First Reactions to Bolter

I found Bolter's introduction interesting, particularly in his defence or justification of the changes made from the previous edition to this one. Bolter cites "prophetic claims that either did not come true or were simply made irrelevant..." as a cause for the shortening from the previous edition by some 10,000 words. I thought that this was a fascinating example of how fast technology develops, that in the decade or less between editions, much of the writing was already made obsolete. It reminded me of some old science texts that I found years ago, claiming that by 2000 we would be travelling to the moon frequently and space travel would be anybody's right. Maybe a more appropriate comparison would be Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. While oftentimes, revisionism makes us less optimistic, Bolter's edits came because we are in an age of unparalleled technological advancement.

I also enjoyed Bolter's use of Victor Hugo to compare the birth of printed media with the growth of current communication technologies. It's almost eerie how well Frollo echoes today: The internet will kill the publishing house! In a world where becoming self-published is more and more accessible, the old ways are ending, just as the printing press brought literacy, education, and new ideas to the masses. I do believe, however, that Bolter may be a bit early in declaring this the "late age of print." Bound books are not going anywhere anytime soon, and while interactive media are growing more and more prominent, it is more than likely that printed text will continue to rule for the foreseeable future.

FEAR

The Problem of Describing Trees

"The gene pool threw up a wobbly stem
and the tree danced.  No.
The Tree capitalized.
No.  There are limits to saying,
In language, what the tree did..."

In these lines, Robert Hass rejects some common imagery of the humble tree; it is not dancing in the wind, nor is it dominating.  The author posits that language does not have the depth to describe what it is the tree is doing exactly; to paraphrase Freud,  sometimes a swaying tree is just a swaying tree.  In the closing line, Hass says "Aspens doing something in the wind."  This reinforces the idea that the imagery of the tree's dance, or of the mighty tree dominating, is not the end-all.  Sometimes the best poetry doesn't rely on gimmicky visuals or unnecessarily flowery language; honesty in writing trumps these cliches any time.