4. Is Hypertext a More Natural Way to Write?

• Links create connections between elements that might not be connected in the first place.
• Hyperlinks imitate the human mind in that they don't follow a linear pattern, but they are based more on association.
• Conventional writing does not allow the reader and writer to have conversations.
• You can't interact with the writer while reading a book
• The reader does not get to contribute to the writing
• Word processors have tools that allow you to connect your ideas.
• Use of maps, images, videos.
• Hypertext reflects the nature of the human mind because we think associatively, not linearly.

Great Writers, Great Readings Presents John Edgar Wideman

"He writes the way we talk." This phrase sums up perfectly the atmosphere I felt during John Edgar Wideman's speech last Wednesday.  His special attention to diction, dialect and talking voice of his characters have made him a recipient of an innumerable number of awards and prizes.  He manages to convey a sort of immediacy and realism in his writing that not many authors can express.

We were lucky enough to listen to a fragment from his work in progress, titled thus far Fathers and Sons. It's a novel heavily based on autobiographical events, yet he still considers it fiction.  The initial chapter starts with a young boy seeing the picture of a dead and battered Emmett Till on a newspaper.  This causes a big impact on the boy, because he sees himself identified with the image in print.  From this pont, Wideman cleverly inserts quotations regarding Till's murder trial as if to give the reader an idea of how the media viewed this trial, and the social ramifications of this fact.  Though a lot of attention is, so far, payed to the trial itself, it appears as though the focus of the book will eventually shift and focus on Louis Till, the boy's father, who has a dark story himself.

I found the fragment to be really interesting.  I would definitely read a book based on this premises, since trials and semi-autobiographical writings are a personal favorite of mine.  But going beyond the presentation of this new book, Wideman was willing to offer the audience some advice.  The one thing that hit me the most was him urging people to do and study what they are really passionate about.  Sure, we all have economic concerns in mind, but these should not limit us when choosing a carrer path.  Pretty solid advice, if you ask me.

Are you ever afraid to write?

Derrida states that he is not afraid of the writing process itself. He says that he writes what he needs to write.  It is the consequences that may come that scare him while he is in his 'half-sleep'.  And I think that is a legitimate concern, which I share as well.

When I write something, I usually do it knowing that somebody else is going to read it. And that is a scary realization: something you have produced will be seen by someone else's eyes. And these eyes tend to make critiques and judgements.  Also, written words have real power. So whether we like it or not, sometimes we need to filter our thoughts before we write them.

3. Evolution of the Writing Machine

CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES IMPROVE TEXTUAL EXPRESSION AND UNDERSTANDING

• The codex
• Transactions inscribed and remembered
• The printing press
• Massive amounts of text to be created
• Nearly everyone has access to writing materials
• The computer
• Biggest evolution in writing technology
• Creates interwoven society
• Grants everyone access
• Online print
• Remediation: New York Times
• Social networking
• Another way for people to connect and communicate for each other
• Informal writing
• Blogs
• Blogger, Tumblr

The Endless Possibilities of Digital Text

Group Prezi on Bolter's Writing Spaces (Chapter 1)

2. Writing Spaces Redefined

DIGITAL TEXT REDEFINES WRITING AS A TECHNOLOGY

• Computer: processes information, does not produce power.
• Redefinition of writing spaces.
• Wordle
• Traditional writings on a new platform
• Technologies shape the way people write
• Tablets, Palms.
• Remediation: process of competition beween technologies.
• Impossibility of going back to older technologies.
• Materiality of the text
• Materials used to write affect our writing

Should we like... blog?

How does the poem differ in its two recensions? What role does the spoken word (orality) privilege? What does reading privilege? What does the textual writing space (unconventional as it is) play in the transmission of writing?

Poems like the one we are analyzing are meant to be performed orally.  It is the interaction (however mediated it might me) between the poet and the audience that adds a deeper level of understanding.  The spoken word privileges the performer's attitude, tone, irony and particular way of delivering his poem.  In this case, Taylor Mali's physical and personal interpretation of his poem is just as important as the message he is trying to deliver. The different types of intonation and force between certain words make the listeners' experience more vivid and dramatic.

On the other hand, the textual space focuses more in the message the poet is trying to get across than in the way he does it.  To be fair, we should have seen the textual representation without any kind of sound, to get exclusively the experience written word could provide. Though the message did come across clearly (and this was even done in a creative way, like with the figure of a tree being cut down) I feel like it loses some of its power, as if we don't get to feel the full experience that orality could give us.