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the_hypertext_reader_explores [2019/12/22 08:33]
morgan 		the_hypertext_reader_explores [2019/12/23 12:50]
morgan
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 Even materially, //B'sD// is constructed to resist to consumer hegemony. It's too long (over 1300 pages). It's too big (folio). It's too heavy (13+ lbs). It //looks// "too difficult to read." The lack of paragraphing, non-standard quotation marks, columns, images, drawings, scholarly-looking side notes. The sentences seem to be a challenge to parse, demanding too much attention. In its design, it even prohibits teaching the text.  Even materially, //B'sD// is constructed to resist to consumer hegemony. It's too long (over 1300 pages). It's too big (folio). It's too heavy (13+ lbs). It //looks// "too difficult to read." The lack of paragraphing, non-standard quotation marks, columns, images, drawings, scholarly-looking side notes. The sentences seem to be a challenge to parse, demanding too much attention. In its design, it even prohibits teaching the text. 
  
-I haven't found the book difficult.  I find it easier to read at the sentence level than //Ulysses// and //FW//. Listen to it:+<WRAP left box 40%> 
 +=== yes, but === 
 + 
 +I haven't found //B’sD// difficult to read.  I find it easier to read at the sentence level than //Ulysses// and //FW//, which are notoriously difficult.  Listen to it:
  
 > »Have’Y ever actually cunsiderd exactly : why it=is He had this=or=that fav’rite book?« / — : »Nope why should l?« (he said, gratuitously licking lips, then) »First I‘m not gettin' paid for it. And it‘d be pretty unpindownable too — wouldn‘t it?«  > »Have’Y ever actually cunsiderd exactly : why it=is He had this=or=that fav’rite book?« / — : »Nope why should l?« (he said, gratuitously licking lips, then) »First I‘m not gettin' paid for it. And it‘d be pretty unpindownable too — wouldn‘t it?« 
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 That's readable at first pass.  Over a few pages, the use of = and moves such as « / — : » become, if not clear, then familiar: They are indicators of reactions of characters, used a little like emoticons. That's readable at first pass.  Over a few pages, the use of = and moves such as « / — : » become, if not clear, then familiar: They are indicators of reactions of characters, used a little like emoticons.
  
-As for teaching the book, it would be a medieval carnival: 15 students and an aging professor lugging 13 lb folios to class each week. The size would demand lecterns or full-sized desks. The classroom would resemble a monastery. But we would need to cover a mere 100 pages a week - a dawdle in a grad course.+As for teaching the book, it would be a medieval carnival: 15 students and an aging professor lugging 13 lb folios to class each week. The size would demand lecterns or full-sized desks. The classroom would resemble a monastery. But we would need to cover a mere 100 pages pushing week - a dawdle in a grad course. 
 + 
 +</WRAP>
  
 By design, //B'sD// demands exploration rather than consumption.  By design, //B'sD// demands exploration rather than consumption. 
  
 ====  and so hypertext ==== ====  and so hypertext ====
-In design, materiality can | must | will limit.+In design, materiality can | must | will set limits. Thirteen-hundred pages operates as a constraint. But it also operates as an affordance.  It may be that tension that suggest the work is “difficult.” Efficient consuming comes of aligning affordances and constraints. [Read DAKOTA for an example of affordance pushing constraint right over the edge. Speed reading. Text and drums. Every multi-tasker’s dream. It’ll take you only 9:35. And then you can go on and consume something more.] Books are designed in size, weight, typeface, paper, line length to be readily consumable - and writers contribute in never-too-challenging syntax. No choices in meaning: clarity.  
 + 
 +Then hypertext: choices, directions, links to other unknown and decontextual texts. The reader must explore. Or wander.  
 + 
 +[[Readers and writers of hypertext must resist]] a print hegemony.
the_hypertext_reader_explores.txt · Last modified: 2019/12/23 12:50 by morgan

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