"The Forum" by: The Suburban Hick (D'Arcy)
As we reopen, Doomsayer is seen talking.
Doomsayer: --But, there is something about books, they're solidity, their weight, the very smell of them, that computers lack.
Unknown: Synthetic or not, plastic-scented or whatever, I think I'd rather have one those things that 'Crat suggested. A clip-board sized computer, or those flat things on Star Trek, might be preferable to lugging around a ton of musty-stinky old textbooks that were stored in the dampest corner of the library...
Technocrat: Think of all the $$$ you'll save on the chiropractors...
Suburban Hick (interrupting hastily, a tad irritated): Okay, we're back. I think we'll begin with an idea I came up with over the break. How does all this computer publishing have to do with the 1st Amendment? It is said that computer publishing is the 1st to the extreme, but how so? It is because it is about the freedom of speech and the press?? We can publish anything without court restriction?
Doom: It has been tried, but the law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. However, I think it has to do with the idea that computers allow any voice to be heard, Hick. Even the "bad" ones.
Unknown (egging Doom on): And what constitutes "bad" writers or writing, Doomie? You keep on bringing that up. What's YOUR definition?
Doom: Bad spelling, grammar, content, manner. It's all in the subject manner and the taste involved. It's personal, I suppose.
Techno: There is a site sort of like that, at Bryce's page, but I cannot remember the site address... Bhut wat dtemynz badd spelin tu U aniwayy en spech?
Hick (frowns warningly at Technocrat): Tech-no...
Technocat shrugs. : You can never determine what one sez in speech, Hick, by their spelling.
Hick: Techno!
Unknown chuckles wickedly.
Hick: Alright now ((she glares at everybody)). The new system of writing that we have here--
Doom interrupts: To get back on track, we were discussing the solidity of books. i recall an essay by Sven Birkerts called "The Fate of the Book" in Tolstoy's Dictophone, that in which he discussed the book itself. "In asking about the fate of the book," he says, "most askers really want to talk about the fate of a way of life." ((pg189)). That is what I'm really after, at the heart of the whole idiot of an idea. In his essay, he states what others have said, that education would be improved, that everyone would still read and write, and etc. But he also compares the fate of the book to the fate of the computer itself. Both are products of technology; both were created to serve a purpose. Computers are here to stay, yes, I'll admit that, and it's changing our lives. But the loss of the book? Literature is a sign of culture, and vice versa. Computers were meant to offer a means to produce more books, more reading materials, to a mass audience, for less money, materials, work, etc. But now we have the internet, and that is messing everything up.
Techno: How do you think scribes viewed the printing press when it came out? Hmmm?? There was a loss of jobs...
Doom (continues): Birkerts also claims that "the book will disappear, if ti does, because the functions and habits for which it is ideally suited will themselves disappear." ((pg 190))
Unknown: What in the name of all the Saints is THAT supposed to mean?
Techno: As a race, we are evolving. We create things to simplify our needs and to ease the work it takes to simplify those needs. Computers are far easier to deal with in accessing information than is a library.
Hick: Though not as stable, as my frustration with EMU's library server recently proved.
Techno: You point and click, and, boom, there's an essay on Vitanza's Writing for the World Wide Web, or, boom, IDG Books Worldwide's HTML 4 for Dummies by Ray and Ray appears, or, boom Hauben's Netizens. Boom Boom Boom. Quick, fast, easy. The book, however, is harder to use. You need to find the type of book you need, then its location, then find the section in the book you want, then you hvae to write it out--that is, if the book is available! The internet is making that function of the Book redundant, useless.
Hick: Not to say that books will become obsolete altogether.
Doom: Not in this materialistic world. The Book is Solid, dependable. i can pick up a book or a newspaper today, read it, set it down, and pick it up again tomorrow to get the EXACT same information, every time! With the internet, no. Things are always changing in the crazy race to make everything Bigger, Better, Faster. Information goes up on a screen, you can flick through the "page" randomly for what YOU want, no more, and yet, the next day, that site could be altered, abridged, even absent altogether, without you hardly even knowing what happened. Books are best read all through--
Techno: --While the internet is best for selective readers--
Unknown: --I still don't understand one thing: Have and Have Nots. You mentioned it in Act I, and it's been on my mind ever since. Computer publishing denies thousands of non-computer uses, or non-internet users, whoever I don't care, access to solely computer-based publishings. Anyone, however, can go to a library o rto a bookstore and get a book. With the computer, well, not everyone understands it enough to even turn it on!
Hick (impressed): Excellent independent thought, there, Unknown. It is a strange world out there with few solutions to questions without number. Who will truly understand?
Techno; One last thing, before we adjourn...I read an article in Eastern's Echo. I believe it was the Nov. 30, 1998 edition, where Echo columnist Linda Haffey in her article "Technology Defines Shape of Future," said something very profound to me.
Hick: What was that, 'Crat?
Techno, quoting: "Technology is our friend. Technology is our future. Technology is here to stay. The naysayers who stand and shake their heads must know the world will not stop because their disbelief in technology. If they refuse to follow, they will be left behind." That was on page 4, I believe.
Unknown: Very poetic, Haffey.
Techno: Anything can be poetric, Unknown. Look at those little magnetic thingies they have now-a-days.
Doom: We just need to figure out where publishing is going with all of that, I suppose.
Unknown: Hmm...I wonder who's reading this???
((scene closes))
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Established: Dec. 15, 1998; Last updated: Dec. 16, 1998