-Topics in Media and Culture blogs:

I Really Don't Get What the Big Deal Is:  In this blog, I discuss my initial reactions to the Memex as well as my thoughts about Michael K. Buckland’s essay “Emanuel Goldberg, Electronic Document Retrieval, And Vannevar Bush's Memex”

Will iPads, nooks, or Kindles be a Common Sight in Classrooms of the (Not So Distant) Future?: Here, I discuss my thoughts about eBook readers in future classrooms, as well as my experiences with them.  

eBook Readers and the Future of Education: This blog that made up part of my creative presentation is based on some of the ideas in the previous blog, so take a look at my thought process.

-This section based a project that my Senior Seminar class created.  Take a look at what I gained from it, as well as what others learned:

My Visit with Margie

Seniors Helping Seniors

-This is a blog about my final paper for Topics in Media and Culture

Text as Art: An Examination of the Development of Typography and a Dualistic Analysis of Text

Take a look at what others have done this semester

One major way that they will have to develop in relationship to my own field of education, and I am sure in relationship to many other fields as well, is in the presentation of the texts.  Right now, the Kindle, the Sony Readers, and the nook seem to have very basic features when it comes to the presentation aspects of their products.  These areas include color, text and format issues, and reader capabilities that need to be addressed before they can be conducive to use with young children.  If you are interested in reading more about these subjects, follow the links below.

ROYGBIV Isn’t Just about Looking Pretty

Text Standardization, but What Does It Mean?

But Teacher, Aren’t We Supposed to Share?

Of course, these companies may not be especially concerned with offering products to this specific target market.  However, if I were these companies, I would definitely begin to think about how to market my products to these target audiences.  Also, the needs that I discussed are not necessarily needs of only educators and children, but may be very important to other groups.  If I were Amazon, Sony, or Barnes and Noble, I would be thinking about these developments (as I am sure they are) before LeapFrog develops its own eBook reader that will appeal much more to parents and educators than these standardized and text-heavy eBook readers do.

Looking for more information about the eBook readers in the classroom?  Check out these links.

“E-Books in Higher Education: Nearing the End of the Era of Hype?”—Although two years old, this article from Mark R. Nelson and EDUCAUSE has interesting ideas for educators, even if they are not post-secondary educators.

“3 Reasons eBook Readers Should Be a Part of Every Education”—This may be just a blog with personal opinions, but isn’t that what every blog is? Sevastian Winters has great reasons for included eBook Readers in the classroom. 

“Amazon, eBooks, and Teaching Texts: Getting to the "Knowing How" of Reading Literature”—If you’re not crazy about non-fact based opinions, take a look at this essay by Barbara G. Pace from CITE (Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education).  Although this essay is a bit older than the other two, it is scholarly and peer reviewed.

OR

Use the technology yourself!  Google “Education and eBook readers,” and you will find many opinions for and against their use in the classroom.  You could even try them out like I did, see how you feel about it, and leave a comment here.   

This idea of sharing brings up many other questions too.  For instance, what are libraries going to do?  Barnes and Noble offers free in-store access to reading, but this technology is not yet available to libraries.  One benefit may eventually be no more late books, but not unless libraries are given or develop a way to loan eBooks to patrons.  Also, how many friends can share the same book at a time?  These are all issues that will have to be addressed as eBooks develop.

Read more.

What I found was surprising, but I understand why it occurs.  I found that the text of each book usually became the same typeface.  This standardization allows for easy transfer, but part of the experience could be lost because of this.  More disquieting, however, was the fact that when font sizes were changed by those who format the text before it is received, words from one page will move onto another, making words and the pictures that are supposed to accompany them on separate pages.  When children’s literature, or any literature with pictures, is considered, this is not only annoying, but also detrimental to allowing for (especially in the case of children) the display of appropriate meanings. 

Yes, having clearly printed and readable text as the advertisements for all three of these readers suggests is really great, but what happens when the author wants a certain typeface that is not compatible with the readers?  And, what happens when the reader needs to increase the text size, forcing some of the text onto another blank page when what the text is describing is on the page before.  Standardization and the ability to increase text size are valuable, but not at the expense of manipulating the pictures and pages of the book.

Read more. 

