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Books and reading

In document Philosophy of the Internet (Pldal 70-74)

3. Communication in the late modern age

3.2 Communication media and technologies

3.2.2 Books and reading

Borges claims that “among the various tools of man, books are the most admirable. The others are all the extensions of his body. The microscope and the telescope of his eyes, the telephone of the sounds, and then here are the plough and the sword, which are the extensions of the human arm. But books are something completely different: books are the extension of memory and imagination” (Borges 1999; 59). If anyone’s opinion matters in this issue, it is probably Borges himself, so perhaps it is best if we start on the road marked out by him while presenting the nature of books.

Books, as tools helping memory and imagination chiefly consist ofwritten texts, as well as tools that support the use of texts: the structure securing the appropriate arrangement, the accessories presenting and sustaining the identityof the text, the illustrations facilitating theunderstanding and enjoymentof the text, and of course the continuous functioning of the set of the conditions of the material and intellectual infrastructure that make the production, preservation, and usageof texts possible. In this way, books bear the characteristics of written texts, and depending on their historical versions and the prevailing set of conditions, they strengthen, weaken, complement, or modify their success and effect.

The several-thousand-year long history of books show several changes as regards all of the mentioned factors (Febvre – Martin 1997; Cavallo – Chartier 2000; McLuhan 2001; Barbier 2005) nevertheless, it can be divided into two clearly distinguishable phases: the age ofmanuscriptsproduced through handicraft technology and the age ofprintedbooks manufactured through printing technology. In Europe, the boundary between the two ages is marked by Gutenberg’s printing innovations. The source of the Gutenberg galaxy, which consists of printed books, reaches back to mid 15thcentury Germany. Handwritten or copied books were rare and expensive “tools”, at least until the 13thcentury. Apart from rare exceptions, they could only be found in a concentrated way (in libraries, monasteries or owned by merchants). The first communication change that was necessary for the increase and spread of books was the spread of the secularized forms of writing and reading in the late middle ages. It seems to be indisputable that the increase of the number of available books, as well as the increase of the significance and frequency of their use can already be observed before printing (Hindman 1991; Johns 1998). However, the decisive change in the production and spread of books was induced by the technological production of books, since books were produced quickly and in better quality, and their mass production quickly decreased their price.

According to the widely accepted view, the changes in the technology of producing books in the 15thcentury, and thus the use of the books produced this way, influenced the nature of modern culture to a significant degree (Eis-enstein 1979; Eis(Eis-enstein 1993). According to Eis(Eis-enstein, features of “printed culture” connected to the standardiz-ation of printed works, the widespread use of printed books, and the fixedness of the cultural contents, are so sig-nificant that we can talk about the “printing revolution” of culture. Standardization meant several things: it chiefly meant that the various forms of handwritten books were replaced by printed copies following the same design.

This “uniformization” of books was helped by letter use, text layout and arrangement, and the readily used styles of using indices and covers. As another important manifestation of standardization, many people were able to read the sametext simultaneously, which meant a completely new form of reading, especially as compared to reading handwritten books which were only available as individual copies. Some standards gained ground so quickly that for example a certain favored type of print almost simultaneously appeared even in the peripheries of printing (as for example in Hungary). As a consequence of standardization, the culture of a given era shows a more unified picture than before. Fixedness meant that the culture of a given era was recorded in a fixed form; it was preserved and became available for people of a later age or a distant place. As a consequence of all this, theprint revolution was an essential driving force in the development of the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the emerging modernity.

Of course, it is also very important what kind of books we talk about. Printed books were often old manuscripts, or a selection created from them, often calendars, reference books and volumes containing much useful knowledge (often illustrated or specifically compiled of pictures). And of course, works satisfying religious needs: prayer books, hymn books, picture books and above all, the Bible. Gutenberg’s “42 line” Bible edition often found fol-lowers; many other editions were published, soon in national languages (first in German and later in Italian) and in a rather large number of copies.19Borges meditates about the tradition of the divine origin of this book, but he does not mention that not only the Bible, but for a long time (even in the 16thcentury) printing, too was considered as God’s gift, and regarded as a miracle.

19Perhaps the situation is well illustrated by the fact that 100 000 copies of Luther’s translation of the New Testament were sold.

Communication in the late modern age

It is notable that almost all claims of the “print revolution” approach defended by Eisenstein have been questioned recently. Hindman criticized the revolutionary nature of the concept, and argued that the changes mentioned above took place slowly and gradually; furthermore, handwritten and printed books are much more similar to each other than Eisenstein acknowledged in his analysis (Hindman 1999). According to Johns, “printed culture” is more a result than the cause of the changes. He thinks that it is not the fixed nature of books that is interesting, but rather the question why we trust certain printed texts. If there was a “print revolution” at all, he thinks that this means that as compared to manufactures, the conventions of the examination and treatment of the trust in written materials changed, that is, texts were not more trustworthy because they were printed but because of the changes in social circumstances (e.g. pirate editions, plagiarism and other fakes) that surrounded printing. It is not the books that make the revolution but the way books are produced, used, and read (Johns 1998). Johns promises to present the reader the nature of printed books. The basis of his approach is the thesis that books are on the one hand the product of a complex set of social and technological processes, on the other they are the starting point of such processes.

