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ps. this french movie comes to mind, Farenheit sthg... books were illegal and literature became oral again. do not get too attached to anything that can be taken away from you was the moral i guess, or excatly the opposite... Hi Eugenia, It is only to clarify that I do not believe in the death of the traditional books because of the electronic literature. The design of a book is perfect for its function. Always there will be place to both of them (books and electronic literature) and I can imagine that in the future there will be other different forms of literature that we do not have nowadays. In fact I love this idea: literature being made and read in many ways. That 's it, let's read. Regina http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eugenia Tzirtzilaki" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 11:47 AM Subject: Re: [WDL] technophobia Hi there I am stage director, very new to the list and i find this thread very interesting. I used to be technofobic myself and here's how it used to be for me: I was afraid not of the thing itself but of the effect it had to people i knew or people I had heard of. I never saw it as nothing more or less than a tool, just like the pen, but a very complicated tool that required lots of time from the operator to understand it and then, once this was accomplished, it opened up many possibilities for the user. Possibilities that consumed time. I was afraid that this would happen to me as well, so I was afraid of it. I was afraid that I would start to spend more & more time on top of the computer, interacting with it or w/ others through it and so taking time away from my other 'natural' interactions with the people that were physically close to me. I was afraid I would go out less, see my friends less often or not talk to strangers on the street, cause i wouldn't feel the urge to. The fact that I could meet new people through computers was not convincing since i wasn't gonna be able to hold these people, smell them, look into their eyes. In this way they'd always remain virtual, I thought. So, if I were to get sucked in technology in this way I would live less real life and more in my head, like a junkie of sorts. I was afraid that I would become disfunctional by the way I would be inclined to use this new tool. That's how it was for me. I never thought I shouldn't touch a pc cause i would damage it and I never had any feelings towards it whatsoever. What I was afraid of was my own self - the reaction I would have once I'd get engaged w/ it. I strated using a computer because i absolutely had to and the first few months were very frastrating, since I was self-taught. Now (two laptops on my desk) I do so many things through them, i can't even imagine my life without them. Still, my first phobia of it was real. Communication got expanded for me, but it also got far more complicated. The implications of technology in my life have been immense and I am not able to yet comprehend half of it. My perception (its form and rhythms) have changed, my view of the world has changed, but most importantly the way i relate to others has changed. To me, the core of what my phobia was about is indeed the core of the challenge i encounter in dealing w/ computers the way i do. best, eugenia ps. this french movie comes to mind, Farenheit sthg... books were illegal and literature became oral again. do not get too attached to anything that can be taken away from you was the moral i guess, or excatly the opposite... On 5/19/05, arteonline <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > What will be Electronic Literature? > > For me, the printed book seems to be the most practical format to publish > texts. The contrast between the book that we load with us, which we can > read > in the street, in the bus or in the subway, and the computer, exactly > portable, indicates two very different corporal relations with the text. > On > the one hand, the proximity of the object, in which we can turned pages, > to > write notes, to have available. On the other hand, the mediation of the > keyboard, the weight of the device, the discomfort of the reading. The > majority of old age, today, is incapable of reading a computer screen in > the > same speed that an adolescent. But, adolescents age and the old persons > pass > away... Then, we will arrive in a time where all people will read the > screen > of the computer with equal rapidity.... > > "A medieval cathedral was a sort of permanent and unchangeable TV program > that was supposed to tell people everything indispensable for their > everyday > lives as well as for their eternal salvation." With the invention of the > press and the printed text things modified and the book took ownership of > its place. "During the sixties, Marshall McLuhan wrote his "The Gutenberg > Galaxy", where he announced that the linear way of thinking instaured by > the > invention of the press, was on the verge of being substituted by a more > global way of perceiving and understanding through the TV images or other > kinds of electronic devices." > > On its screen there run words, lines, and in order to use a computer you > must be able to write and to read. The computer made us to return to a > Gutenberg Galaxy because it opposes itself to television and cinema, where > the images are smashing majority. The screen of the computer is also a > text > screen. Will the books become obsolete because of the computers? And the > written material and printed texts will become obsolete too ? I do not > believe: the computer is only creating new ways of production and > diffusion > of documents and printed texts. > What will be Electronic Literature? > > A bet in the easiness of spreading texts through the net, according to > standards of the printed texts? Texts, when they arrive at the computer of > somebody make possible two forms of behavior, the reading in the proper > screen or its printing and posterior reading, in both cases, the readers > participation must be the same that in the printed book, a relation of > immersion and imagination. Without a doubt this is an important aspect of > current electronic literature, and it cannot be left of side. > However, before the invention of the computer, "the poets and writers > dreamed of open texts that the readers could infinitely rewrite in > different > forms. It was the idea of the Book, exhilarated for Mallarmé; Joyce > imagined > his Finnegans Wake as a text that could be read by an ideal reader with an > ideal sleeplessness." This became reality with the computer. The > hypertexts > allow us to invent new ways of writing texts. A hipertextual, interactive > and multimedia romance allow us to practise intuition and freedom. Another > type of reading and relation with Literature. Which of the two is more > important, or which of the two could be categorized as Electronic > Literature? Probably the two, both are important in their different > specifications. The choice is based on the preferences of the reader and > Author. > > > Bibliography: > CHARTIER, Roger. Leitor também é autor. Rio de Janeiro, Jornal O Globo, > Prosa e Verso, 10 de julho de 2004. > ECO, Umberto. Tradução, para a Língua Portuguesa Falada no Brasil, da > Conferência From Internet To Gutenberg. > (http://www.inf.ufsc.br/~jbosco/InternetPort.html ) > RUCH, A.B. Review of The Secret Books: Writings by J.L. Borges. > Photographs > S. Kernan. Chicago, 1999. > (http://www.themodernword.com/borges/ ) > > Much more at: > > http://www.arteonline.arq.br/newsletter/review4/english.htm > > Regina Célia Pinto