Jennifer Sheppard
HU 520
Book Review
Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the
History of Writing. 1991. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Introduction and General Overview
The opening chapter of this book is like a loose, collective summary of the many historical and theoretical texts we have read this quarter. Bolter moves through many of the familiar debates regarding the future of the printed book (it will survive, but in new forms less reliant on text), the destiny of literacy (it will not be lost, but what and how it means to be literate will change drastically), and the "cultural status" of writing (the impermanence of electronic writing will change the relationship between author, reader, and text). In laying out his argument, Bolter claims that as a technology of reading and writing the computer is the fourth great medium in the history of literacy, and that it will "take its place beside the ancient papyrus roll, the medieval codex, and the printed book" (6). The gap that this work attempts to fill is the study of this interim period between print and digital writing. Bolter suggests that many fundamental changes are in store during this transition for readers, writers, and our traditional understanding of books.
Among the comparisons he makes are the following:
Electronic Writing vs. Conventional Printed Text
In exploring the oppositions between print and electronic texts, Bolter sets out to examine how the physical, conceptual, and metaphorical "writing space" is altered by the computer. Despite the ambiguous nature of current understandings about electronic writing, Bolter remains a strong advocate for this new medium throughout his book, calling it both "revolutionary and evolutionary" (ix).
Section Summaries and Commentary
Part I: The Visual Writing Space (chapters 2-5)
This section of Bolter's book is perhaps most like what we have read in class so far this quarter. Chapters three through five offer comparisons between previous technologies of writing and the physical characteristics offered by the computer, while chapter two introduces the reader to electronic writing, especially hypertext and hypermedia capabilities.
Chapter two begins with what seems like a fairly out of date discussion (forgivable since the book was published in 1991) of how computers can be used to facilitate topical writing in the form of electronic outlines, hierarchical lists, and writing trees. Bolter then goes on to define the relational network and linking organization of hypertext and the ability to include audio and visual elements, hypermedia, into textual documents. What I find most useful about this chapter is his argument that multimedia is not the "death of writing" but instead that such elements promise to "create synaesthesia in which anything that can be seen or heard may contribute to the texture of the text" (27). This position, which claims hypermedia expands notions of literacy because it requires the encoding and decoding of a variety of symbolic elements besides text, is one that is supported by more current work in literacy studies (Dorr 1994).
Chapter three argues that all forms of writing, by hand as well as by machine are technologies and the computer "changes the technology of writing by adding new flexibility to the rapidity and efficiency of printing" (34). Bolter also offers a particularly interesting and useful discussion of the relationship between materials, technologies, and artifacts of writing, or what he terms "economies of writing" (37). I will expand on this idea in a later section of the review.
In chapter four Bolter examines the development of visual elements of communication, especially the rebirth they are experiencing in electronic writing. He reminds readers that the computer "provides a richly textured writing space," that it is "primarily visual, rather than oral," and that "the electronic medium gives a renewed prominence to the long discredited art of writing with pictures" (45-46). His argument becomes hard to follow, however, when he attempts to make an awkward connection between today's digitized images and the mnemonic, "art of memory" system used by ancient Greek story tellers and philosophers. He tries to claim that just as the ancient practitioners kept vivid images in their minds to remind them of key ideas or names during oratory, "contemporary electronic writing is the art of encompassing ideas and setting them down in a writing space" (57). Perhaps the most intriguing, but least developed part of this chapter is Bolter's mention of how visual elements can be used to facilitate linking in hypertextual environments. Though he merely introduces the subject, by quoting from Landow, Bolter suggests that graphical elements might play a rhetorical role in helping readers to understand where their movements will take them (60-61).
Chapter five, "Seeing and Writing" seems aimed at getting readers to recognize the transparent nature of the word by helping us to look at, rather than look through the text. By tracing the development of texts and typography, from hand-copied, illustrated manuscripts and early type styles to the Xerox machine, Bolter argues that the computer now allows for greater flexibility and responsibility in how a text is designed and layed out because writers have such an array of textual and visual tools at their disposal.
