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Questions & Responses on Chapter 2:Writing as Technology

The second chapter of the book, "Writing as Technology," has some interesting perspectives as to how we actively define technology. Personally, the term "technology" I feel refers to anything and everything that an individual uses in the process of innovation, or rather, anything and everything that a person uses in order to establish the fact that he is an intelligent and learning being. I think that the faculties of creativity can be considered technology only insofar as they are imperative elements to the construction of something new and increasingly interesting. There are an innumerable ways of creating, re-creating and/or destroying something invented, and as such, it is important for an artist to know and understand how his thoughts came to influence his actions.

I liked how the chapter began, describing the earliest forms of writing machines. I like how it talked about mass production and compared print quality to handwriting. Technology refers to skills, machines, and devices. The author defines the root of technology, “techne,” and explains how writing can be seen as an art form. Writing is creative and functional. I do not have any questions about this chapter. The part that I found especially interesting is how the author says that computers and repetitive stress from typing causes injuries, and should be a reminder that they are physical entities. —Carrie

I find the discussion of wirting being immaterial and material at the same time fascinating. Isn't any form of communication and any form of perception immaterial? I know I am writing on a desk because my culture has a word for such a thing, a concept for it, a need for it. But understanding any aspect of reality occurs on an abstract level, doesn't it? —Elizabeth

Are we, as a constantly evolving culture, going to always going to remediate as technology continues to grow more complex day by day ? Will we ever reach technological complancency? —Jay

While this chapter recapped the different types of writing technology and how it has progressed over the years, it made me wonder how our writing technology today will seem years and years from now. The older styles/forms of writing seem so outdated, simplistic, even inconvenient now but then it was often a newly invented form of technology---it was progress then as email, laptops, and textmessaging are progress now. I think it is both interesting or exciting and scary (that may just be me though) to think where writing technology will go next to make our current writing technology seem outdated. —Lindsay

One thing that everyone in the entire world uses everyday is language and writing. We take writing for granted and the author points out that it is a technology. In this chapter, he compares writing technology today to the technology of writing when it was first invented. I think that it is interesting that it took so long for major advances to be made in writing technology and that there are so few of them. For something that our world could not live without, why isn't its development paid more attention to? Are there just a very limited amount of advancements to be made with writing? —Nicole

I don't know if i just missed this explaniaton but what is codex. —Terrell

In Chapter 2 Bolter in seems to be arguing that the World Wide Web and its ability to publish anything on the web is a new form of writing. It also seems to me that he is arguing that the web is improving writing of our society. I disagree with this statement I think the web is actually hurting our ability to produce quality work. Publishing a book is difficult, but now anyone can publish anything that they want on the web. This is taking away from the quality of writing in our society. The evidence I see of this is by student writing. Many students are now abbreviating words such as you with just a u or speaking as if they are in a chat room within their papers for school. —Megan

Chapter 2 was about writing as a technology. Printing itself in thechapter claims that because of technology it cleaned up the interface. Ilearned that material properties were catorgized as handwritten text,print and digital writing. This chapter was interesting but I thought itwas really dry. I learned some interesting ideas and history about print. —Hannah

Chapter two deals with the idea that computer aided publishing and other computer aided Medias are claiming to be a vast improvement upon now antiquated media. This new media can provide a conglomerate of photography, graphic design, film, audio and video that reading a mere printed book could never offer. However, I find this statement to be somewhat pompous. I do not believe that the printed word, visual arts, or films will ever be abandoned because of the possibility of immediacy through the use of computers; and the statement that these computer aided experiences could be more interactive than reading a printed book is somewhat ridiculous; what defines interaction? —Diana

The author talks about virtual reality as one medium remediating another. He says that VR is "better than painting or photography, because the viewer in virtual reality can actually step into the world viewed." I think this is a stretch of a comparison. I don't think VR and painting necessarily have the same goals. —Jim

Questions & Responses on Chapter 3: Hypertext and the Remediation of Print

The third chapter of the book, "Hypertext and the Remediation of Print," sort of makes the claim that the internet and the computer literacy which has been creeping up over the past decade is slightly overriding the physical, print medium. I don't particularly agree with this idea because I truly believe in the power of print and because I truly believe that wile the World Wide Web is associative and highly accessible, it decreases the personal nature of communication. I fully understand the multiple dimensions of networking and outlining that the computer allows; however, I also fully understand the value of physical, original, hand-crafted copy. —Aaron

I learned a lot about hypertext from my global hypertext class. I think that hypertextual books are very interesting, and by that I mean in format (not really content) -- I prefer books in print. I like how hypertext is used on websites, though. That seems much more appropriate than book completely made of hypertext. I liked how the author explained how we conceive hypertext spatially -- paths through space. To me, books in print are more lasting and hypertext seems ephemeral. I want to know if hypertextual books will become more prevalent? And if so, does that mean a book will be produced purely in hypertext or that the book is produced in print and in hypertext form? Moreover, does that mean books will eventually become ephemeral? —Carrie

