This reflection was sparked by the video embedded below, which was part of the introductory module in INF533, Literature in Digital Environments.
It was interesting to hear the thoughts of these writers both in favour of and suspicious of digital literature. Two general ideas struck me particularly because they connected with some other literature-related items that have recently crossed my social media pathways.
The first connection I noted was from a dissenting voice, the poet Liz Berry, who declared herself “old-fashioned” (SashaHoare, 2012, 1:41) in her relationship to and perception of books and literature. A key point she noted was the historical and personal connection inherent in the physical book – especially secondhand books (2:04). This sentiment turned my mind to two items that had come to my attention this past week, an ABC News piece regarding revision of historical understandings of Western contact with Australia (Thirteenth century cockatoo, 2018) and an article on medieval book branding (Hester, 2018). The use of illustrations of Australasian yellow- or sulfur-crested cockatoos in thirteenth century manuscripts connected with Holy Roman Emporer Frederick II have led historians to reconsider what constituted Western first-contact with Australia (Thirteenth century cockatoo, 2018). I can see Liz Barry’s point as it is hard to imagine the discovery of new information and connections by historians more than five centuries from now from digital literature artefacts in the way that this scholarship has done from these print texts. Another story of historical, but also largely personal, connection comes through the piece on medieval manuscripts (Hester, 2018). The article discusses the value of manuscripts in the medieval era, particularly due to the incredible labour putting into creating them. In order to encourage the return of manuscripts to their originating monastaries, the practice of branding the edges of the volume was adopted. The article goes on to discuss margin notes and other contributions from book owners throughout the ages that add to the stories these physical artefacts tell.
By Aljndrcz [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
On the other side of the coin were the perspectives that saw digital literature in a more positive light. Amongst those, the one that made a particular connection was Fleur Sinclair’s commentary on finding interactive digital literature for children a more compelling category of digital literature. (SashaHoare, 2012) She could see the value of the digital platform for engaging children visually and interactively in a way that she could not for adult literature. This brought to mind the comments from the CEO of Hachette Livre (Flood, 2018) where he infamously indicated that mere digitisations of print literature into e-reader format were not enough value-added on print publishing to justfy further growth of that market segment. He indicated that the real development area for digital publishing was to harness existing interactivities and multi-media options and to push that envelope further to truly differentiate digital literature from its print counterpart. An interesting rebuttal to part of his argument came across my Twitter feed this week by Erin Kelly (2018). Her argument was that even simple e-reader texts gave considerable advantage to reader and author in the form of easy access to the full catalogue of an author’s work. In addition, for vision-impaired readers, the simple text-size adjustment feature available on most e-reading platforms revolutionises the extent of their literature access.
What an amazing adventure – from medieval book branding and trade routes to visions of future digital storytelling possibilities – even the introduction of this subject has started me on. I look forward to seeing where the adventure takes me by the end of session and what new and interesting places I will visit along the way.
References
Flood, A. (2018, February 21). ‘Ebooks are stupid’, says head of one of world’s major publishers. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/20/ebooks-are-stupid-hachette-livre-arnaud-nourry
Hester, J. L. (2018, June 22). Why medieval monastaries branded their books. Retrieved 30 June from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-did-missionaries-brand-books.
Kelly, E. (2018, February 22). Ebooks are not ‘stupid’ – they’re a revolution. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/21/ebooks-are-not-stupid-theyre-a-revolution-erin-kelly?CMP=share_btn_tw
SashaHoare. (2012, May 28). Digital literature: emerging writers’ thoughts [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqIWLA2_awk.
Thirteenth century cockatoo illustration shows Australia wasn’t a ‘dark continent’, and trade flourished. (2018, June 26). Retrieved July 1, 2018 from ABC News website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/medieval-cockatoo-illustration-debunks-australian-history-myths/9911892.