To test out the difference, I downloaded the Kindle viewer for the PC.  It was great because I could sample various texts without buying them, just as one would in a store.  However, I immediately noticed that the Curious George book I had chosen was only in black and white.  If anyone is familiar with these books, they know that, although these books are not filled with color, certain colors such as red and yellow are emphasized.  For instance, Curious George’s owner, The Man in the Yellow Hat, has a yellow hat in the books.  When I read this book on the Kindle viewer for the PC, the hat is a darkish sort of gray.  I tried other books, and it is true that the PC Kindle viewer allows for color viewing, but it seems that some of the formatters did not transfter the color that is found in the books to the files, as in the case of the Curious George book at which I looked.  Still, the devices themselves do not offer color viewing--yet. 

When pictures are such a major part of the story as they are for children’s books, it is important that the pictures are accurate, or meaning will be lost.  It would almost be like leaving out words or making certain ones unreadable, which would not be accepted by typical consumers of Amazon’s, Sony’s, and Barnes and Noble’s products.  I know these devices were made mainly for people who read novels, but they need to be significantly altered to encourage their use in other fields like education.

Read more.

-From page 64 of “Lost and Found in Cyberspace”, chapter four of Robert Darnton’s The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future

Although Darnton composed this portion of his book in 1999, I think that this chapter applies directly to what is happening today with the popularization of e-books.  We are feeling this directly here at Seton Hill with the arrival of iPads on campus, which will become a common sight in the fall.  However, as Darnton discusses in chapters two and three of this book, other developments, including Google Books, the Library of Congress’ digital collections, and private institutions’ digital collections, as well as those that he does not discuss (Project Guttenberg, the Kindle, and the nook) are actively pushing themselves into our lives.  Because of this one has to ask, “How is this going to affect me?”

For Darnton, it was the opportunity to create a book using all of his research information on Enlightenment age letters and literature via the creation of his own e-book (59-63).  For me, it is my future career as a teacher.  As someone who was not so long ago opposed to the popularization of technologies such as these, I can see how they may benefit classrooms in the (not so distant?) future. 

For one thing, textbooks are so expensive.  We as college students understand this perfectly, so imagine buying three hundred of your Biology or Math textbooks for one grade at a small high school.  That is a ton of money.  Plus, unlike us, students are never allowed to write in these books, to highlight important passages, or even to fold down the corner of the pager because these books will have to be used by thousands of students over the next ten or so years.  They lose what I have come to recognize as important interaction with the texts when they cannot do this, especially tactile learners like me. 

Also, think of the money that is spent in supplying private, public, and school libraries with books.  Darnton discusses how private, state, and federal money is being taken away from these institutions, while they are still expected to provide their patrons and students with accurate and current information via online databases that can charge exorbitant fees (6-15, 43-58).  When they do not have the money, they must selectively choose what to include and what not to include, not based on the needs of the patrons and students, but based on the budget. 

Because of these reasons, as well as others, I can see the benefits of e-books in the classroom.  As many schools give laptops to students today, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine them giving e-book readers to students and teachers for classroom use.  I think this could benefit schools and students.  Yes, the equipment, training, and upkeep will be expensive.  More expensive than using the usual textbooks, current technologies, like Smart Boards and Promethean Boards, or older technologies, like books on tape?  I am not sure.  The proposal writers and school boards will have to do the research and math right now as far as that is concerned.  However, I do know that if the development of e-books and e-book readers continues in the positive directions that they seem to be, at least in some areas, I think they could ensure student-to-text interaction, which could positively influence comprehension skills, they could ensure protection of these texts (if not of the readers themselves) for future use, they could appeal to today’s students who are more familiar with technological and Internet access than we were, and they could possibly save the schools and libraries money.  They could even provide adaptations, such as text-to-speech capabilities, to accomodate students' individual needs.   

Of course, as I mentioned above, all of this is contingent upon development in “positive directions.”  This means that I feel that some qualities of various e-books and e-book readers are better than others.  For instance, in the little research I have done, I feel that I like the nook the best based on experience and description, and feel that it offers a lot of possibilities for the future development of these products.  For instance, the newest forms of the nook are allowing readers to “share” books.  Although I’m not sure exactly how they are accomplishing this, I think this ability is the key to use in libraries and schools.  Afterall, we share books now with no copyright problems.  Of course, pirating may be a problem, but these problems can and will be addressed.  Also, the nook allows people to read for free while they are in the Barnes and Noble book stores.  This is a type of technology that could be applied to libraries and schools as well.  Although I would not say I am computer savvy, I am sure that someone could also devise a way for libraries to “loan” copies of the e-books for only a select amount of time.  Also, the nook, as well as other e-book readers offer Wi-Fi, color screens, and the iPad is basically a tablet computer.  All of these features recommend themselves to use in classrooms and libraries. 

