Reading and writing has changed dramatically over the years. From the spoken to the written word and the invention of the printing press, the way we spread words and stories is changing. Currently, with the influx of technology and online usage, electronic texts have come into view, challenging what we know about literature and learning. An example of these newly popular electronic texts is “My Body- a Wunderkammer” by Shelley Jackson. This text takes us on a journey through the author’s body by using hyperlinks. She describes her body parts and tells the reader stories about growing into her body when she was younger. Though some readers would call this text shallow and distracting, I believe the literary value is evident in its ability to engage the reader physically and emotionally. And even though each passage by itself is short, the reader walks away feeling like they know the author personally. I believe that the way the author wrote this text challenges any opposition to its literary value.
The author uses pathos to make the reader feel connected to her. Her stories are sometimes comparable to the way we, the readers, grew up and help us to generate sympathy and understanding toward her. Sven Birkerts’, author of “The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age”, is a skeptic for sure. In his book, he addresses the current change in the way that people read. Birkerts recalls in his book a moment that he tried to embrace the change in literature by reading an electronic text but is distracted by the involvement and confusion of the text. One of Birkerts’ main concerns is that our generation, growing up in this technological and fast-paced atmosphere, is becoming lazy. He is concerned that we are not taking the time to sit down and read novels or the newspaper or things such as that. Nicholas Carr addresses the same issue in an article he wrote about our technological lifestyle as well.
In “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Carr discusses his noticeable and growing inability to sit down and read a lengthy article or novel without becoming distracted and moving on. He goes on in his article about the ways in which reading is changing for us. He discusses a study that was done about how the average person today reads which concludes by stating, “They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would ‘bounce’ out to another site”. In this day and age we are all guilty of skimming an article or chapter in a novel to get through it quicker. However, skeptics like Birkerts, believe this is serious and due to the fast-paced world we are living in. Further along in Carr’s article, he challenges this view altogether.
Carr states that, “The human brain is almost infinitely malleable” and he quotes a study that says that the brain has, “’the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions’”. So, if the brain reprogrammed itself to read lengthy novels when the printing press was invented and is now reprogramming itself to read short excerpts and take in small bits of information at a time, we aren’t getting lazier. Our generation is simply being trained to learn differently. Our minds are now able to read small passages but learn at the same time. And if we want to change, our minds are malleable. We can reprogram ourselves by reading longer and longer passages to gain back our ability to read more for longer periods of time. Laziness is not the reason for Carr or the rest of our generation’s inability to read lengthy texts; it is because we are bombarded with things like Google and text messaging every day. Our quick lifestyles force us to learn faster and in smaller amounts, but we are not, by any means, getting more stupid or even lazier, as Birkerts fears.
Let’s get back to the electronic text, “My Body”. If we look closely at the way it is set up, we can compare it easily to Google. This is a great example of the way we read today. Google is a search engine that allows us to read small amounts of information and make connections to other things that are related to our topic. Jackson’s text, “My Body” is made the same way, according to the way we read today. It allows us to read something like a novel but it caters to the reading style we have adapted to over the years. Just like Google still maintains scholarly value even though it allows us to read in the manner we are used to, “My Body” still maintains literary value. Novels that are usually the most popular are written so that the reader can relate and understand the author’s motivation for writing. A sense of connection to the author is usually highly valued in most novels. This electronic text gives us that and also allows the reader to engage in more ways than just reading pages in a book. The hyperlinks that connect one story to another and scattered throughout her writing. The reader is forced to interact with the text to move to the next story. In this way, the reader becomes more personally involved in the way the stories play out.
The interaction and emotion that this electronic text brings out of the reader makes this text comparable to a novel, which proves without a doubt its literary value. Obviously Jackson’s text is not a novel, as Birkerts would like, but advanced times call for advanced texts and new reading styles call for texts that cater to them. Times are changing, but we are not getting lazier. Because we are less likely to sit down with a good book these days, authors are looking for new ways to keep us reading their work. Electronic texts help us to keep expanding our minds in the kind of world we live in today. They have literary value and it shows while they are being read, especially in Jackson’s, “My Body”. And in this day and age, it is good to know that we are still learning and advancing as a people.
Works Cited
Jackson, Shelley. The Gutenberg Elegies. New York: Faber and Faber Inc, 1994.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, 2010.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archieve/2008/07/is-google-making-us-
stupid/6868/>.
Jackson, Shelley. My Body-A Wunderkammer. 1997. <http://collection.eliterature.org/1/
works/Jackson_my_body_a_wunderkammer.html/>.
Honor Code- Erica Ward
Kathy Thornton said,
April 25, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
Hey great job! I thought your thesis/ argument, that “My Body” engages the reader rather than distracts the reader, was very clear. I was really impressed by your use of critics. You gave the reader a wide range of perspectives and opinions without confusing your argument. You also utilized the counterarguments to your advantage. I think you could definitely expand on this topic for your final project. In your conclusion you start comparing “My Body” to a novel, maybe you could go into that.