Response to Bolter

Bolter, across various sections in the first chapter of Writing Spaces, establishes the context in which literature finds itself across human history. Starting with the Bible, and ending in the contemporary age of information, Bolter defines “the late age of print”—the last hurrah of print’s existence in the literary world. Threatened by new technology, the physicality of print isn’t the only thing that could rapidly decline; as Bolter investigates, the literary novel style that accompanied the book will also decline, making way for more interactive forms of literature. He introduces the views of critics, old and new, who each predict the efficacy or weakness of the print medium. Lastly, he addresses the ever-growing prospect of graphics and film as something more suited for the computer screen. With those media, different rules apply for conveying information. All of these media seem to be growing with the rise of the computer, and the book seems to be losing relevance.

As a young kid, I begged my dad for a computer. At the time, even the slowest (by today’s standards) of computers were expensive, and my father felt he needed to delay the purchase until I was older. When that day came, I was enthralled. Ever since then, I’ve been a geek—fascinated with new technologies. Yet, I still feel attached to both the physicality and literary structure of a real novel... Unlike my children, who will probably never touch a physical book (or, perhaps on a less drastic level, think that books are archaic), I know I won’t be able to part with a hard, non-electronic copy of my favored literature.