Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational by N Katherine Hayles warrants rereading after having some time to digest all of the information. What a reader takes from a first reading is going to depend heavily on both what they bring to the book and what chapter most appeals to them.
Very broadly, Hayles uses the concept of a cognitive assemblage to frame the current ideas and concerns around books and print media. Thus the period we're in, postprint, or perhaps more accurately post(exclusively)print. I'll highlight a few of my main takeaways and areas that intrigued me.
I was initially skeptical of the term cognitive assemblage but as she explained both the concept and the thinking behind her choice of words, I came to appreciate it. In particular her decision to use the idea of cognition versus thinking or another similar term. Her explanation that cognition is, and I am very much oversimplifying here, getting information and, based on that information, choosing one of several paths allows for the inclusion of computer-based and even electromechanical operations to be part of a cognitive assemblage. So once all of the steps in a process, whether creating a text or reading a text, are not entirely determined on each iteration by a human we have a sharing of the cognitive aspects and thus a cognitive assemblage. Trust me, she explains this much better than I do.
I found the chapter on university presses to be very interesting. How to meet demands for print and digital, how to look ahead and anticipate future advancements, and how academia, emphasis here on the humanities, can adjust its publishing expectations for hiring or tenure decisions. While this is specific to university presses the ideas and concerns can easily be applied to the publishing sector at large.
Hayles discusses several works that are postprint novels or require a computational element to "read." These analyses are intriguing whether you're familiar with the texts or not. The points I took away had more to do with what the implications are for future works though on my next reading I want to concentrate on the theoretical ideas they represent (either in their narrative or in how they must be "read"). The questions around language, whether words are constrictive or enabling, whether communication would be better or worse if we eliminated the need to put ideas into words, reminded me of a book I recently read, Hegel in a Wired Brain by Slavoj Zizek, that looks at what it might be like to communicate directly brain to brain without forming words. Would nuance be gained or lost?
I definitely recommend this to anyone interested in where books and printed media are going. There is a lot of information here and I have no doubt that someone with a stronger background in this area would have gotten a lot more out of it than I did. But the writing is clear and most terms are explained well enough that a reader can get the flow of the arguments. And yes, this is a book that rewards rereading after having had a chance to let the ideas sink in.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
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