Hypertext does not translate into print … Artists who work there must be read there. And they will probably be judged there as well: criticism, like fiction, is moving off the page and online, and it is itself susceptible to continuous changes of mind and text. Fluidity, contingency, indeterminacy, plurality, discontinuity are the hypertext buzzwords of the day, and they seem to be fast becoming principles, in the same way that relativity not so long ago displaced the falling apple.
Predictor: Coover, Robert
Prediction, in context:In a 1992 article he wrote for The New York Times, “The End of Books,” Robert Coover tells of his fascination with hypertext, a term coined by computer populist Ted Nelson, as Coover says “to describe the writing done in the nonlinear or nonsequential space made possible by the computer.” Coover writes about his weekly hypertext workshops at Brown University:”Print documents may be read in hyperspace, but hypertext does not translate into print. It is not like film, which is really just the dead end of linear narrative, just as 12-tone music is the dead end of music by the stave. Hypertext is truly a new and unique environment. Artists who work there must be read there. And they will probably be judged there as well: criticism, like fiction, is moving off the page and online, and it is itself susceptible to continuous changes of mind and text. Fluidity, contingency, indeterminacy, plurality, discontinuity are the hypertext buzzwords of the day, and they seem to be fast becoming principles, in the same way that relativity not so long ago displaced the falling apple.”
Biography:Robert Coover was one of the pioneers of online literature. He has been a teacher of experimental courses in hypertext and multimedia narrative at Brown University. His 1992 essay on hypertext in the New York Times Book Review, “The End of Books,” described and publicized the idea of digital literature. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Publishing
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: The End of Books
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://cas.buffalo.edu/english/faculty/conte/syllabi/370/EndofBooks.htm
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Chick, Jason