reviewed by
Bob Timm
Baruch College, City University of New
York
e-mail: btimm@dcdu.com
To read this review, you may simply scroll down or follow
the links
below to the individual sections:
Introduction
In May of 1996, I began planning a new syllabus for my Fall 1996 English
Composition and Research courses at Baruch College in New York City.
Having volunteered my classes for a grant program piloting the use of
Computer Mediated Communication in writing courses, I put myself through
a crash course in the Internet, hypertext, and the World Wide Web. Of great
concern to me was locating a textbook for my students which would ease their
introduction to cyberspace, as I was well aware that my City University of
New York students would be a diverse lot, with many lower-income or
immigrant students experiencing cyberspace for the first time. Luckily, a
fellow cyber-colleague referred me to Victor Vitanza's first edition of
CyberReader, which had just been
published in the spring of 1996. Upon first
impression, it seemed to be just what I was looking for:
1) a traditionally organized composition reader, with chapter topics
focusing on various topics related to cyberspace
and
2) a technical instructional text for exploring cyberspace.
An added attraction was the website the publisher and author had set up as a
means of updating the text as students and faculty began to use it. This
review is based largely on the use of this text and its corresponding website in
my classes this past term.
The main object of this review is the papertext version, though the necessity of
considering the website as well underlines the difficulty in publishing any
papertext about cyberspace; it's somewhat like trying to carve on a stone the
images you observe in a tornado.
I have been informed by the author that the second edition is already in the
works so stay tuned to the CyberReader website for its arrival.
Concept
Two key words which the author stresses in the preface to the first edition,
speed and change, provide good introductions to the daunting challenge of
publishing a traditional-looking textbook about a medium which resists any
kind of stability. Here, Vitanza concedes, "I have been painfully aware that
any article or topic/theme I select may be obsolete as soon as the book
appears." Thus, the website was conceived as a means for obviating those
problems, allowing the author to add additional readings and references and
update those included in the papertext. If the website promises more
meaningful and timely readings and links, then, one might question what the
value of the papertext may be, besides providing justification for funds to the
publisher and royalties to the author. Indeed, many of my own students were
ecstatic about the possibility of getting all their resources free over the
Internet and some were a bit skeptical about the necessity of paying for the
papertext at all.
However, for most of us, faculty and students alike, papertext is still a more
familiar and comfortable medium. Though the idea of a class website
including all necessary resources is an attractive possibility, papertexts are
still much more readable, portable, and user-friendly. As such, the
CyberReader papertext was quite helpful in introducing many students to the
issues and topics without dealing with all the practical headaches familiar to
any instructor attempting to guide novice freshmen through a computer lab
workshop.
Furthermore, the simultaneous use of the papertext and the hypertext worked
well throughout the term at providing a practical experience of the issues
raised in studying the movement between these two media.
Structure
In the face of the challenges presented in the basic mission of a papertext
about cyberspace, the selection and arrangement of the chapter headings is
generally successful at providing a stable, relevant framework through which
to explore the main topic. The chapters are outlined as follows:
1.
Cyberspace (Virtual Reality/Hypereality)
3.
CyberWars (Flame Wars, Sexual Politics and Netsex/"Porn"/Violence)
4. Hypertext
(Virtual Books, Multimedia)
All of these chapter topics were well-defined and seem to correlate with the
issues confronted by my own students in the general use of computers and
cyberspace, though the ambiguous nature of a lot of the terminology allows
for much overlap among these chapters, as may be self-evident from simply
the chapter titles. There is a vast range in these chapters from theoretical
concepts like hyperreality to practical subjects like hacking or virtual
libraries. Each chapter contains about 6-9 readings, which allows for a
eclectic mixture of scholarly articles, selections from mainstream media, and
websites transferred to papertext.
