Per Verba

Computers have helped writers immensely, while previous inventions, like the printing press, only improved the distribution of text, computers assist in the composition. The computer itself is an audience for the work, and a complete, human, audience is within reach. The modern writer has access to more resources, more people, and even a bit more ease, than the typewriter-pounders and pencil-scratchers of the past.

Before I had easy access to a computer and printer, I had to write everything out by hand. My hand is clumsy enough that I only have two styles of writing: the precise grade-school lettering and a fast but terrible scrawl. Once I had a basic understanding of the keyboard, I could write as fast as thoughts came to me, and still be able to read it later. I could write in the order the thoughts came, and place them in order later. I could write the thoughts exactly as they came, and change the wording later.

In his book Writing with Style John Trimble asserts the need to see your writing as a conversation with a reader (5). Computers project the presence of someone reading your words, even if they are only a mechanical editor leaving little red and green lines all over the text. Messaging programs, like Internet Relay Chat, provide communicate through words only.

The connectivity provided by the internet gives new writers a place to hone their skills. Shared worlds have been created, where writers can add their works into the story. The authors can receive feedback from when they start writing. There is no gauntlet of publishers to be run; the work is accepted and enjoyed. Works for specialized interests can be distributed, with no problems or profitability. It does not matter how many people actually will read the work, just that those who do, can.

As Dee Dreslough’s novel Dimar: Lost Waters is the perfect example of this. The novel has inspired several other writers and artist, and is actually being sold in hard copy. In her own words, "Because of the 'net, fiction needs to be free! Folks need a safe place to share a world together without all the strings and hassles of copyright and trademark. This isn't about money. It's about people, community, creativity and sharing. And, there's no reason a public domain or shared work can't make money too..."

"I do not fear computers, I fear lack of them." as the prolific writer Isaac Asimov states. Computers provide a great boost for writers. Without computers, new writers would have a much harder time developing. The difficulty in writing long hand is more than enough to discourage people, not to mention the difficulties in revising that stem from using paper.

I enter the library; rows of shelves recede into the distance on my left, and to the right return past me. Volumes, Novels, Tomes, Texts, masses of words, thoughts on paper, wisdom, knowledge. It is a soft atmosphere, anything you want to know is somewhere around you. The dust covers sparkle against the duller paperbacks and the matte cloth bindings. Small lines run across the shelves, providing a rough continuity between the rainbow of spines. The archaic drawers of index cards stand proudly in a line; each ready to yield the positions of hundreds of books; each book willing to yield up the thoughts and researches of people throughout time. As I walk between the shelves, the volumes call down displaying their titles, trying to draw in a reader. Each text vies to have its words read, its ideas considered, its author expressed.

Why do people see it so necessary to make things black or white, on or off, true or false? What is wrong with leaving things in between? It has been said again and again, "Everything is a matter of degree." Why is it so difficult for us to heed such simple advice? Do our computers, with their zero or one bits, or our bivalent western philosophy and culture, restrict us to the simplicity of yes and no?

Fulton falls into the trap of bivalence repeatedly in her essay, making for a shortsighted rather than insightful in many places. In the essay’s 23rd section, engineers and writers are contrasted as two completely different types of people. What about Isaac Asimov, a most prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction?

"I wanted to write this in monument, but I had just ink." (Fulton 112) Why can ink not be monument? The poet Homer wrote The Iliad approximately three thousand years ago. The book survives and copies can be found in most bookstores; the city of Troy has long since crumbled, like the statues of Mary Shelly’s famous poem.

Fulton ends her essay with these words, "I used the hand’s most important attribute, opposition, to hold the pen" (119) Not only does the opposition of our thumbs allow us to piece together great works of writing, but also the opposition of our thoughts. As Norman Cousins once said, "I have a theory that progress is what is left over after one meets an impossible problem."

I open a new browser window; the simple green and blue of the open directory scroll across the screen. Topics are listed across the page, each one opening into a stream of subdivisions and pages. A simple black and white of text, a spectrum of colors held together by fragile links. Each page offers still more in an endless cycle or thoughts ideas and directions to find still more. Summaries and Meta settings try to thrust the page upon me, trying to capture interest in just a few words.

Franzen comments in his essay on how our creativity and imagination is decreasing, especially in our forms of entertainment (10). We used to have science fiction shows like "Dr. Who" and "Mystery Science Theater" (In Dr. Who, even the main character was changed seven times, and in Mystery Science Theater, a movie-like piece was in every show), where completely unique episodes had to be created. Now our TVs show rehashed plots from older shows; our movies show novels and comic books. Imagination falters, and we are left recycling the inspirations of past generations. (This document written by Joseph Strom)

Fixing things simply and manually recurs often in the third portion of Franzen’s essay. Maybe that is what we need, not to stop relying on technology, but to be sure we can do without it. I have a lap top that runs only DOS, a console operating system. It boots up to a black screen with the basic "C:\>" staring down at you. Before it had DOS, I had it running an even barer OS, a floppy distribution of Linux. The computer couldn’t do much; it was extremely slow and drained the batteries in minutes. What was important was that I set it up, and I knew what I was doing.

That a number of people fall down the path leading to apathy, as Franzen suggests, is clear. What isn’t, is what will happen to these people once they reach the bottom, and how many people there will be. Hopefully enough creative minds will continue to use technology to propagate their ideas and not sit back and enjoy the ride. The computer can be a powerful tool to spread ideas, but humans still need to create the ideas in the first place.

Fulton, Alice. "Screens." Tolstoy’s Dictaphone Ed. Sven Birkerts. St. Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 1996. 102-119.

Trimble, John. Writing with Style. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000.