If we consider the criticism of the “print revolution” and accept Johns’ thesis – supported by the mobilization of an enormous amount of material – perhaps the right thing to do is to distance ourselves from revolutions and ask the following question: what is the nature of modern books in the centuries after the invention of printing?

Themodern bookis similar to an automaton, to clockwork dominating the worldview of modernity. It is built of clearly distinguishable elements (letters, lines, pages, paragraphs, chapters etc.); the relationships between the elements are fixed, and malfunctioning parts can be replaced in an unnoticed way. The whole, built of the elements, can easily be reproduced and copied. Its correct functioning can be calculated precisely. This is also facilitated by the technological circumstances of its production, equally in the case of the press, the editor, the publisher, and the author. In its typical usage, its operation is the task of the reader. For activating the mechanism of the book and keeping it going, usually a small but still indispensable “external” energy is needed – the amount of energy invested by the reader also depends on how “smooth” the style of the author is or what the typography is like. We can interrupt its functioning – reading – and restart it, but we necessarily have to follow the order prescribed by the apparatus. The whole mechanism can be restarted over and over again and it can always be carried out according to the same rules.

Of course, the modern book is not completely identical with other modern automatons, since it has its own specific aims. Following Borges, we could perhaps say thatthe modern book is a memory and imagination automaton.

The most important material for building a memory and imagination automaton is the written text. Of course, memory and imagination cannot be tied to written texts, but it draws on them. The usage of a book necessarily takes place on two levels at the same time: on the one hand, on the level of the mechanisms connected to the ma-terial which the book is made of, on the other, on the level of the mental mechanisms evoked by the continuous interpretation of the signs and structures featured in the book. The reader is “the citizen of two worlds”, and reading is the simultaneous presence in these two (physical and intellectual) worlds. Reading –that is, the continuous me-diation between the worlds – connects these spheres of existence in a peculiar way, and, as it were, “finishes” the construction of the modern book, it sets the book going, as a memory and imagination automaton which simultan-eously functions in two worlds. The reader of modern books, continuously stepping across the border of two worlds, carries out a permanent hermeneutical praxis.

In the old times, they thought that books have a personality and a soul. The reader of pre-modern books strived for making this soul “talk”. The practice of reading aloud fit this striving well. The pre-modern book is the substitute of live speech, and reading a pre-modern book is similar to a conversation. Modern books have a “personality”, unique content and message as well. But they have a modern personality and our relationship to them is according to the needs of the modern age. Modern books express stories and theories competing with each other, and in dealing with them we apply the selfish methodologies of accepting and ignoring (Ropolyi 1999a). The modern reader does not converse with a book, but judges whether it is worthhisattention, trust and imagination. The modern reader samples and chooses, and often makes market-based decisions: what is worth the invested time and energy, what is worth reading? The modern reader rules the book – but of course he does not simply possess it in a physical sense, but he is in a power relationship with it, that is, he can use it for his own aims as he pleases. The typical modern reader works with the book, but of course, not for the sake of the book, as the monks who copied the books did, but heusesthe book for his own goals and aspirations. In this sense, the modern book is a tool. Its usage, similarly to that of other tools, can have the opposite effect: the multitude of books, or individual books, might rule us. We can indulge and lose ourselves in our readings; we can become dependent on certain books in our activities or thinking, and so on.

Communication in the late modern age

Based on even such a superficial argument, it can be seen that the history of the usage of books is in fact inseparable from their social history. Thus, the history of reading is necessarily intertwined with the history of books, but it contains several circumstances which are interesting and important on their own right. Researchers of the history of reading identify three such “revolutions” of the technology of reading which radically changed the situation of reading (Cavallo – Chartier 2000, 29). The first “revolution of reading” made reading aloud silent. The difference betweenloud and silentreading as well as the fact of switching to silent reading is very obvious; however the cir-cumstances and the date of the switch are quite uncertain. Without any doubt, silent reading was already present in ancient Greece (Svenbro 2000), though for several long centuries the loud version prevailed. The switch to silent (or mute) reading can be observed from the late middle ages. Interestingly, this switch preceded the appearance of printing, after which it indubitably became dominant. The silent reader has a more intimate, more personal, and freer relationship to his reading than his loud predecessor had. The next, “technological” revolution of reading can be observed from the end of the 18thcentury, simultaneously with the industrialization of printing, and it manifests itself in the switch from “intensive” to “extensive”reading. The intensive reader read few books and he read the same book several times, studied it in its details or even memorized some of its parts. The typical reading of the intensive reader in the late middle ages and in the early modern age was the Bible. The extensive reader definitely follows modern values. He selects his reading from a wide range, and following his own goals, he is disrespectful and free and he has veritable fits of “reading anger” (Wittman 2000). The propagation of newspapers, reading groups, libraries and the mushrooming publishers help satisfy his desires. By the end of the 18thcentury a convention develops according to which simply everything can be read.

