The Future of the Book
Geoffrey Nunberg, ed.



Preface
Patrizia Violi

"What is the future of the book in this new era, as the end of the millennium approaches? The question raises issues that range from the transformation of the cultural institutions devoted to the storage and conservation of books to changes in the cognitive processes of reading and writing arising directly or indirectly from the introduction and use of the emergent technologies for reading and writing. Beyond this, we want to know how the structure of texts themselves will change, along with the socio-culturally mediated systems of textual genres and norms. How will text-based interactive systems for writing and interaction like the World Wide Web and MOO's affect the development and evolution of textual norms? Will the book as a material object still maintain some of its symbolic value, or will it disappear into the realm of merely virtual entities? Will new technologies enable us to look at ancient texts in a new way, discovering hidden structures?" (7).


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