First-time Thoughts from a First-time Blogger with Unimaginative Names for Titles
First things first, I'd just like to say how glad I am that browsers have a zoom function. I hate reading large volumes of teeny tiny text, whether in print or on a screen (especially on a screen). So, if I could only pick one thing I like about digital technology, it would be the ability to blow up the text to a size that won't give me a migraine from trying to read it. It's a good example of how digital technology can transfer control of the experience to the reader.
I've just gone over "Library of Babel" and I can't say if reading it online was any different from reading it on the pages of a printed book. What did make the experience different was Google. With my Firefox browser, a Google search bar is right up there in the corner, waiting for me to use it when I needed to get a better understanding of what I was reading. If I was reading print I'd have to get up and go to the computer or a dictionary, or something that was not on hand. That would take much longer to do. But with reading it online, Google, Wikipedia and anything else are already right there in front of you just waiting for you to need to use them. So looking up references and such definitely happens much faster, and even contributes to the experience much better than if I was reading a printed version. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm able to remain comfortably seated.
Overall, "Library of Babel" was an interesting, stimulating read. While I was reading, it began to turn into a logical exercise; as I went about digesting the library, its books, and the theories of the inhabitants. Whether or not it's all a metaphor for something, an allegory or some other thing disguised as another thing, I read it as if it was an actual place that exists somewhere. It's fun for me to imagine that something like this actually exists: books containing all possible combinations of all possible symbols; all of the implications and theories that flow from this one idea; and the people of that world trying to find the best way to understand it and live in it.
I've just gone over "Library of Babel" and I can't say if reading it online was any different from reading it on the pages of a printed book. What did make the experience different was Google. With my Firefox browser, a Google search bar is right up there in the corner, waiting for me to use it when I needed to get a better understanding of what I was reading. If I was reading print I'd have to get up and go to the computer or a dictionary, or something that was not on hand. That would take much longer to do. But with reading it online, Google, Wikipedia and anything else are already right there in front of you just waiting for you to need to use them. So looking up references and such definitely happens much faster, and even contributes to the experience much better than if I was reading a printed version. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm able to remain comfortably seated.
Overall, "Library of Babel" was an interesting, stimulating read. While I was reading, it began to turn into a logical exercise; as I went about digesting the library, its books, and the theories of the inhabitants. Whether or not it's all a metaphor for something, an allegory or some other thing disguised as another thing, I read it as if it was an actual place that exists somewhere. It's fun for me to imagine that something like this actually exists: books containing all possible combinations of all possible symbols; all of the implications and theories that flow from this one idea; and the people of that world trying to find the best way to understand it and live in it.
posted by mtelh at
4:39 PM
1 Comments:
Its a crazy read.
One thing I thought was very logical, was that all of language is really based on what someone wants something to say.
In Babel, if you came across a book of characters and couldn't find someone who "knew" the language, or even if you did, perhaps you started to "decipher" it... but it only makes sense, like decoders do, if you put things in logical order, which is really what you want to think it says. If that makes sense.
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