Sunday, April 10, 2011
The End of Books
I found this article to be very resourceful as well as I agree with the author how since we live in a technologically driven society today, that hypertext(computer generated) instead of novel based, is beating all of our books nowadays. I never really used to look at texts on the computer as "hypertext"; I have usually just called them online articles and databases. What I learned and found helpful and interesting from this article was that, with hypertext, we focus as writers and readers on structure and according to the text,” in hypertext, multivocalism is popular, graphic elements, both drawn and scanned, have been incorporated into the narratives, imaginative font spaces have been employed to identify various voices or plot elements..." (The End of Books, 1992, 707-08). I found this explanation on what is incorporated in hypertext helpful and interesting because I did not realize that hypertext consists of different forms of elements such as song lyrics, charts and graphs, dictionary entries, anything we can think of and books can contain the similar things, however unlike hypertext, not one book can contain everything hypertext can on one computer. If a book consisted of everything hypertext can, it would not be called a book, or if it would, it would be a very thick book. So overall, I felt an example of what this article was discussing, made me think of how popular eBooks have been becoming the past few years because they not only save paper however I believe I heard it is a little less expensive to pay or rent for in relation to textbooks themselves. The thought of e-books reminded me of the title of this test which was "The End of Books." I think novels themselves will still exist however I'm curious how long newspapers even the best selling ones, if they'll even be outdated by the internet articles.
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I agree, hypertext seems to be beating out traditional books in many ways. Online texts are much cheaper and easier to produce and have the ability to reach a wide audience in very little time. Creative fiction writers don’t necessarily have to wait to get their work published in a magazine or book now; anybody can go online and post their original works. Indeed, the internet has proved to be a useful medium for amateur writers, as seen in blogs, editorial websites, and fanfiction sites.
ReplyDeleteBut, as I said in my post, I don’t think books are going anywhere soon. Holding a book in your hand just feels more authentic than reading something on a computer screen. Maybe it’s the feeling that books are somehow more viable since the author went through the extra effort to get it published. Maybe it’s the nostalgic feeling of using a medium that seems outdated. Whatever it is, it’s helping books survive the digital age.
Hey there,
ReplyDeleteI thought the same when I read the the title of the article! That the "e" in e-books stood of the end of books. Personally, I enjoy a hard copy of books and newspaper. I like the feeling of being able to enjoy holding the book in my rather than scroll constantly. Maybe, I'm just old school, but this whole new technology with kindles, and iPad tablets do not suit my taste very well. I hope that they don't plan on discontinuing real hard covers of books. Or else libraries would not be around for long. Let's hope libraries won't get replaced by e-books. haha