Part II: The Conceptual Writing Space (chapters 6-9)
The chapters in this section examine how our conceptions of what constitutes a "writing space" are changed by computers, electronic books, and fictional and non-fictional hypertext. In looking at how electronic technologies, like CD-ROMs are changing our ideas about "books," Bolter examines much of the same historical territory about libraries, catalogs, and encyclopedias that Chartier does, though in far less detail. His point here seems to be two-fold. First, he argues that "electronic technology does not destroy the idea of the book," but "it does diminish the sense of closure that the codex and printing have fostered" because so much more information can be included (87). However, he also warns that multimedia capabilities may present more and more of this information in perceptual rather than symbolic form, thereby putting the reader in a much more passive position.
Chapter seven looks at the way hypertextual writing now allows readers more control over their own path through a text. By examining past textual structures, such as the Platonic dialogue and the essayist tradition, Bolter argues that hypertext gives more freedom and responsibility to the reader and calls on writers to replace their focus on building a single argument with the task of structuring multiple possibilities (119).
After tracing the development of experimental fiction in the work of Sterne and (James) Joyce, chapter eight offers a detailed analysis of Michael Joyce's hypertextual fiction piece "Afternoon" as a way of discussing both the creative potentials and the pitfalls of such computerized texts.
The final chapter in this section "Critical Theory and the New Writing Space" begins with a discussion of how the development of the traditional literary canon is a result of the conservative nature of print technology. On the other hand, Bolter argues, the electronic medium "threatens to bring down the whole edifice. . . . It complicates our understanding of literature as either mimesis or expression, it denies the fixity of the text, and it questions the authority of the author" (153).
Part III: The Mind as a Writing Space (chapters 10-14)
With the exception of chapter 13, the final section of Bolter's book, dealing with the "electronic writing space as a new metaphor for the human mind and for our culture's collective mentality," is the least applicable to "textual" work of any sort in the Humanities. In chapter 10, Bolter looks at Artificial Intelligence (AI) and says that despite enthusiasts claims that computers can perform autonomously, in reality AI is "simply another way to write with a computer" (171). Bolter argues that the value of AI is not its programmers' promises for what it may someday do, but that "it shows how the computer can redefine the relationship between the writer and writing surface, as it incorporates the writer into the book in a new way" (175).
Chapter 11 turns to the subject of Semiotics and "Electronic Signs." Though Semiotics has contributed to work in a number of fields, including Literary theory, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies, this chapter did not provide a clear connection between any of these areas and the impact of electronic writing. Assuming a familiarity with the terminology of Semiotics, slippery at best to a novice, Bolter's main point is lost. His argument appears to be that "the electronic writing space is not a metaphor for signification, but rather a technology of signification. Signs in the computer do precisely what students of semiotics have been claiming for their signs for more than a century" (200). However, his elaboration on this claim remains muddled and elusive.
In chapter 12, "Writing the Mind," Bolter attempts a line of argument and referential support that seems both unnecessary and detrimental to his overall purpose in the book. Citing the work of Goody and Ong, both writing about the superiority of the "literate mind" over the oral, Bolter asserts that "all writing fosters categorical thinking and analysis because analysis is built into the very act of writing" (209). Though he goes on to write the following, his attempt to make such a case does not seem to support in any way his larger focus on impact of electronic writing: "to say that there would be no mind in the ancient or the Western sense without literacy is not to say that there would be no thought or mental activity or that illiterate peoples do not think. It simply means that the notion of the mind as a unified entity developed in the context of literacy" (212).
