#landow

Summary

Theory tries to perceive hypertext while hypertext continues to push at the boundaries of its definition. Hypertext is the laboratory in which theorists can experiment. What cannot be said in print can now be said with electronics and soon won’t be need to be read at all only shown. According to Barthes, computer hypertext is text combined by blocks of words (or images) linked electronically in an open-ended unfinished textuality defined by words like node, network, web, and path. Foucault says kind of the same thing because language is built up and linked with what came before it and is always evolving. Hypertext coined by Nelson means writing that is non-sequential and offers different pathways to the reader using blocks of text or lexia. Hypermedia includes more than just text (graphics, sound). Hypertext denotes link between verbal and nonverbal. Previously linear and printed media is difficult because its references are too distant from some readers. Hypertext blurs line between reader and writer. Rewritings produced by Bloom’s “anxiety of influence”. Active reading - questioning- leads to deconstructivitst approach and movements which find missing discourses (ie postmodern, postcolonial, feminist). Cultural democratization. Hypertext facilitates deeper rewrites. Can help pave path though an explosion of information. This leads to THE HASH TAG Bush would be proud. But Nelson says categorizations become useless eventually a the schemas expand and overlap. But classification by association works well)

Comment

It is crazy that in 1945 some guy predicted the need for hash tags. Even as I write this, I know I will be putting hash tags in the bottom of this Tumblr post. They do exactly what Nelson suggest and tags thing by association. For example, this post could be categorized as literature, or electronic literature, or school, or theory, or more broadly academia. But, with tumblr and hypertext tagging, I can categorize it as ALL of these things which helps us make sense of the never ending flow of media produced online and perform some kind of curation. Cool.

Question

The reading looked intimidating at first, but the more I read the more I found myself interested in what Landow was explaining. There were a few places that had me confused, simply because I wouldn’t understand a reference or something similar. Still, the overall point of the text is to explain the history behind hypertext in a way that doesn't alienate the reader much. The piece talked about the evolution of electronic literature and how it has become a way to focus on active readers' responses to content given to them in a mass media basis.