The Future of the Book
Geoffrey Nunberg, ed.
Preface
Patrizia Violi
"What is the future of the book in this new era, as the end of the millennium
approaches? The question raises issues that range from the transformation of the
cultural institutions devoted to the storage and conservation of books to changes
in the cognitive processes of reading and writing arising directly or indirectly
from the introduction and use of the emergent technologies for reading and
writing. Beyond this, we want to know how the structure of texts themselves will
change, along with the socio-culturally mediated systems of textual genres and
norms. How will text-based interactive systems for writing and interaction like
the World Wide Web and MOO's affect the development and evolution of textual
norms? Will the book as a material object still maintain some of its symbolic
value, or will it disappear into the realm of merely virtual entities? Will new
technologies enable us to look at ancient texts in a new way, discovering hidden
structures?" (7).
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