Holeton, Composing Cyberspace Discussion Threads Chapter 7

Chapter 7 index || Forward Thinking || Research Links || More Online Readings & Resources ||

1. re: Borges and Barry
2. re: Barry and Birkerts
3. re: Borges and Birkerts
4. re: Birkerts and Reddy
5. re: Birkerts and Laurel
6. re: Birkerts, Reddy, and Laurel
7. re: Information Overload and New Media
New Threads for CC Online:
8. re: Borges and Bush
9. re: Bush and New Media
10. re: New Media, the Web, and Nelson's Xanadu

re: Borges and Barry
1. "The impious maintain that nonsense is normal in the Library," says the narrator of "The Library of Babel" by Jorge Luis Borges, "and that the reasonable (and even humble and pure coherence) is an almost miraculous exception" (Ś 12). Imagine Dave Barry as such an impious critic in this fictional universe; what might he write about his experience browsing the Library of Babel? How might Borges's narrator reply to the irreverent Barry? Based on this dialogue, how would you compare the way the two texts comment on the relationship between information and knowledge?

re: Barry and Birkerts
2. How do you think Sven Birkerts would analyze the Web data gathered by Dave Barry?

re: Borges and Birkerts
3. To what extent do you find Sven Birkerts' concerns about "an all-electronic future" -- language erosion, the flattening of historical perspectives, and the waning of the private self -- present in Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Library of Babel"? On the other hand, what different attitudes toward print and book technology do Birkerts and Borges seem to hold?

re: Birkerts and Reddy
4. According to Shyamala Reddy, "In a world overrun with sound bites and spot advertising, books have become universal symbols of not just knowledge but integrity and righteousness as well" (Ś 2). To what extent do you think Sven Birkerts elevates books to such symbolic heights in his essay? What different advantages and disadvantages do Birkerts and Reddy find in print and electronic publishing?

re: Birkerts and Laurel
5. Sven Birkets argues that modern electronic technologies have alienated people from nature, while Brenda Laurel states emphatically, "I believe the reverse is true" (Ś 18). With whom do you agree more, and why?

re: Birkerts, Reddy and Laurel
6. "The emergence of a new medium," writes Brenda Laurel, "is a dance between the evolutionary pattern or recapitulation [of older, existing media] and the force of new creative visions" (Ś 15). How would you analyze the essays by Sven Birkerts and Shyamala Reddy in terms of Laurel's "evolutionary dance"? What different metaphors for the emergence of new media are suggested by Birkerts and Reddy?

re: Information Overload and New Media
7. Overall, based on this chapter's selections and your own experience, how do you weigh the dangers or negative social effects versus the benefits or constructive potential of the new information and knowledge-making media?

re: Borges and Bush
8. Jorge Luis Borges's short story "The Library of Babel" and Vannevar Bush's essay "As We May Think" were both published in the 1940s. What similarities and differences do you see in these two visions of 20th-century information overload? What challenges or opportunities does each author emphasize? How optimistic or pessimistic does each author seem to be about humankind's ability to handle information overload?

re: Bush and New Media
9. As new media and emerging technologies are discussed by other writers in this chapter, how have they developed in comparison with Vannevar Bush's predictions and vision in "As We May Think"? For example, how would you compare the personal computer with Bush's memex, or the World Wide Web with Bush's compressed libraries organized by associative trails? How do you think Sven Birkerts would respond to Bush's ideal of the memex?

re: New Media, the Web, and Nelson's Xanadu
10. Ted Nelson has been writing and talking since the 1960s about the potential of hypermedia to transform humankind's ability to make and share knowledge. If possible, enhance your Web browser's capabilities by downloading some of the latest multimedia technologies on the Internet (some browsers may already have these "plug-in" capabilities) and try some of the demos linked to these sites. Based on your experience with the Web and its latest technologies, to what extent do you think the Internet has realized or exceeded Nelson's vision for Xanadu? How do you think other writers in this chapter would respond to Xanadu or its potential realization on the Web?