For the past few hundred years; Western cultures have relied on print. When writing was accomplished by a quill pen; inkpot; and paper; it was easy to imagine that writing was nothing more than a means by which writers could transfer their thoughts to readers. The proliferation of technical media in the latter half of the twentieth century has revealed that the relationship between writer and reader is not so simple. From telegraphs and typewriters to wire recorders and a sweeping array of digital computing devices; the complexities of communications technology have made mediality a central concern of the twenty-first century. Despite the attention given to the development of the media landscape; relatively little is being done in our academic institutions to adjust. In Comparative Textual Media; editors N. Katherine Hayles and Jessica Pressman bring together an impressive range of essays from leading scholars to address the issue; among them Matthew Kirschenbaum on archiving in the digital era; Patricia Crain on the connection between a childrsquo;s formation of self and the possession of a book; and Mark Marino exploring how to read a digital text not for content but for traces of its underlying code. Primarily arguing for seeing print as a medium along with the scroll; electronic literature; and computer games; this volume examines the potential transformations if academic departments embraced a media framework. Ultimately; Comparative Textual Media offers new insights that allow us to understand more deeply the implications of the choices we; and our institutions; are making. Contributors: Stephanie Boluk; Vassar College; Jessica Brantley; Yale U; Patricia Crain; NYU; Adriana de Souza e Silva; North Carolina State U; Johanna Drucker; UCLA; Thomas Fulton; Rutgers U; Lisa Gitelman; New York U; William A. Johnson; Duke U; Matthew G. Kirschenbaum; U of Maryland; Patrick LeMieux; Mark C. Marino; U of Southern California; Rita Raley; U of California; Santa Barbara; John David Zuern; U of Hawailsquo;i at MÄnoa.
2013-12-10 2013-12-10File Name: B00H8MZ2FQ
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Great material; poor production valuesBy potameidCollected by a HHI native while acting as a reporter for the local newspaper; this book has good material but poor production values. An editor and a proofreader could have very much helped with the grammar and typographical errors; and also with the loose; cliched prose. The book would have been improved with a more detailed map for each section; showing the development of the region and the places mentioned in the stories. The photographs are a fantastic addition; and complement the text well. I would like to see this work revised and re-released.A number of the people in this book are clearly models for characters in The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy: Iris Glover = Frances Jones; Ezra Bennington = Henry McCracken; Ted and Lou Stone = Lance and Billie Burn. It is also very interesting to read the different perspectives of these people. Some are mentioned by others. Queenie Jenkins describes how McCracken helped her son Theodore go to college.Despite the production values; this is an excellent companion read with Conroys book; and assumes familiarity - The Water is Wide is cited a few times.
