SUMMARY:
If you were to define the “real world” today, what major aspects would be included? For Robert Coover, he believes the real world is comprised of “video transmissions, cellular phones, fax machines…” (NMR 706). In “The End of Books” Coover highlights the possible future outcome of the end of books in relation to technological reliance and development, specifically in relation to hypertext. First published in a New York Times Book Review, this simple read that defines hypertext and the possible degeneration of print, was intended for mainly the public audience. It can be assumed, that this review in a major newspaper was also in response to an overall large reaction to the possibility of a hypertext invention. Coover states “…the print medium is a doomed and outdated technology…” (NMR 706). He, along with society in 1992, seems to be following the hypertext hype. First he defines hypertext as a system that provides multiple “lexias” or links (paths) between text segments. This idea proposes a medium in which the users could interact, change, alter, and supposedly learn on a much larger scale than normal print has provided. Coover, as a professor at the Brown University Hypertext Fiction Workshop, personally was able to work with simulators of this degree. His observations were as follows: hypertext is indeed exciting, and has potential in changing common fiction (NMR 707). Hypertext provides a means of texts to which authors, which would become everyone, could alter at their own desire. However, Coover comes to the conclusion that very much like its predecessors of print, hypertext “hardware and software seem to be fragile and short-lived” which is in response to the fast pace of technological development (NMR 708). He also questions on how navigation is possible through infinity and disagrees with the movement of hypertext, which neglects coherence and closure of text. In conclusion, Hoover believes that the change will occur, but questions its function ability.
INQUIRY:
I believe that Coover’s article in the NYTBR is a good example of supportive evidence of hypertext analysis pieces. After reading excerpts from the New Media Reader that are targeted at a more educated audience, the informality and simplicity of Coover’s text was initially shocking. However, I believe that this view is important: he provides the social outlook of the public in response to hypertext at that time. As seen by Coover’s conversational tone and definition of hypertext in laymen’s terms, the audience is defined. His personal experience with hypertext is also shocking: although he is a member of the public which is assumed to be interested in hypertext by his publication of this article, Coover concludes that hypertext is illogical. He believes that it’s hardware and framework will pass with time, and the constant “improvements” of technology will prohibit actual use of the hypertext. The idea of infinity also puzzles Coover, and he believes it ultimately leads to the downfall of literary merit in hypertext. Personally, such prediction seems to be illogical today. Do you believe that print will become “a medium that is a doomed and outdated technology, a mere curiosity of bygone days destined to soon be consigned forever to those dusty unattended museums we now call libraries” (NMR 706)? Do you think that hypertext is a reasonable solution to this possible problem? How does the idea of infinite “cyberspace” appeal to you and how do you think this will effect literary merit? How much of current print today is based off of it’s medium? Can this tie to McLuhan’s “Medium is the Message”?
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ReplyDeleteIn response to the first question presented: Put simply, I do believe that print is a medium that has become outdated. Williams’ The Message is the Medium discussed how new technology is self-generating. This can be applied to the invention of hypertext, which is merely the improvement that built upon its predecessor, print. Although printed text feels confined because it is restricted to the author’s writing, hypertext, allows freedom from this confinement because it provides “multiple paths between text segments” (Coover 706). These multiple paths allow for interaction between different authors, reader and author, reader and reader, etc that spreads information with no boundaries, nor limits. Basically, hypertext has the potential to be to print as what the moveable type was to writing.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the first question you have proposed, I do believe the era of books is “doomed” or coming to an end rather, but not as soon as we are assuming. The expansion of technology and various mediums are creating a new modernized type of environment in which we live our daily lives. In a society that has grown to flourish and preference speed, simplicity, and easy access creations such as hypertext could very well be the novels replacement. Coover remarks that hypertext is “the system of multidirectional and often labyrinthine linkages we are invited or obliged to create (707).” Unlike basic novel reading that occurs from lines descending down a page from left to right, hypertext contains various dimensions that are not only intriguing to our culture but help as a reader and writer to be “aware of shapes and structure of narratives that are often hidden in print stores (707).” It may be that I am part of this emerging generation of technology-based lifestyle but I don’t think hypertext is as big of a deal as Coover makes. I think books will continue to exist and though they may not be publishing as many or selling as many I feel that their extinction is still a time a way, most likely beyond our lifetimes. Hypertext is something I see in my research or on a website and think nothing of. If I need to click the link, I do so and I tend to think nothing of it. This may sound arrogant but the computer and Internet have become such a daily part of my life that I often think nothing of the medium I am using. Coover might be right in terms of the “end of books” but I don’t think this nation or world is quite ready for their nonexistence.
ReplyDeleteAlso in response to the first question that you posed, I agree with much of what the text (and our group members) are saying. In a particular quote, Coover states that "With hypertext we focus, both as writers and as readers, on structure as much as on prose, for we are made aware suddendly of the shapes of narratives that are often hidden in print stories," (707) which shows just on one level how hypertext is more beneficial than the previous types of texts. Hypertext automatically allows us to be multidimensional in whatever type of analysis or writing we are doing, which was not possible with the previous types of writing and literature. Hypertext has started a new type of interaction between the authors and fans of popular web pages and sites and has become a manner of linking different pages with one another. In another quote by Coover, he states that "Electronic text processing marks the next major shift in information technology after the development of the printed book," (706) meaning that hypertext is already in the process of replacing printed text and changing the way we interact with each other and society as a whole.
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