The electronic word : democracy, technology, and the arts PDF
Preview The electronic word : democracy, technology, and the arts
THE ELECTRONIC WORD The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London Richard A. Lanham Democracy, Technology, and the Arts TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago 60637 TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London ©1993 byThe UniversityofChicago Allrights reserved. Published 1993 Paperbackedition 1994 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 0201 009998 4 5 ISBN: 0-226-46885-2(paper) LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Lanham,RichardA. Theelectronicword:democracy,technology,andtheartsI RichardA.Lanham p. em. Includesindex. ISBN0-226-46883-6.-ISBN0-226-46884-4(floppydisk) 1. Computersandcivilization. 1. Title. QA76·9.C66L363 1993 3°3.48'34-<1C20 Ell Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofthe AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences-PermanenceofPaper forPrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48-1984. Carolaeconiugi rarissimae Contents Preface IX Acknowledgments xv TheElectronicWord: LiteraryStudyand the Digital Revolution 2 2 Digital Rhetoricand the DigitalArts 29 3 TwentyYearsAfter: Digital Decorum and Bi-stable Allusions 53 4 TheExtraordinaryConvergence: Democracy, Technology, Theory, and the University Curriculum 98 5 ElectronicTextbooks and UniversityStructures 120 6 Strange Lands, Strange Languages, and Useful Miracles 138 7 The "Q" Question 154 8 Elegies for the Book 195 9 OperatingSystems,Attention Structures, and the EdgeofCha()s 225 10 ConversationwithaCurmudgeon 258 Index 279 vii Preface The change in expressive technology about which these essays offer some preliminaryreflectionswasannouncedin theJanuary1975issueofPopular Electronicsmagazine. Thecovercarrieda pictureofthe now-famousAltair 8800, a computer kit with 256 bytes ofmemory that sold for $397. The designer, Ed Roberts, had hoped to sell as many as four hundred ofthe machines. He took that many orders in one afternoon, in the course ofa three-week period when his company's "status with its bank went from a negativevalue to plus $25°,000."1 The response to the machinewasassig nificantas the machineitself.Anewexpressivemediumhademerged-the personalcomputer-butthedemandforthemediumhadprecededthemedi um itself. Technology was not creating a demand but fulfilling one that alreadyexisted. Themachinepuzzlesuslessthanthedemandforit. Inthedecadesince it became a commonplace device (as a typical lay user, I bought my first one-an Osborne!-in 1981), it has workeda revolution not only in com puters but in the mythologysurrounding them. It is nowa personal com panion rather than an impersonal giant serviced by awhite-coated priest hood; itnowcomesinasmall boxinsteadofalarge room; itisdesignedto performdailytasksratherthangonwcalculations;itaimstoenhancehuman intelligence,notsubstitutefor it; it bringswithitabottom-up, networking managerial system rather than a top-down hierarchical one; above all, it allows us to manipulatewords and imagesandsoundsaswellas numbers. The revolution thus visited upon us has, given its magnitude, attract ed very little attention. We have been preoccupied, ever since Marshall McLuhan made"media" ahouseholdword, with the muchsexierworldof broadcast television.2ItwasTV that was creating the global village full of couchpotatoeswithminds to match. ItwasTVthatdramatizedpolitics. It wasTV that created aspecial channel to reenact rhapsodic sexual foreplay onaround-the-clockbasis.Thus bemused,wefailed tonoticethattheper sonal computer had presented itselfas an alternative to the printed book, ix
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