The Future of Literature in the Age of Technology
Bolstered by the recent advancements in technology, our society has gradually departed from the culture of the printed word to a computer culture structured by the digital word. Everyday the superior performance of computers appears to render printed literature more obsolete - e-mail and chat rooms have nearly eliminated traditional written letters, the Internet has all but replaced the need for libraries and paper catalogues and, soon, hypertext will completely overtake the realm of the printed novel. Computers have saturated our literary environment to such a degree that it is difficult to imagine a time when print was our most prized communication technology. To make an accurate hypothesis about the computer culture, and how it will affect the way we study and think about literature in the future, it is necessary to examine the development of past societies when faced with equally sweeping changes in literary technology.
The ancient Greeks were one of the first peoples to experience a pivotal technological revolution. This culture, once deemed illiterate or preliterate by scholars, has now been recognized as having, "its own coherence and dignity, and we have come to call it [an] oral rather than illiterate [society]" (Borgmann 38). Before Homeric epics like the Odyssey and the Iliad were transcribed into the large volumes we read and study today, these tales were told orally by a bard during daylong festivals. Hobart and Schiffman, authors of Information Age: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Computer Revolution, contend that the purpose of storytelling in this era wasn't, as many literates believe, to preserve the cultural history. Instead, memory served as a form of commemor...
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...with the creation of the Internet, or World Wide Web. This technology combined the interactive elements of oral culture and immersive qualities of print to create a hybrid of traditional storytelling (Murray 71). Like its oral ancestors, computer culture, "erodes the boundaries between the real and the virtual" (Turkle 10). Users can participate with hypertexts much like they could with a bard - clicking on the various hyperlinks within a work closely resembles the oral audience members' collective body movements as they identify with a story. Computers also resemble the independence of print culture, because they do not require face-to-face interaction in order to attain information. This format is still in its infancy, and will not fully develop until it ceases to depend on its technological ancestors, instead of implementing its own expressive power.
Books today are everywhere. We find them in many households, libraries and schools all around the globe. We find many different types of books; from stories to educational textbooks, we regard them today as sources of knowledge and amusement. But it wasn’t the case before 1455. That year, one of the greatest inventions in human history was revealed to the world; Gutenberg’s printing press. This press allowed printing in massive quantity, spreading books all around Europe and the rest of the world at a fast rate. The printing press had many positive consequences on society. At first, it standardized grammar and spelling, and then introduced the mass production of books. It finally inspired future printing technologies around the world.
In order to understand the “center” of the Iliad, one must first recognize that the Iliad started as a “Lyrical,” or oral poem and was written down much later in history, becoming a “Narrative,” or literate poem. The Iliad began as a poem that was strictly part of an oral culture, its transition into a written work for a literate culture brought complexities and complications that are often overlooked when examining this poem on its surface. Walter J. Ong explained this phenomenon best when he described the psychodynamics of an oral society. His explanations concerning these particular societies’ psychologies and social dynamics are often times lost on the Iliad’s modern-day reader. Therefore, when reading a piece of literature, one must first take into account how the text has arrived to him through the passage of time and history. So, before we are to examine the modern critics’ interpretations and analyses of Homer’s Iliad, we must first look to Ong’s claims concerning oral societies.
In Mark Knapp’s model of relationship development, there are 5 stages of romantic relationships coming together and 5 stages of romantic relationships coming apart. In this paper I will chose 4 stages to further explore. With each of the four stages I will use song lyrics to help analyze these stages. The first stage I have chosen to analyze is the stagnating stage and I used the song do I by Luke Bryan. Secondly, I chose the song falling for you by Colbie Caillet to help examine the intensifying stage. Third, I chose the integrating stage and I used the song from this moment on by Shania Twain featuring Bryan White to help interpret this stage. Lastly, I chose the song when I said I do by Clint Black and Lisa Hartman to explain the bonging stage of Mark Knapp’s model of relationship development.
Subjects overheard an epileptic seizure. The subjects either believed they were alone of they were part of a group with one to four other unseen individuals. Darley and Latane predicted that the presence of bystanders would reduce the feelings of personal responsibility resulting in a lowered speed of reporting. There no significant difference in speed between men and women. Personality and background did not play a role is reporting. This experiment suggests that inaction is influenced more by bystander’s response to other observers rather than indifference to the victim.
" Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Vol. 1. Ancient Times to the American and French Revolutions.
I am a husband and a father of four lovely children. We need a large vehicle to haul all of us around town. And of course I would do anything to keep them safe and I always want to provide them with the best. Therefore, after the birth of our fourth child two and a half years ago, my wife and I decided to upgrade our Ford Explorer to a Ford Expedition. We got everything from the side-curtain airbags to the TV and DVD player. What we did not know was we also purchased a rather large unleaded gas bill. The first time we filled the tank it cost us roughly $35; today it costs us right around $75 to fill the tank. Obviously the price of gas has increased significantly in the last two years. The price increase is due to a fluctuation in the supply and demand of not only gasoline but also crude oil, which is needed to manufacture gasoline. In addition, several other factors are influencing a change in the price of gasoline.