The only question is, will classrooms and libraries ever get to experience these technologies in these ways, or, as Darnton suggests at times, will they be too expensive because of monopolies or a focus on big business rather than on the needs of the public?

Take a look at how others have made connections using Darnton’s book.

--From “Emanuel Goldberg, Electronic Document Retrieval, And Vannevar Bush's Memex” by Michael K. Buckland

For me, this is the most important sentence in the entire article because it sums up the entire thing: this invention was never invented.  How can something that was never made be “viewed…in relation to subsequent developments using digital computers.”  Bush may have had the plans for the machine, but because it was never actually made, no one knows if it could have worked.  In fact, the article basically says it would not have worked, at least not with the technology of the time period, because it was based on a classification system of “ ‘Associative trails’ “ rather than “subject-based indexing.”  The article suggests that these “associative trails” mimic human thought processes and individualized relationships that the brain creates between words, sounds, smells, ideas, etc.   This type of technology would probably not even be able to be developed today.  Furthermore, no one has ever tried to create this system.  People have recreated some of Da Vinci’s inventions and even catapults and other weapons from the Middle Ages, but they have never attempted to recreate this invention?  I find this highly suspicious.  So why is there all of the hype about this imaginary machine that wouldn’t have worked even if it Bush, or people today, attempted to build it?

However, Goldberg’s machine that did have working prototypes seems much more important to the development to me, whether or not Bush based his idea on one of these.   Goldberg’s ideas were much more realistic, actually affected real companies such as IBM and Kodak, and seemed to stream directly from a history of development, rather than Bush’s seemingly sudden creation (except that it was never created).  Although Bush had great ideas, they were not feasible then or now.  Ideas are wonderful, but only if they are applied in the real world in a positive way.  Buckland suggests that the only way that Bush’s ideas applied to the real world were by “open[ing] people’s eyes and purses” to a more technologically driven future.  This is important, but to consumerism rather than to technological development.

This opinion isn't the only good one, so read some others' opinions.

As usual, the blogs below are arranged into seven categories:  Coverage, Depth, Interaction, Discussion, Timeliness, Xenoblogging, and Wildcards.  Enjoy!

Coverage: All of the blogs in this section show that I have blogged on each of the readings in the course; however, I did miss a few readings this time.  Despite this fact, these blogs show that I am able to discuss the material well.

Did Technology Really Develop the Soul?- Although this blog was a day late, I talk about how Havelock discusses the ways that writing helped to develop the soul.  I may not agree with him completely, but the argument is interesting, so take a look.

Print: Good and Not So Great- In this blog, I talk about some of the downfalls of print that I thought of based on Eisenstein’s essay. 

I’m Agreeing with Darnton-In this blog, I agreed with Darnton that looking at the bibliography may help us to examine older texts, as well as some not so old texts. 

Cybertext May Not Be So Bad Afterall- As I read about cybertext in Aarseth’s chapter, I found that it might not be as horrible to study as I thought it would be.  I actually enjoyed some of the points in the chapter, and was even able to make connections to what we had read in print culture.

Just Trying to Get Aarseth’s Ideas-Despite the positive comments the week before, I found this chapter to be more difficult.  Take a look. 

The Video Was a Helpful Guide- Dr. Jerz and Peter’s video about interactive fiction was helpful in playing the game.  Take a look at the connections I made.

A Big Surprise from Interactive Fiction- Although I thought I would dislike these types of games, I found that they were challenging, yet fun, and opened my eyes to the benefits of not judging so much before I actually engage with it. 

Depth: In these blogs, I have gone beyond the simple coverage of the text to include other examples, connections,  or links to other sources to further relate and explain the texts.

Text Does Speak, but It Has Many Voices-I brought personal experiences to this blog by relating what Elbow has to say about teaching writing to a writing program that I created and taught at a public library over the summer.

Why Are We Not Speaking About What We Are Writing?- In this blog, I connected to material read earlier when we were discussing oral communication.  Plato talks about one downfall of writing being that work is not spread, and I realize that this happens a lot with undergraduate work (not here though!). 

This Is a Really Strange Book- I used my previous experience with literary criticism to highlight some of the type of lit. crit. that would apply to Calvino’s novel that would maybe benefit my classmates. 

