made a conscious attempt to manipulate this factor in marketing their line of paperbacks. They have improved the quality of the cover art, which is not surprising, but they have also worked on the "feel" of the item, opting for a softer, glossier cover, one pleasing to the touch. I don't know whether sales have been influenced by this campaign, but (having picked up several of the items in question) I can attest to the tactile appeal.
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 15:10
From: Fran
I too agree that a book will always be the best alternative to me. I cannot read off a computer screen with any sort of concentrated effort at all! I have to print it out, all the while feeling bad about all the paper I am wasting becuase of this personal inability. Who wants guilt when you are trying to read?
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 13:48
From: Debbie
Subject: The love of books
I too enjoy nothing more than curling up in a sunny spot of the room with a good book in my hands, but ...
click here to continue this thought
or, check out this Associated Press article on the San Francisco Library .
A more recent article appeared in the Washington Post on February 2, 1997, page A24, but that one is not online. (Information thanks to Karen.)
Also not online is an article by John Updike, writer of actual books, in the New Yorker from January or February with the picture of a bridge on the cover. (Information thanks to Frank.)