Writing Project #4
Throughout the year we have been focusing on intertextuality and how technology is quickly altering the world of reading and writing. In the “Gutenberg Elegies” by Sven Birkerts , the author shares his opinion on how he thinks technology is going to harm our society in more than one way. He believes that our society will forget about old-fashioned novels and begin to read all technological texts. In “Patchwork Girl” by Shelley Jackson, I have come to a conclusion that technological text’s can be very effective but can also have its flaws. It is effective in the way that it is very interesting but its flawed in the sense that it is confusing to read.
When I am at home reading a novel I always think of it as a very personal activity, but when I am reading Jackson’s “Patchwork Girl” I have a more interactive feeling. The novel requires clicking and navigating instead of just turning a page. Birkerts believes that because of the new technology like “Patchwork Girl”, writers like him will be forgotten due to the natural evolution of society. Although Birkerts is aware of the shift in nature he states “ to me it is more a question of how I want to position myself as history makes a swerve, not only ushering in new circumstances and alignments, but changing its own deeper nature as well”. Despite my frustration with Birkerts and his beliefs, I can understand where he is coming from as a writer. Due to the nature of society writers like Birkerts may have to change their style of composition in order to keep up with the natural progression of the business.
My first impression of “Patchwork Girl” was that this was an awful way to read a novel, the more I read and navigated around the text, I came to the conclusion that it is not all bad.
November 18, 2008 at 2:40 pm
what does birkerts mean by ‘deeper nature’? what then do you want to use this for–where is deeper nature evident or absent in PG? Use that quotation to elaborate your vision and also focus on specific parts of PG.