I Don’t Know If I Like It Yet- Here, I talk about Italo Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, and my uncertain opinion of the text.  I also connect it to what Havelock said about text speaking. 

Originals Are Great to Have, but We Need to Be Realistic Too-I discussed Darnton’s views of making space in libraries by putting more books and periodicals on microfilm from the stance of someone who worked in a library.  I also help with meaning by defining “paean,” which is featured in his title.

Translation or Preservation-Books Will Still Have to Be Forgotten- I talk about the ways translation is presented in Calvino’s novel, as well as ways that such translations can be forgotten, causing a book to not be read in the future.  I also link to ideas that Darnton discusses. 

ELO Collection- Although I did not especially enjoy this experience, I did relate it to a story in the field of education.  So if you like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, you should read this. 

I Think I Am Understanding Aarseth- I made lots of connections in this blog, to print culture and to my own experiences with interactive fiction

Interaction/Xenoblogging: These are links to peers’ blogs on which I commented.  Take a look at these because they are always really interesting!

Linear vs Non-linear-This is one of Tiffany’s blogs that I commented on.  We agreed, but the discussion was furthered.

Discussion: These blogs show comments or new ideas that were discussed on my own blogs, either by me or my peers that I referenced or who commented on my blog.

Text Does Speak, but It Has Many Voices- In this blog, I referenced two of my classmates, so take a look at what we all have to say.

I Don’t Know If I Like It Yet- Maddie brought new insight to my opinions of Calvino’s book, so take a look.

This Is a Really Strange Book- When discussing Calvino’s novel, I had a response from Chelsea that led to better understanding for me, and a discussion between the two of us.  Dr. Jerz also pointed out some types of criticism that applied to the text which I had left out in my analysis.

ELO Collection- Although no one commented on this blog, I did comment on what others said about their experiences with the collection.  Take a look.

Timeliness: As I mentioned in my last portfolio, this is still an area that needs much improvement, perhaps even more than was needed before.  It seems that with more difficult readings (and more work as the semester progressed), we neglected the blogs in favor of carefully reading through and understanding a reading-at least in my case.  However, here are the ones I submitted early or on time. 

Text Does Speak, but It Has Many Voices

Why Are We Not Speaking About What We Are Writing?

Originals Are Great to Have, but We Need to Be Realistic Too

Translation or Preservation-Books Will Still Have to Be Forgotten

I’m Agreeing with Darnton

Just Trying to Get Aarseth’s Ideas

ELO Collection

Wildcards: As I mentioned in my last portfolio, my Senior Seminar class is blogging as part of our service project.  Take a look at what we have done, because I think we have had an ambitious project that has been successful so far.

Seniors Helping Seniors-Helping Hands Make Happy Hearts

Also, here is one of my comments on Greta’s blog:

First Home Visit: Traveling into the Unknown for a Pleasant Surprise

However, I decided that this time, I would not let my initial reactions get to me.  I watched the video of Dr. Jerz and his son again, but this time focused much more on the ways that Peter was figuring out what commands to use, what objects to look at, and how to move around the rooms.  Then, I started Deadline again.  I enjoyed it so much more this time.  I know that I was still terrible at it, but I was learning how to move throughout the text word.  I realized how it appealed more to my mental faculties than my sensory ones, which was difficult because I am mainly a bodily-kinesthetic learner rather than a linguistic or spatial one, but the challenge was rewarding each time I discovered something new.  I did not get very far (I didn’t want to “cheat” by looking up suggestions online), but it was still fun for me. 

I did look up the storyline after I finished for the day, though.  I saw suggestions, such as to use the word “accuse,” and I had never even thought of anything like this, which shows how different our games today are.  In fact, most games that I have played, role-playing games that are similar to this game, have been much less free.  They seemed to direct me along a straighter path towards the end of the story.  In fact, I looked around a bit, but could not find out how Deadline does end.  Is the same person always guilty?  Were any of you able to beat the game?  I think that the fact that I want to know the answers to these questions but could care less what happens at the end of Final Fantasy or Call of Duty shows that Deadline was a well made game.

Read about my classmates’ experiences with Deadline.

--From page 112 of Espen J. Aarseth’s Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature

This reminded me of a discussion in Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.  At one point, Calvino’s narrator suggests that it is safe to be involved in a book because when a person reads, there is no effect for that person based on the story, even if there is for the characters.  This was something that I thought applied to most text-based works.  Even though Calvino invoked emotion in me, the reader, making me feel uncomfortable at times, there was never any real danger to me because I was an outsider.  At the start of the book, I thought I was the “reader,” but I soon realized I was not, and this was actually a character in the story.  The story would be there or not if I read, and would approach the same end even if I stopped.  This is how I thought all stories were.