The most compelling topics are concepts that run like threads through all the
chapters, especially the issues of gender, censorship, hacking, and so on. Like
any anthology, though, instructors can mix and match readings as they
choose. There seems to be an attempt in this first edition to organize readings
and chapters ranging from the most abstract to the most practical, moving
from a theoretical statement on the real and the represented by Umberto Eco
in Chapter One to instructions on programming characters and environments
in MOOs in Chapter Seven. Thus, starting with Chapter One may provide a
bit of a challenge in trying to break the ice introducing novice freshman to
cyberspace.
In addition to the standard "Questions and Suggestions for Further Study"
available at the end of the chapter in most anthologies, CyberReader also
includes for each topic a listing of relevant web pages, newsgroups, and
terminology, as well as some transcripts of sample web searches on key words
in the topic. These are useful as illustrations for students without web access,
but in many cases the website served these purposes much more efficiently, as
might be expected. However, the papertext references are more complete and
also include traditional book and periodical references.
Of especially good use are the general appendices at the end of the book,
though Appendix A, with its series of "How to . . . " categories, is a prime
example of why many classes may find the first edition already out of date.
For anyone with graphical access to the web and standard e-mail software
like Eudora, the instructions provided here seem quite old hat. Instructions
on the use of e-mail and browsing the web are invariably better handled in the
labs according to the specific technology available to individual colleges and
classes.
Readings
CyberReader provides a strong organizational foundation and many of the
readings provide worthy entries into several key issues of cyberspace, but the
nature of the text and its subject while require timely updates and revisions of
some readings. At last report, approximately 25% of the readings will be
replaced or updated. There are few readings which are glaringly out-of-date,
most notably one particular reading on Cyborg culture dealing with the rock
musician Billy Idol's fleeting attempt to capitalize on cyberculture. The
readings vary greatly in style, tone, and length, though if there is any political
overtone to the collection, it is a recurrent suggestion that cyberspace is
revolutionary, rebellious, anti-establishment, the direct descendent of 1960's
counterculture. There are a number of selections by Timothy Leary who,
before his death this past year, had transformed himself (or "morphed"
himself, as the trendy cyberpunk might say) from hippie drug guru into
1990's Generation X Cyber-prophet. The introduction to the textbook is
presented in a kind of papertext version of hypertext, two columns running
parallel as separate voices, one in the voice of "Bill" (in the style of a certain
CEO from Seattle) and the other in the voice of "Tim" (as in Leary). The
"Tim" introduction certainly aims for more excitement and more of a youth
factor in the cyber "revolution" and there is more of that particular thread
running through the text than the more practical, nuts-and-bolts,
captain-of-the-Enterprise ideal.
The reading selections do well at providing important background
information on many of these topics, sorting out the facts and myths of
compelling topics like hackers and net security. I believe most of my students
thought the Web itself was something run by hackers, but by the end of the
term, they could quickly comment on the difference between hacking and
cracking and exactly what kinds of stealth computer activity might actually be
deemed criminal behavior. Likewise, my students quickly became experts
through the readings on exactly what a virtual library might be and how
much of the Internet's potential is yet unrealized.
There were several readings which stand out in particular as important and
provocative class assignments. Chapter Two contains a selection from
Harper's Forum was originally a chat room discussion of hacking involving
several outspoken genuine hackers and notable writers in the field. This
single reading provided the base of many short essays and research papers.
Chapter Four also contains a compelling dialogue between critics Neil
Postman and Camille Paglia on the 20th Century battle between words and
images. One of the most explosive readings, though, is in the final chapter on
MOO and MUD culture. Julian Dibble's "A Rape in Cyberspace," which
originally appeared in The Village Voice, recounts one of the first reported
stories of "cyber rape." While some of the theoretical discussions of the
difference between real life and virtual reality from Chapter One floated like
lead at the beginning of the term, this reading had many students speaking up
on the dichotomy of real and virtual.