The final chapter begins with a comparison of restricted literacy in ancient times and goals of universal literacy in the industrialized world. Bolter's first argument is that we must pay attention to and work to prevent the growing disparity between those who have access to technology and technologic literacy and those who do not (223-224). However, Bolter's main concerns in this chapter seem to be to encourage a critical and active use of electronic writing for both authors and readers, as well as a need to leave open as wide as possible the kinds of texts and information that are written.
Chapter 14 offers a brief conclusion in which Bolter provides the "customary apology" in which he admits that his work is by no means a definitive history of writing (239). He also gives a brief overview of what the CD hypertext version of his book offers readers in addition to his linear text, though he admonishes that few people will actually "bother" to send for it or to read it. He closes with the following thought:
In the world of electronic writing, there will be no texts that everyone must read. There will only be texts that more or fewer readers choose to examine in more or less detail. The idea of the great inescapable book belongs to the age of print that is now passing. (240).
Discussion of a Particularly Insightful and Interesting Chapter
By examining the physical materials used for writing through time, stone, clay, papyrus, paper, and books, Bolter is able to illustrate how each culture and time had its own "economy of writing" (37). Explaining this, he writes,
There is a dynamic relationship between the materials and the techniques of writing, and a less obvious but no less important relationship between materials and techniques on the one hand and the genres and uses of writing on the other. Economies of writing- materials, techniques, and uses- evolve and expand and sometimes deteriorate and collapse. (37)
What is most intriguing is Bolter's statement that different materials effect not only how writing survives but also the kind of writing that is possible. Because writing on paper, and even writing on computers has become so naturalized, we no longer really see how these materials constrain and construct the kind of writing we do. Using the example of papyrus rolls, he explains, "Greek and Latin texts were written in narrow columns perpendicular to the length of the roll, an arrangement that made ancient books more strictly linear than modern ones. . . . The roll later became a structural unit in writing, and Greek and Roman authors often conceived and wrote their works in units appropriate to the roll" (38). In other words, the physical properties of the medium influence both the content and the shape of what can be said. What I found most useful here is the idea that many current uses of electronic writing still rely on structures of print, but that this new medium is already developing novel ways to take advantage of the different physical forms of hypertext, electronic "writing," and the incorporation of multimedia.
Discussion of a Particular Weakness
Besides my on-going objections to the cultural relativism and elitism of some of Ong's work, the thing I found most lacking in Bolter's book was a fuller development of how multimedia might alter what it means to both read and write. Although he introduces hypermedia capabilities briefly in chapter two and spends some time discussing the use of visual communication in earlier times, he really does not delve too deeply into what multimedia "writing" can entail. Such technologies drastically change the rhetorical strategies of writers and the reading practices of "readers" as well, yet Bolter hardly acknowledges this point and instead remains firmly in the realm of text. However, given that much of our contemporary multimedia technology for the computer has only been developed and made widely available in the last few years, Bolter's 1991 publication date is obviously a factor here. For readers now and in the future, though, this gulf will remain and will surely grow wider.
How I Might Use these Theories and Observations in My Own Work
This book has certainly helped me to realize which areas of electronic writing I am interested in studying and which areas of debate I want to distance myself from. For instance, I would like to pursue Bolter's ideas on how the "economies of writing," shape "text" and how the "cultural status" of readers, writers, and texts are impacted by multiple electronic media. However, I am not really interested in discussions of how hypertext can re-create fiction and I don't really see much use for my purposes in looking at writing Artificial Intelligence programs or how writing makes us think about the mind.
Who else might benefit from this work and how
I think that parts of this book might be useful for people with an interest in the historical continuum of writing change, especially in regards to the role of electronic writing. As I said before, I find the first two sections of Bolter's book more applicable to work in the Humanities because they look specifically at issues of the text. I did also find his more general consideration of how computer writing is influencing and impacting culture to be particularly relevant as well. I would give Bolter's book a hesitant recommendation, warning readers that while there are thought-provoking nuggets of information sprinkled throughout, it is easy to get bogged down unless one is selective about the chapters she or he chooses to explore.