On Lines

I'm under the impression that I have some kind of theory that in some rough way explains how etext functions. Experience suggests that someone should disabuse me before I walk in front of a bus.

Before it hits, I will try to assemble sources relevant to my posts in comments to the posts themselves so as to not weigh things down too drastically.

The main lines run like this (read them fortissimo in your most strident McLuhan tones, please) ==>

Digital emedia and etext will substantially decenter (not replace) use of print and broadcast forms that dominated Century 2 0. Pushbutton streaming mm on HD screens (and their holo-whatever grandchildren, I suppose) will generate BUCK$ and eat bandwidth, but alphanumeric text will remain culturally significant, perhaps in some ways more so.

Text will become more completely at home online as authors resolve problems with enarrative by bending social and expository forms into service as narrative vehicles. Etexts will supplant books incompletely over several generations as authors learn to accomplish things we get from print. Pre-existing traditional texts may never move comfortably or completely into etext, but may move gradually from literary to historical to archeological concerns. At the same time, its increasingly specialized use may propel the book into new forms

I'll break my rationale for all this into separate entries, roughly by topic.