This is not, of course, to imply that such guides are inherently flawed by the inexorable rush of technology and the flux of the Net. However, it does point up the issue--again--of the nature of the printed textbook--fixed, authoritative, relatively static (of course students can cross out URLS and write in new ones!) and the hyper/text/book--changeable, fluid, dynamic. This dichotomy is addressed by Umberto Eco in his essay "The Future of the Book" in the text. It's also what makes online and hypertextual rhetoric and its teaching either daunting on the one hand or exciting on the other--a very real "contact zone."

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