However, after reading this chapter in Aarseth’s book, and after experiencing interactive fiction on my own, I can see that adventure games do not follow this pattern.  As Aarseth suggests, the reader is the story, produces it, or allows it to happen by being involved in it.  Without the reader, there would be no story.  Also, if a different reader were to fill in, it is highly unlikely that the same stories would unfold because of all of the possibilities that adventure games allow for.  This means that it is not “safe” for the reader.  Of course, the reader will not be physically harmed if he or she stops playing; however, the character that the reader participates as in the text, often the protagonist, will be harmed, either by never reaching an end, or by failure.

For instance, I was frustrated at one point as I was playing Deadline.  I remembered that I had tried to leave the Robner estate at one point, and the game had told me I would lose my job if I did that.  I wanted to know the ending, and didn’t really care about having a fictional job or not, so I tried to leave again.  Of course, the game would not allow me to do this, but I realized from this just how important my character was to the story.  Without me, the story would not exist. 

See what my classmates have to say about Aarseth’s chapter five.

I think I also have some of the same frustrations about early interactive fiction.  I am used to the “button mashing” games that Dr. Jerz and Peter talked about, not ones that require text-based movement and responses like Deadline, so having to type every little movement is a bit annoying.  Even the games that I have played that do required a text-based response usually ask you to select from a limited number of possibilities.  I guess that these two types of games are similar in that there is a limited amount of ways to say what you want to say, but you have more choices of what to say in the early interactive fiction games.  Overall, though, I still have to say that I prefer the games with which I am more familiar, especially because I am more picture-oriented than text-oriented.

Take a look at what other's thought about Dr. Jerz and Peter's video.

However, I found myself enjoying the ideas invoked in chapter three much more than those in chapter two, especially when Aarseth writes, “So what is a text?  Or, what circumstances allow us to describe a certain object as a text?  This question is both helped and hindered by the fact that no universal definition of text exists” (62).  He goes on to write, “A text, then, is any object with the primary function to relay verbal information.  Two observations follow from this definition: (1) a text cannot operate independently of some material medium, and this influences its behavior, and (2) a text is not equal to the information it transmits” (62).  I thought that all of these questions and ideas were thought provoking.  I am considering exploring this sort of a topic in my final research paper by examining text as art, or art that is textual, so this is helping me to think more about what exactly a text is. 

According to Aarseth’s definition, a speech, verbally given and not written down, cannot be a text, even though it meets both of his observations.  This is so because a verbal speech is not a tangible object.  However, is any online writing an object?  I think the answer has to be no.  The computer is an object, and if the words were printed it would be an object, but no one can touch the actual words.  And if online material is a text, then could not a verbal speech also be a text because it cannot be given without the person, that may fall in place of the object?  To me, object implies tangibility.  It sounds to me like Aarseth is talking about texts as ideas rather than as objects, because I still cannot see how a computer keyboard is really any different from a typewriter keyboard; a pencil and paper; ink, a quill, and parchment; or the human voice.  I understand that there are differences, but these differences do not seem to require all of the new and complicated ideas that Aarseth points out. 

Maybe one of my classmates has some insight about this disconnect between Aarseth’s points and my understanding.

First, I chose "Strings" by Dan Waber.  This one was very simple and rather clever, which is why I chose it.  It consisted of a moving image of a string that spelled out various words that would be used in relationships between two people.  The string made the words fluid and moving, almost as if they were alive.  The “reader” could choose the type of relationship or interaction that he or she wanted to view.  I went through all of them at least once.  I really liked the last one which read “words are like strings that I pull out of my mouth.”  I thought this was an interesting concept.  It does seem that sentences are like strings that we pull out of our mouths already formed.  I also like this idea because we hear because of sound waves which move in ways similar to his strings.  It is almost as if he is visually representing sound and textually representing action through the strings’ movements, which goes far beyond what is expected of the typical print literature.  Overall, this one was my favorite.

I also spent time looking at “The Dreamlife of Letters” by Brian Kim Stefans.  I thought this one was clever too, and close to traditional reading, so I chose to explore it further.  It was very long, but there were some highlights to it.  It explored words and their meanings in a physical way, often making the words perform or show their meanings.  For instance, the word “drip” falls down the screen as if it were a drop of water.  Also, the word borders is shown in a similar way.  The first part of the word appears as /bo/ and the rders breaks the borders of the word.  Also, “xtra” is added on to an e to form extra, height stretches out to be very tall, and so on.  I thought this was a creative way to show the meanings of the words through the words themselves.

