You say you want a revolution
Summary
Stuart Moulthrop’s 1991 essay, “you say you want a revolution”, discusses hypertext and how it relates to the laws of media as presented by the McLuhan brothers. Moulthrop starts the article by discussing hypertext in general and examining what other writers say about it (693). He discusses the idea that hypertext is just another movement that will fade out and the likelihood of this. His main focus is on a hypertext program called Xanadu which would work as a world hypertext chain. Moulthrop discusses populism and its relationship to the problems seen potentially in the hypertext/cyberspace world. He then closely examines the 4 laws of media and how they relate to hypertext. He concludes that hypertext enhances the links between communications and print media and allows us to get a better experience, renders traditional texts slowly obsolete , retrieves literacy by reawakening the generations to the joys by having this more interactive experience, and when taken to its limit create a sort of digital revolution. Moulthrop’s essay was published in Postmodern Culture and his audience is the readers of this journal. He is currently a professor at University of Baltimore and has written a great number of essays and hypertexts. (iat.ubalt.edu)
Inquiry
I will admit I was excited about this article because of the title. I love the Beatles song and I found the article interesting as well, however; I have a few problems with it. I read this one after reading and writing the previous blog so when I saw how this one was all about hypertext, I felt kind of slow. However, I still don’t really understand what it is. I find that it seems to be a way for many people to communicate across the globe through the internet. Nevertheless, I haven’t heard of it until reading the readings for today and I don’t know what it really is. I do understand some of his other points though. Firstly, on page 693, he says that the “baby boom professional class will always desire the next thing.” I think this is very ironic since a large number of my elders in this class repel technology to extremes and it is truly our generation that wants the next and the best. I began to better understand hypertext when he examined it through the laws of media. I found the fact that hypertext is a combination of communications and print media helpful in understanding what it does. I also find it fascinating that unlike many others, Moulthrop acknowledges that “a mix of print and electronic media will be around for at least the next century.” (698). Towards the end of the essay, the irony discussion of “postwar” was also fascinating to me and I wish it had been examined further because I think it poses an interesting point .
Discussion Questions
The final question he poses “which heads do the changing, and which get the change?” examine this further and try to find a potential answer to this.
How does this help you better understand hypertext?
How does this article compare to the others we have read, specifically the “end of books”?
Do you think that hypertext ever really had the potential to revolutionize the industry?
Is there anything in specific that you enjoyed in this article, add details and explain it
2 comments:
Somewhat in response to the third question:
How does this article compare to the others we have read, specifically the “end of books”?
A good point that Maulthrop makes on age 698 is that Hypertext doesn’t render books obsolete because the book is already dead. Not in the sense that it has fallen out of favor or use, but in the fact that the book is no longer essential to the spread of thoughts or ideas. Digital medium will become essential as the cost of paper rises and the acidic decay of books hurts libraries. This is a more quantifiable way to look at the death of print than is presented in “The End of Books” because it gives cost and practicality reasons why print will die, rather than unverifiable reasons like how digital medium is better for authors than print (which is still a good argument)
I will address the first question; The final question he poses “which heads do the changing, and which get the change?” examine this further and try to find a potential answer to this.
In order to properly answer this question we understand and investigate the characteristics of hypertext, its purpose and applied use. Moulthrop dissects “hypertext”, be it movement or revolution, with McLuhan’s “Laws of Media” basic questions as the knife and scalpel. McLuhan’s fourth basic question states, “What does [Hypertext] become when it is taken to its limit?” Moulthrop follows this up with quoting McLuhanite rhetoric that “every form, pushed to the limit of its potential reverses its character.” He argues that this has happened to the TV which was created to transport you from your living room to anywhere, but in its saturated phase it really brings you to a Global Village littered with ads and infiltrated by hegemonic corporations.
So what is the character/purpose of Hypertext? According to Moulthrop it is a “technology for creating electronic documents in which the user’s access to information is not constrained, as in books, by linear or hierarchical arrangements of discourse”. In regards to the internet there are countless sites and countless hypertexts linking millions of web pages and lexias, which prove a non-linear connection. However, what links are the most prominent? Take into consideration Google, companies spend millions on search engine optimization, to have their link be the first. The founder of Facebook is a billionaire because thousands, if not millions of companies pay to have their link be a featured hypertext on your Facebook page. So is hypertext really without hierarchical constraints? And was that ever really possible? I think not. So who’s heads do the turning… the ones who have the money to have the most prominent hypertexts.
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