The question of wiggle room--of space within which to move--brings
us back to the metaphor of movement, which runs throughout the collection.
Indeed,
in the introduction, the editors point to the usefulness of this metaphor,
suggesting that "Travel and navigation dominate the ways in which we talk
about interacting in cyberspace" (15). We search, explore,
find, seek, and get lost in the ins and outs, the ups and downs--and in
both the amount of information moving along our telephone lines and in
the number of communication platforms to choose from in representing our
own individual and collective searches for meaning making. Curiously,
this metaphor of movement appears in a number of different descriptions
and studies of the Internet and the new communications technologies--so
much so, that it has become a commonplace, a shorthand of expression.
Images of the journey, the search, and navigation
abound--as they must, for asking the question ("What do we make of all of
this?") begs the question of a journey and a move toward meaning.
But what meaning/s are we moving toward? And how will the journey
impact our meaning making? Moreover, what byways and alternate routes,
what criss-crossing paths or new directions, might the metaphor of movement
point
to--or occlude?
As an example of this, I have used quotations
from Jeanette Winterson’s new novel, The Powerbook, to move
you through this review--an appropriate choice, I think, for Winterson's
novel interweaves scenes from chatrooms and email exchanges into and throughout
a narration of the varying motions of a love affair. Througout The
Powerbook, the narrator sifts through multiple hints, trying to decipher
her lover’s understanding of their relationship--and, in the process, understand
her own complex feelings about it. In a contemporary twist, Winterson
gives such questioning a bit of extra-added propulsion as her characters
try to connect through electrons which, carrying words of love, questioning,
and desire, traverse the Internet. In many ways, then, The Powerbook
is about the changing literacy of communicating with one another (about
love, in this case) in the emerging cyberculture.