Vitamin C, also known as Ascorbic Acid, has the structural formula C6H8O6. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient believed to have very important benefits to the human body and it enables the body to make efficient use of carbohydrates, fats, and protein. It is needed by the body to repair bones, teeth, and cartilage; heal wounds and scars; help the body absorb iron from certain substances, and promote a healthy immune system. Vitamin C is also needed to form collagen, which is a protein used to make skin tissue, blood vessels, ligaments, and tendons. Vitamin C is an antioxidant, meaning it protects the body’s cells against oxidation and the destructive effects of free radicals within the body. It is also believed that vitamin C helps to prevent
Atheism is disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods, they reject religion as apart of not only a rejection of ignorance, but also a rejection of their religious family and association of religion itself, says Catherine L. and Caldwell-Harris who are published in the Department of Psychology for Boston University, Lesley College,University of Haifa, and Trinity College. This is a stark contrast to theism, which is the belief in god and is the case for many Americans. This demographic is about 83% of America’s population, according to the most recent census. About 16% of the population, or about 34,169,000 people are of an unaffiliated position, which would include Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and those of no religious stance. This number has only increased since 1990 which was about 14,331,000 in 1990 (United States), and will only continue to grow as more and more people come out as the nonaffiliated in the coming years (Caldwell-Harris).
The topic of atheism has become an increasingly investigated topic in the United States. With the slow, but steady, rise of the atheist population in the United States, the inquiry is becoming more relevant in modern research. The atheist population in America are considered to be cognitively deviant because they reject a theist view which are the majority. They are also one of the most discriminated groups and hold a very large and pervasive stigma.. There are a multitude of recent studies that address the topic of atheism in the United States in varying ways.
The stories told in the Iliad and Odyssey are based on stories handed down over several generations, for they preserve (as we have seen) memories of an already quiet far distant past. The two pomes show clear connection in their language and style, in the manner in which their incidents presented, and in the combination of agreement with level, which distinguish their creation.
Bradbury attacks loss of literature in the society of Fahrenheit 451 to warn our current society about how literature is disappearing and the effects on the people are negative. While Montag is at Faber’s house, Faber explains why books are so important by saying, “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores” (79). Faber is trying to display the importance of books and how without them people lack quality information. In Electronics and the Decline of Books by Eli Noam it is predicted that “books will become secondary tools in academia, usurped by electronic media” and the only reason books will be purchased will be for leisure, but even that will diminish due to electronic readers. Books are significant because they are able to be passed down through generation. While online things are not concrete, you can not physically hold the words. Reading boost creativity and imagination and that could be lost by shifting to qui...
On March 13, 1964 a woman by the name of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was coming back to her apartment in Queens, New York at 3:00 a.m. when she was impaled to death by a serial killer. According to the news, the said attack was about 30 minutes long. During the attack, Kitty Genovese screamed for help numerous times. The killer left the scene when the attention of a neighbor was attracted. Ten minutes later, the killer returned to the scene and murdered Genovese. It came to attention that 38 people witnessed the attack and murder, but all thirty-eight failed to report it until after the murder. This ordeal got the attention of many people including scientists and psychologists who wanted to figure out why this occurred. Later, the events that were published by the news were found to be false. It seemed as if the news was experiencing the bystander effect as well, because their information did not contribute to the actual facts. There were not 38 witnesses to the crime, but several had heard the screams and a few calls were made to the police during the attack. But there was still talk about something that affected the minds of people during emergency situations. This phenomenon has become known as the Bystander Effect. There were several cases that are fairly similar to the Genovese one. As well as the Genovese case, these occurrences attracted the attention of many scientists and even the news had something to say about “apathy.” Is the bystander effect real? My hypothesis is that the bystander effect is in fact, a real everyday occurrence that limits the help offered by people. This is due to the number of bystander present during a given situation. The Bystander Effect is the social psychological idea that refers to cases in whi...
Many people in the world today are too busy to focus on nutrition in the food they eat. This is especially true in the winter, when people stock up on canned and cooked foods, which can lose its Vitamin C value over time, or when it is heated. As previously mentioned, fruit juices are full of sugar and too much can erode enamel. Vitamin supplements are made with synthetic materials, which are not recognised by the body, and are not used the same way as natural vitamins. Vitamin supplements should be regarded as any other medicine, should not be overdosed on, as it ca lead to energy and metabolism problems. That leaves fresh fruit as the best constant source of vitamin
This criticism stems from a disbelief that epics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey could have been formulated, maintained, and transmitted within an oral culture. However, new research on human memory and careful analysis of text reveals evidence that the textual style of each poem does emanate from one author.
The drastically increasing prices of fossil fuels and gasoline were making it harder for a middle income people to afford conventional vehicles in the near future. The gasoline is a natural resource which is reducing the supply of our reserves every second. In order to keep the fuel prices in control...