The idea of the culture changing to information overload is very interesting. Is our society reaching a new point in history where there is so much information available that the way we think will change? —Elizabeth

Is hypertext a literary fad that will balloon in popularity here and there before becoming a relic of the past ? (assuming my question from Chapter 2 proves itself false) —Jay

I like the thought that the hypertext chapter made when Bolter said writing is an act of deferral; I never thought of writing in that sense and I think it is interesting. It is also interesting that it seems the more updated our writing gets, the more distant the link between the sender and receiver gets. This was brought up by the example of the letter vs. the computer message---the letter is more tangible and actually touched by the sender and also the receiver, whereas the computer message (email) is not touched by either and each party only handles their own keyboard and the message is composed of light---very intangible. —Lindsay

There is a section here where Bolter discusses the writer and the inability to write things down fast enough or how he quoted Saint Teresa as wishing she had two hands so that she could write one thing and say another without forgetting. Before I blamed my use of word processors over handwriting on a bit of laziness. Although I just find it so much easier and time efficient in the aspect of putting ideas together to use a word processor. I can write down or type rather, an idea and save it as a file. And do this again with many other ideas and eventually cut and paste and pull apart these ideas to form them into one. They are all part of a tree. I just find my words make so much more sense through electronic writing. I can backspace, or insert new ideas in between old ones without having to get out the eraser. I can search for new words in the thesaurus to better get my idea across. When I am browsing the web for an idea I can type in one word and a network of tree branches is brought right to me. The unlimited space and ideas make it possible to search out any possible thing I want instantly. Pages within pages that then link back to the original. Maybe its just my generation or the movement of technology, but the internet fascinates me. I sit there until four in the morning browsing new ideas and thoughts, information brought to me in the blink of an eye. Who shops in the JC Penny Catalog when you can shop at 4 in the morning and have your product arrive at your door in a few days with no problem. Don’t get me wrong, like the JC Penny catalog, I still enjoy browsing through the monestrous 10lb books in my library, but I do enjoy convenience. I can connect to a website in some other country half way across the world in less than 2 seconds or talk to someone through instant messaging, or I can wait weeks to receive a card or send off for information on something. —Meri

I found the beginning of this chapter interesting and thought - Why do we think of the web as a space? As for the rest of the chapter, one might wonder if the web is getting out of control with information? Should there be some way of evaluating the information on the internet? What is going to happen in 10 years when there is about 20 or 30 years of information on the web? I think that the invention of the internet and digital writing can be good and bad. Good because there is now such a wealth and easy access to information and bad because there is now so much information that it is almost hard to process and difficult to judge the quality of it. This is why the paper print process will probably never cease to exist, because this is now the only way in which print is evaluated. —Nicole

The author says "pharses in the text or portions of the graphics on the Web page can be "hot" what exactly is hot in this sense. —Terrell

I disagree with the statement on page 46 that states “hypertext is not the end of print; it is instead the remediation of print.” Remediation to me seems to mean that print had something wrong with it in the first place which I don’t see as the case. I feel hypertext is actually an advancement to print. Hypertext now allows people to update information and view information from places they were not able to before. There wasn’t really a problem with print; the problem was the availability of print to our society. Today we have become a much more global then we were when books were first published hence we needed a source that could distribute our print to other places. I believe hypertext and the internet does this. —Megan

Chapter 3 was about hypertext. The few things I learned were aboutprinting on the computers and on the web. The book explained some of the history of the change of how the actual typing motion has not changedfrom typewriter to computer the difference is now how you can physicallychange the way the text looks with diffrent fonts and wear it is placedon the screen. You can also now change physically were the text is andchange large paragraphs. The great thing about text on the web is thatunlike in a paper format you can create "associative links" which canlink readers to other topics within the text. With the text you canmanipulate it into tables, create links, put images in and create visualintrest by stacking text or changing the color. This is obviouslysomething that can change easily when working in a website design andthat is why hypertext rivals print media. The other great thing abouthypertext is that on the web unlike print a person can make theinformation as long as they want. While it is important to catorgize theinformation you are not trapped within the limitations of the pages orchapters. I thought the chapter was informative and semi interesting. —Hannah

I do not agree that hypertext is the remediation of print.  That statement implies that print is faulty or defective. However, I find hypertext tends to be the faulty or defective form of communication. Considering how new the usable concept really is, there are still a lot of kinks to work out before we can say the hypertext will indeed be the superior form of communication. Even though electronic communication is becoming more natural and the more common form of communication within the world the written word is still an art form that I do not think can be transferred into the electronic realm. Music composed and played through the use of midi and other electronic technologies, however interesting and progressive, will never compare to a live musical performance. In my mind the same ideas apply to written text verses electronic hypertext. —Diana

The author mentions that "print and electronic writing, still need each other." I agree that both mediums offer advantages over the other. He also says that print's natural feel may not last. What needs to happen to push print from the natural to the novelty? —Jim