Post 11

One of the readings I found to be most interesting this semester was Tim Carmody's "10 Reading Revolutions before E-books", mostly because this history of the book itself and how its features have evolved over time is something I wasn't familiar with before taking this course. I especially found the shift from rolled scrolls to the folded codex to be surprisingly influential in changing the perception of books as well as the types of reading that was possible. Carmody mentions how codices were "cheaper and easier to read and carry than scrolls", and it seems this transition was an early indication of people's inherent desire to access information as quickly as possible. In today's culture, we save electronic documents, bookmark favorite web sites and forward links to important news all as a means of preserving information for easy access. With the folded codex, the ability to flip to a page (and just as importantly to still be able to hold onto another page by placing a finger on it) and find any desired information instead of filtering through the endless scrolling text of old improved on the tool of literacy as a whole. Carmody also mentions the link to Christianity this transition had as the religion embraced the codex instead of the scroll, which helped spread the folded alternative's popularity across the Roman Empire.
Carmody mentions a "reading revolution" that occurred as a result of the invention of the printing press. This is a subject I believe I will address in my final paper since, as I work towards a solid thesis, the idea of a second reading revolution sparked by the transition to electronic documents is one I hope to examine. The move away from intensive "reading and re-reading of very few texts to 'extensive' reading of many, often only once" was brought on by the ability to mass produce literature thanks to the printing press. It opened up a world of variety to the poor, who previously were limited to the Bible and possibly a few other text but could now afford to expand their collection. I find this revolution to be extremely important and it seems possible that our digital culture has brought on a similar change. With the ability to put anything online at a fraction of the cost to print it, literary works have become more visual, since artwork and media can accompany the texts that are displayed on the web. The transition from purely text based reading to the addition of visual stimulants has changed the way we interpret information and it is something I wish to at least address in my final paper.