Book Note: The Renaissance Computer
Posted on Sunday, October 30, 2005
at 11:55 AM (permalink)
In chapter 6, "The Early Modern Search Engine," Thomas Corns shows that the new technology of print represented a threat to the power of the monarchy. He quotes the instructions of James I to the authors of what would become the King James Bible. (Note: you might find the text more understandable by reading the letter U as a V.)
"Marry withall, hee gaue this caueat (upon a word cast out by my Lord of London) that no marginall notes should be added, hauing found in them which are annexed to the Geneua translation ... some notes very partiall, untrue, seditious, and sauouring too much of daungerous, and trayterous conceites. As for example, Exod. 1,19, where the marginal note alloweth disobedience to Kings." (p. 102)
The "Geneua translation" James I referred to was the Geneva Bible, which was the principle vehicle for the spreading of the Protestant faith in the sixteenth century. It wasn't only the text of this bible that allowed the individual to approach God on his own terms without the intervening authority of the state church, it was the extensive marginalia and commentaries included with the text that showed him the "right" way to read the bible. (A sample page of the edition of the Geneva Bible mentioned by James I is here, and the complete text with commentaries is here.) The analogy to the transition from the Mainstream Media to the world of blogs is clear. Where the MSM largely served as a pipeline for communicating the messages of those in power, the blogosphere adds a layer of commentary and analysis that can change and even refute this message. Corn doesn't necessarily see this layer of hyperlinks as beneficial.
"I have for long been concerned that pedagogic hypertext in the context of literary studies may serve the ends of premature closure, in that the maker of the system surrounds the target text with texts of his or her choosing-the intertext is a tendentiously determined closed set - and then defines the links or the anchor points which he or she regards as appropriate for a right understanding, which will be the maker's understanding, hiding the right answers in the confidence that the user will find them, like hiding a slipper in the children's game. There is a disturbing disparity of power between maker and user that is far greater than that between critic and reader." (p. 102)
Although he is speaking specifically about academic uses of hyperlinks, his comment can be applied equally well to what can be called the "tyranny of the blogosphere."
