RESPONSE TO COMPUTING: WHAT’S AMERICAN LITERARY STUDY GOT TO DO WITH IT? BY MARTHA NELL SMITH While I could have lived without Smith’s extended personal story, I do appreciate the points she eventually makes in her article. I take particular issue with the tenure system for collegiate educators (and, if I’m being completely honest, I also take issue with the ways in which all teachers – of all grades – are tenured). While publication is a worthy avenue to pursue in general, whether via print text or online, (the exploration of different intellectual avenues in one’s chosen field of study should be desirable and not just a reaction to tenure requirements – if it’s not, that person probably chose the wrong career field), it should not be the main element considered when assigning or denying tenure. I agree with Smith on the importance of and seemingly endless opportunities of digital media. Print publication is one option in an ever-changing technological world. Texts that used to be available on in print to specialists can now be uploaded onto the Web and disseminated to a wide variety of individuals, thus increasing readership and viewership. Before, I would have had to trust the interpretations, commentary, and analyses of others based on in-print, word descriptions of visual elements. However, now, for example – as identified by Smith – I can see the manuscripts of authors such as Emily Dickinson and make my own analyses. I can enter into what Smith calls an “informed debate about Dickinson’s manuscripts than has been previously possible” (Smith 840). I’ll leave my leap of faith in the realm it should be – religion and not literary analysis of Emily Dickinson.
The digitization of different texts affords readers with multiple opportunities to “both witness the process and to participate in it” (Smith 841). While I disagree with Smith’s solitary author locked into a me, myself, and I reclusive process example, I do agree with her points on the more collaborative nature of digital media. Sure, a print text can be very collaborative, but only in specific situations – people need to be organized and brought together in the same physical space at the same time. Online, however, people can contribute 24/7 to an ongoing conversation and receive immediate feedback. People have endless resources at their fingertips with the click of a mouse and prodding of a few buttons. Don’t know what a term or acronym means in an article? Need to ask questions about a theory that doesn’t seem quite clear? There are websites and forums and blogs for that. The humanities, obviously, focus on what is human – and digital media has an incredible focus on what it means to be human and collaborate and learn from / with people we would have never encountered otherwise. We can see manuscripts and paintings that are normally housed thousands of miles away in museums and libraries. Digital media is revolutionizing how we learn and spread that knowledge. Hopefully it doesn’t take us much longer as a human race to really realize the possibilities that the digital world presents.
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