The third technological revolution of reading is still taking place nowadays and it consists in the switch to electron-icallystored texts, which are visualized in electronic devices (displays and screens). It is part of the peculiarity of this new situation that now not only the reader and the text participate in the reading situation but the tools which make the text available for people are necessarily present as well. Besides the fact that many relationships which can be operated traditionally disappear, several radically new opportunities are also created by placing the tools between the text and man. First and foremost, the earlier clear separability of the author, editor and the reader might cease to exist, and the merging roles offer new methods and opportunities. The development of the “final”

form of electronic texts often falls on the reader and it also strongly depends on the nature and quality of his

“reading devices” (the configuration of his computer, the available software, etc.). It is also a significant change that in an electronic medium, reading itself can become the task of technological devices: weteach computers themselves to read. Various “drives and heads” write on magnetic disks or CDs and read the texts written by other computers; while functioning, the operating system of the computer constantly “reads” the appropriate registers, and a “well-trained” scanner or certain notebooks can even “read” decent handwriting. Obviously, automatic reading can only function if, by programming the computer appropriately, we prepare it for the possible interpret-ations of the perceived signs. The uncertainties of interpreting the signs can be reduced by applying “artificial in-telligence” programs which recognize different forms. Automatic reading is an automated form of reading in which man “steps beside” the process of reading.

The “electronic revolution” changes the nature of the “book” created in an electronic form: it becomes possible to suspend the operation of the book as an automaton. Through accidental or voluntary intervention, we can skip or relocate parts, we can insert new parts, or texts found elsewhere, that is, if we please, we can completely transform the structure of any work on the basis of our own needs. Essentially, with a technological support, we can be in the position of thefully realized extensive reader.

Not only does the history of reading permit the identification of technologically motivated revolutions, it also makes it possible to present the changes in reading habits in other dimensions. Here we would only like to draw attention to two characteristic versions. One of them is the way of reading which became popular among humanists, in which they were able to be attentive to, compare continuously and easily, and simultaneously use several books at a time, for example through using book wheels or revolving bookstands (Cavallo – Chartier 2000; Manguel 2001). The primary advantage of parallel reading was not primarily quantitative, but the tool of criticism which worked through comparison. In addition, it contributed to the fashionable activity of the age of creating “loci communes” volumes, which were collections of excerpts taken from various books, quotes and thematic summaries (Cavallo – Chartier 2000, 36; Grafton 2000). Compiling “booklets” on the basis of one’s own readings became a so beloved “genre” of humanist thinkers, that it already represented a separate publishing category. Their versions facilitating study and teaching are even preserved until nowadays in the form of thematic compendiums, collections of texts and quotes. However, what is even more interesting is that such “pecking” in one’s readings is not unknown for the reader of the electronic age, either. Lots of texts created this way can be found on web sites. In fact, we can risk the claim that the structure of web sites bears an uncanny resemblance to the structure of “loci communes”

Communication in the late modern age

booklets. Of course, electronic quoting is automated to a large degree, and the reproduction of the quoted text is often omitted and replaced with thelinksthat lead us to the texts, placed by the editor of the web site. A web site rich in links is the “loci communes” of our age. The various browsers and search engines represent a very peculiar version of reading on the Internet. “Reading” which can be performed with the help of these is the “inverse” of the reading technique necessary for compiling “loci communes”, at least in the sense that the search for a certain term does not collectvariousquotes deemed valuable tooneplace, but it presents us with the collected occurrences of asingleterm deemed valuable invariousplaces.

The sociological dimension of the history of reading provides us with a lot of lessons as well. As a result of the religious reforms of the 16thand the 17thcenturies, new reading habits developed, too. The various religious de-nominations equally tried to make their believers read the texts they regarded as appropriate and to orientate their reading habits or to limit their selection. In this way, besides starting to function as an activity supporting religious life, reading also became able to generate and preserve social, cultural, and religious differences through encoun-tering and identifying with different texts. Calvinism and Puritanism emphatically committed themselves to the regular and personal study of the Bible. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of the “democratization” of reading, that is, the joining in of the masses and a wide range of readers into reading can only be observed after the switch to modern reading at the end of the 18thcentury. Until then there was a situation as regards the various layers and regions of reading which is strongly reminiscent of the situation of the “digital chasm” which can be observed

The sociological dimension of the history of reading provides us with a lot of lessons as well. As a result of the religious reforms of the 16thand the 17thcenturies, new reading habits developed, too. The various religious de-nominations equally tried to make their believers read the texts they regarded as appropriate and to orientate their reading habits or to limit their selection. In this way, besides starting to function as an activity supporting religious life, reading also became able to generate and preserve social, cultural, and religious differences through encoun-tering and identifying with different texts. Calvinism and Puritanism emphatically committed themselves to the regular and personal study of the Bible. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of the “democratization” of reading, that is, the joining in of the masses and a wide range of readers into reading can only be observed after the switch to modern reading at the end of the 18thcentury. Until then there was a situation as regards the various layers and regions of reading which is strongly reminiscent of the situation of the “digital chasm” which can be observed

In document Philosophy of the Internet (Pldal 70-74)