Finally, I looked at “Birds Singing Other Birds’ Songs” by Maria Mencia.  I liked this one least of the three that I picked because of the weird bird noises that were apparently made by people; however, I did like the fact that the birds were formed out of the letters that spelled the sounds they made.  Like the others, this piece of literature, if that is what it is to be called, focused on the idea of show the meaning of the words, or in this case sounds, through the actual letters that make up the word.  

All three of these actually reminded me of the video that accompanies the children’s book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Ehlert that many of you might be familiar with.  If you have time take a look at this compared to the three I have chosen above.  Especially take a look at the credits at the end.  Archambault’s “Arch” becomes an actual arch, and the Lo in Lois moves down the screen (plus, it has a more catchy tune than those creepy birds).  

For the rest of the time, I decided to explore those that my classmates have explored so far.  I decided to do this to see if their more positive experiences were due to the ones that they chose.  I looked at “Girl’s Day Out,”which is one that Shellie looked at and liked, but as mentioned above, I still did not enjoy it.  I also looked at the “RedRidingHood” story that Maddie looked at, was also annoyed (except perhaps more so) at the fact that many of the objects in the story could not be clicked on.  I did not even finish this one because of this frustration.  I also looked to see if any of the others ignited any initial interest. “Self Portrait(s) [as Other(s)]” by Talan Memmot initially appealed to me because of the pictures rather than the words, but it also soon seemed repetitive and like a book.  I found that the three that I picked in the beginning were the most interesting and creative that I could find.  

I found that much of what Aarseth was discussing in Chapters 2 through 4 that was beyond my understanding at times seemed to apply to this type of text, but only in some ways.  Aarseth’s discussion of semiotics was most prevalent.  He writes,” J. David Bolter (1991) claims that ‘the theory of semiotics becomes obvious, almost trivially true, in the computer medium’ (196), but this seems to be based on a misreading of the semiotic […] notion of sign” (25).  I am not sure I understand his later arguments, but I agree with Aarseth when he says that Bolter’s comment is incorrect.  I think that semiotics applies well to the cybertext, especially cybertext such as that on the ELO website.  Within semiotics is the idea of semantics that Aarseth does refer to at times, which basically identifies the relationship between the definition, or sign, and the actual thing that the sign represents.  This is most obvious in the “Birds Singing Other Birds’ Songs” text, but is present in all of the texts, including the video of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  This idea of semiotics helps me to better understand this type of literature, but I do not think that this specific type of literature will ever appeal to me, unless it involves more interesting and relevant subjects and more creative animation and music.

Take a look at what everyone else has to say about the ELO collection.

I was also excited about this reading because I was able to make connections like this that I had a more difficult time making before.  For instance, Aarseth writes, “The reader’s pleasure is the pleasure of the voyeur.  Safe, but impotent.  The cybertext reader, on the other hand, is not safe, and therefore, it can be argued, she is not a reader.  The cybertext puts its would-be reader at risk: the risk of rejection” (4).  I immediately connected this to Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler; however, reading on, I saw that Aarseth was already familiar with this work (7).  Actually, as I began reading Calvino’s book, I felt as if I were experiencing something more similar to a cybertext.  Although I am not very experienced with cybertext, I have three good friends who worked at, or still work at, Gamestop stores and who somehow constantly found the time to play and beat video games.  Because I was a voyeur through their experiences, I could understand what Aarseth was talking about as he discussed his labyrinth ideas.  

The more I consider the gaming and cybertext world, the more I can see how it mimics real life experiences much more than only writing can.  Before reading this text and considering what we have so far about the various communication movements, I often talked about how my friends were wasting their time in these fictional worlds.  We clip newspaper articles that we think are funny or interesting and hang them in our dorm.  My favorite article has been one from Reuters that says, “Average video gamer is 35, fat, sad: study,” and I would often make fun of my friends about this.  However, I am starting to see that reading is much more solitary than the cybertext world that instead encourages interaction.  Aarseth has not won me over to the cybertext side because I will always love the tangibility of the book and real interactions; however, I am starting to see and understand some of the things that make it valuable.  

See what others have to say about Aarseth's chapter.