Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 17:07
From: Krissi
Subject: ode to margins
Reading Landow's Hypertext is proving to be so much dang fun. Why? Because I can scribble all over the place!
About half way through the book, I became very self-conscious of the fact that I was writing longer sentences than I think I've ever written in a book. Iwent back through the pages I had read and noticed how my handwriting and font size and length of comments just kept getting bigger and longer -- and I felt so much more "engaged" (ohh ahhh - catch word of the day!!) SOon, I began to go nuts. Now, my book is covered with my comments. I haven't hadthis much fun since my days as a coloring-book maniac.
Anyone else enjoying the margins on this book?
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 19:45
From: Randy
Subject: But what's in the margins?
But I want to know what is in the margins? I guess if they're longer than four letter words, that's a good sign.
Roger responds:
My marginalia read, in pertinent part: "but it does not work this way with Westlaw and Lexis. Or does it?" (Less than four letters per word, with the exception of "Westlaw").
I need a lot more space than that provided in the margins to explain the meaning of this comment. I hope the following partial explanation isn't too tedious.
As an attorney, I use hypertext almost daily in the very practical applications known as Westlaw and Lexis. So far, I do not think these electronic media have contributed to any "decentering" of legal authority -- though certain "Critical Legal Studies" scholars may disagree -- and, as we don't yet exist in anarchy, I feel confident in saying that there has not been any shift between author and reader.
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 18:33
From: Jami
Subject: Re: fun with margins
I'm not having quite as much fun in this respect as Krissi, but I am enjoying the spacious layout of the pages. Landow spends some time commenting on layout/design, so I assume the broad margins were not an accident! I find it much easier to read when the words aren't all crammed in together... maybe it lets my brain flow more freely...
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 10:36
From: Christina
Subject: Re: ode to margins
Yes, the margins in the Landow book are very accommodating. I quickly became aware that I was engaged in a kind of hypertext-like, associative creation while I was reading about hypertext. My margin notes and reading notes all link to specific ideas a paragraph, etc -- that kind of close reading is not unusual for a lot of people, I'm sure, but it was interesting to suddenly be aware of it in the context of this course. One difference with note-taking, though, is that you don't necessarily alter the "center" of your text, right? In hypertext Landow talks about a constant de-centering, and the transformation of a text into a network -- when I take notes, I pretty much keep to the main reading, don't trail off on new paths.
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 14:12
From: Jennifer
Subject: ode to margins -Reply
This is in response to Krissi's comment that she was loving the big margins in Hypertext because she could add her own thoughts right there --
I feel a little bit weird about this because I almost never, ever will write in a book. It goes back to the love for books thread (smell, taste, feel) that we were talking about before -- I just feel like I am ruining the book. I guess there are a couple of reasons behind this:
-- if I lend the book to someone else, I don't want to alter their reading experience by having them see my notes or underlining. I don't want to be their Siskel&Ebert. I'd rather that the next person to read the book have their own relationship to the words.
-- if I go back to the book in a couple of years, I might not feel the same
way about the text and the notes I've taken will bug me.
(Not that I don't
appreciate seeing early ideas and where they take someone from a
historical perspective -- but uncovering Mozart's first draft of a sonata is
different than finding my musings on Landow in a few years.)
I guess so much of this attitude is bound up in my idea of books as permanent and valuable and important -- which is totally different than my ideas about hypertext. Right now, I feel like some forms of electronic hypertext are so mutable (I know that this is part of the charm) that I just don't give them much respect. Their novelty makes me take them less seriously.
I know I sound like a big Luddite, suffering from technotrauma -- I'm going to stop writing now before I'm run out of class.
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1997 15:00
From: Debbie
Subject: Margin Mania
I must agree with Christina, while the margins do provide, even encourage, commentary by the reader, I do not find my center changing. Furthermore, I was intrigued by the traditional use of footnotes. If in fact Landow was trying to imitate hypertext in a print form, perhaps he should have attempted to incorporate his references, which would have encouraged the reader to stray from the original path and shift the center. I realize that this effort would have made the book cumbersome at the very least, but that points to an interesting difference between print and hypertext.