Books, Letters, Documents

Abstract

Digital writing is doubly attenuated; it is 'oral', yet it lacks the social and physical cues accompanying speech, and although it is a form of writing, it has no physical substance. The implications of this phenomenon are exam ined with respect to three types of texts: books, letters, and documents. As physical objects, books and letters have served as embodiments of experi ence and of the 'personal touch'. It is harder to give up documents as physi cal objects than books or letters. Not only the meanings inscribed in documents, but also aesthetic attributes of them and of the situations in which they are manipulated have been critical to the constitution of new social arrangements and relationships. As we move from late print culture to early computer culture, we will come to give up embodying functions of books and letters, which will become increasingly digital. Binding constitu tive ceremonies may someday take place in virtual 'places' in cyberspace, with either virtual simulation of aesthetic experience, or with simultaneous real-world aesthetic activity among persons dispersed around the globe.

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