Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!pyramid!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: dartvax!eleazar!merchie.UUCP@seismo.css.gov (Anthony Wiggins)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: The Aesthetics of Computers
Message-ID: <1719@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 88 16:26:21 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: Monolith Communications
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Approved: taylor@hplabs

In light of the objections you have for using computers as a storage/reading/
pleasure medium for fictional material, I would like to point out advantages
that can be immense.

I have only read one "computer book", called Portal, released a year or two
ago, a Science Fiction book about the human race taking the next step
in evolution.  Reading the "computer book" had an added dimension that I did
not expect: the ability to selectively read and query about information
pertaining to the story, background information on characters, technical
information regarding the innovations placed forth in the story, geographical
information, medical, political....you get the picture.  The book was written
to be read in a graphics environment, granted, but this book, without 
commenting on the author's skills as a writer, was absolutely fantastic
in that you could immerse yourself in any degree in the story.  Well, okay,
in Portal, you were FORCED to cover everything, as the story was a puzzle in 
a sense.  But there's no reason that a person should be forced to read it.
If you're a layperson, you may have no desire to wade through the author's 
volumous writings on the mathematical basis for the innovations introduced, 
so why bore the reader with information that doesn't interest him?
It means that you can write stories for any/all audiences, if using an
electronic medium, instead of targeting a specific class of people, regional
area, intellectual diversity, open-mindedness, whether they're male or female.
 
It brings about in existence a new medium, simply different from the medium
of paper books.  Sure, stories that were expressly written for paper medium are
going to lose something in the transition, as would an electronic book being
transferred over to paper.  It will be exciting if authors decide to pursue
the electronic marketplace, writing stories expressly for the electronic 
audience.  I could imagine that if an author had a point to make, an idea
to prove, that he would be much more effective in an electronic book, as he
could write different aspects of the book for the potentiallly diverse aspects
of the reading audience.  Allowing the reader to design and interactively
control his reading environment would add challenges for the writer, certainly,
and it would take longer to write a book, more thought would be required,
but I think that the end result would be so much more effective.

Any thoughts on the subject?

Anthony Wiggins