Author Text Reader

Rob Thomas (creator of Veronica Mars) Kristen Bell (star of Veronica Mars)

“Cult” followings

Author Text Reader

• Solitary act of writing

• Inspired Presence – author “invents” story from scratch

• Writes with a sense of “purpose” and has a specific meaning in mind

Author Text Reader• A physical object

• A “commodity”(looks good on shelves, etc.)

• Binding• Font• Pagination• Chapters?

• Solitary act of reading

• Individual Interpretation

• Individual Response

(Traditional)

Author Text Reader

Wikipedia – Literature

Literature is usually differentiated from popular and ephemeral classes of writing, and terms such as "literary fiction" and "literary merit" are used to denote art-literature rather than vernacular writing. Texts based on factual rather than original or imaginative content, such as informative and polemical works and autobiography, are often denied literary status, but reflective essays . . . are accepted. In imaginative literature criticism traditionally excluded genres such as romance, crime and mystery and the various branches of fantastic fiction like science fiction and horror, along with mainstream fiction with insufficiently elevated style, but the idea of genre has broadened and is now harder to apply as a border-line.

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈlɪt(ə)rᵻtʃə/ , U.S. /ˈlɪdər(ə)tʃər/ , /ˈlɪdərəˌtʃʊ(ə)r/ , /ˈlɪtrəˌtʃʊ(ə)r/ , /ˈlɪdərəˌt(j)ʊ(ə)r/  1. Familiarity with letters or books; knowledge acquired from reading or studying books, esp. the principal 

classical texts associated with humane learning (see humane adj. 2); literary culture; learning, scholarship. Also: this as a branch of study. Now hist.The only sense in Johnson (1755) and Todd (1818), although cf. quot. 1779 at sense 2.

 2. The action or process of writing a book or literary work; literary ability or output; the activity or profession of 

an author or scholar; the realm of letters or books.1663—2002

3. a. The result or product of literary activity; written works considered collectively; a body of literary works produced in a particular country or period, or of a particular genre. Also: such a body of works as a subject of study or examination (freq. with modifying word specifying the language, period, etc., of literature studied).American, black, English, folk-, light, profane, Romantic, Victorian, world literature, etc.: see the first element.

1711—1995  b. Without defining word: written work valued for superior or lasting artistic merit.1852—2001

 4. (A body of) non-fictional books and writings published on a particular subject.1797—2004(  5. Printed matter of any kind; esp. leaflets, brochures, etc., used to advertise products or provide information and 

advice.

Author Text Reader

Questions

• What can and can’t be counted as “literature?”

• Who decides what “literature” is?• What makes something “literary?”• What happens to “literature” when it goes

into the wired world?• Does literature have to exist in a book?• Can literature be visual?

Reading at Risk Report

Reading a book requires a degree of active attention and engagement. Indeed, reading itself is a progressive skill that depends on years of education and practice. By contrast, most electronic media such as television, recordings, and radio make fewer demands on their audiences, and indeed often require no more than passive participation. Even interactive electronic media, such as video games and the Internet, foster shorter attention spans and accelerated gratification.

Reading at Risk Report

While oral culture has a rich immediacy that is not to be dismissed, and electronic media offer the considerable advantages of diversity and access, print culture affords irreplaceable forms of focused attention and contemplation that make complex communications and insights possible. To lose such intellectual capability – and the many sorts of human continuity it allows – would constitute a vast cultural impoverishment.

Nicholas Carr

. . . what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.

Kirshenbaum – Reading at Risk: A Response

Electronic media need not put literary reading at risk; in fact once we begin taking screens as well as pages seriously as venues for literature and written expression, organizations such as the NEA may well find that rates of literacy are again on the rise.

Creator or Mediation Consumer(s)

Creators

Author Text Reader