In many cases, the partial coverage of the readings presented was simply
unavoidable. The issues involved are simply too vast, complex, and dynamic to
be reasonably covered in a selection of less than 10 readings. For example,
Chapter Three on CyberWars presents two powerful issues, gender and
censorship on the Web, but the readings provided seem to beg for further
discussion and research (though one might view that as a quite positive
feature, since provoking challenges and investigations is our goal). The
readings included here related to the Communications
Decency Act provoked
much thought and discussion in my classes but many of my students spent
much time on-line trying to catch up with all that had transpired with this
"cyberwar" since these initial readings. Likewise, the readings on gender and
computers already seemed to strike a false note for some of my students who
considered the viewpoint somewhat dated. The thesis proposed in readings by
Deborah Tannen and Susan Herring, that cyberspace is essentially a
male-dominated environment, was heavily challenged in class discussions and
student papers, especially by those female students who had spent a lot of
their lab time teaching and instructing their less knowledgeable male
classmates. (For further thoughts on women and computers, please see 2
reviews of Wired Women in this issue of Kairos: 1) Robin A. Morris 2) Marcy
Bauman)
Website
As promised, the website serves as a resource for updating the textbook as all
the issues raised in CyberReader rapidly evolve. It also compresses all the
links into one manageable site for students and includes links to other
educational resources like on-line writing labs. The site was extremely useful
for my classes, especially for those students new to the concept of web-surfing
and hypertext. Many students used the site as a home base from which to
launch further research into readings and paper topics.
Access to the website and the links provided also gave the class readings much
more life and immediacy. Writers and critics like Eco, Postman, and Paglia
became living, breathing people once students could access other sites, photos,
and home pages for many of the authors collected here. In several cases,
students queried the authors they read through e-mail as a follow-up to class
discussions. This, ultimately, is the what the website is about: extending those
rhetorical tentacles beyond the boundaries of the classroom and the textbook,
facilitating research and fostering self-motivated interest in the subjects
presented. It also provides greater freedom in presentation for Vitanza and
instructors using the text, as the supporting material is literally inexhaustible
and quite varied; for example, it was only in the context of a visit to the
Disney World website (linked in Chapter One) that many students began to
comprehend Eco's concepts of hyperreality and the simulacrum.
As Vitanza envisions it, the site will expand as more classes use the text and
will incorporate suggestions from faculty and students across the country.
During the Fall term, the first full term for which the text was available, there
was minimal updating done to the site. Still, the potential for turning the text
into more of a hypertext remains promising. In the Spring term, Vitanza
plans to offer links to many class syllabi using the text in the hopes of creating
more of a CyberReader community on-line.
Conclusions
This premiere edition of CyberReader is noteworthy for breaking new ground
in the concept of a class text. Victor Vitanza invites writing instructors to take
their classes "where no classes have gone before" and I'm sure many will
beam aboard for the trip. As a result, though, much more will be expected of
future editions and the expansion of the website. The project as a whole is
visionary and prophetic, though still largely an ideal at present.
In sum, what may be said about the first edition of CyberReader is what is
often said about the Web and Cyberspace itself: its greatest strength lies in its
possibilities, in the potential yet unrealized. Mr. Vitanza deserves great credit
for creating a papertext which is about as useful and timely as it can be,
considering the challenges he faced in putting it together (apparently it went
from contract to full draft in about three months!). Certainly, any papertext
about cyberspace may in its very conception be an anachronism, but the
second edition is certainly worthy of great anticipation for many teachers of
writing and any faculty or student interested in the intellectual approach to
the information age.
Though it may be easy to criticize papertexts about cyberspace as besides the
point, they are still a necessary medium for transporting a still quite tentative
college population into this new world. While the tornado of cyberspace may
not be slowing down, the stone carvings, the publication of papertexts like
CyberReader, may be the only way at present for us to grasp it.
External Links
- "Victor Vitanza's first edition of CyberReader" --> The CyberReader Home Page
- Numbered Chapter Titles --> Additional links for chapter topics in CyberReader
Website
Return to PaperText Reviews Collection
Respond to Kairos Interactive