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10 Technologies That Changed Literature Forever

1K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  Xopher 
#1 ·
#2 ·
That is interesting, but I don't know that I agree with his choices. He jumps from Gutenberg to the Internet and has IPads as one of the ten. I would have said word processing and self-publishing or home printing somewhere in the list. I don't understand how the Internet "changed" literature, really.
 
#3 ·
I can't claim to have thought about this much, but offhand I wonder if the interstate highway system shouldn't be included, at least for the USA. Or maybe, the current shipping system in general.

There was a time when publishing rights were doled out by territory within the US. Once we had the means to transport books across country, we opened the door for simultaneous release from coast to coast, for chain booksellers, and for Amazon.

I'm really just thinking aloud here.

And I wouldn't say that tablet computers are worthy to join the list, at least not yet. We'll see.
 
#8 ·
I think the Internet is legitimate, it changed the method of distribution. Back in the 1990's, I bought a CD of the complete works of Shakespeare. But now, I can download it and tens of thousands of other books in the public domain, the Internet has made books so much more available.

I would have merged e-readers and tablet computers into one, it's just reading on a handheld device. And technically, writing didn't change literature, literature didn't exist before writing. Oral literature is an oxymoron. ;-)

I would have included the paperback book as something that changed literature, by making books more affordable. I also have to agree that the word processor changed literature, and the typewriter did as well.

Copyright isn't a technology, but it did change literature by providing an incentive to create. But the public domain is also benefits literature, so if copyright is too short or too long it is a problem.
 
#10 ·
hsuthard said:
.....and self-publishing or home printing somewhere in the list.
Self publishing isn't new, it is the original publishing ;D . People paid to have their own books published, or hand written to be made into books, publishers are a relatively late addition to the process.
 
#11 ·
LauraB said:
Self publishing isn't new, it is the original publishing ;D . People paid to have their own books published, or hand written to be made into books, publishers are a relatively late addition to the process.
It's the ability to instantly print it out yourself that i was alluding to. To not rely on someone else to mass produce literature. I wouldn't call publishers either technology or progress :D j/k
 
#12 ·
jmiked said:
Todd: Literature by definition is the written/printed word, so radio is out. Unless you publish the scripts, I guess.

NightReader: I wouldn't call copyright laws a technology.

I'm not defending the choices in the article... I think listing the internet might be pretty shaky.

Mike
So if someone reads Pride and Prejudice to an audience, that means it's not literature?
 
#14 ·
The internet pulled down barriers to distribution. There is a lot of literature that would have never been written without the internet. There are some who would say we would be better off if it were more difficult to distribute your stories, that difficult distribution means that bad stories get weeded out. But good or bad or both, it is a change.
 
#15 ·
They missed a few:

Brushes, or whatever the cavemen used to start painting images on rocks (not to mention the inks or dyes they used).

Chisels: To start carving words (hieroglyphics) into stone, preserving words for many centuries.

Stone tablets: Make those stone-carved documents portable... Just like the Kindle, be careful about dropping it...

Scrolls made from hides, textiles, early forms a paper: I hear the stone carvers and quarries were all up in arms about people writing on surfaces that didn't weigh as much, and were much more portable. Why would someone want to write on something that could catch fire, fade, crack, tear or turn to dust. Stone was so much better at preserving the written word!

Book Binding: Could you imaging reading a novel on a scroll? How do you bookmark it?

Printing Press: All those poor hand-printed documents are now so much easier to print using typeset. All those people who printed things by hand now fired (how many employees does it take to hand-print the daily newspaper?).

Typewriters. I can't believe they didn't include that in the technological leap. Definitely a step up from printing presses, plus the paper industry loved hearing the sound of writers pulling the paper quickly out of the typewriter, crinkling the page up and throwing it towards the waste basket, just to grab another piece of paper and start all over. I miss that sound.
 
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