Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?

Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course? http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course? en-US Sat, 17 Sep 2016 01:48:21 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/search.php GeoffreyRockwell on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2094 Sun, 08 Sep 2013 08:15:36 +0000 GeoffreyRockwell 2094@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I realize it is too late, but I would also recommend the section of Plato's Phaedrus where Socrates tells the story of the invention of writing. It is around 274-275. It is short and others refer back to it like Postman. rachaelsullivan on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2093 Sun, 01 Sep 2013 18:08:32 +0000 rachaelsullivan 2093@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Hi everyone, Just wanted to follow up and say thank you for the help. Seriously. Here is the <a href="http://courses.rachaelsullivan.com/248/schedule.html">the final list</a> I decided on. After much hand-wringing, to be sure. @<a href='/profile/jean_bauer'>jean_bauer</a>: the "Praise of Scribes" was amazing but I couldn't fit it in without making the load uncomfortably cramped. I hope to integrate some of it into day 1 discussion on Tuesday. Thank you! @Dorothea Salo: Let there be memex. :-) @Josh Honn: Thanks for the Aleph pointer. Am going to work that into the class plan when they read the story the night before. gratefully, Rachael jennriley on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2078 Fri, 16 Aug 2013 11:46:03 +0000 jennriley 2078@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Kathleen Fitzpatrick's Planned Obsolescence (<a href="http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/plannedobsolescence/" rel="nofollow">http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/plannedobsolescence/</a>) addresses these issues related to scholarly communication in the academy. I don't see this turn of phrase in the online text, but when speaking on this topic she often says "we need filters, not gatekeepers." Her section on peer review might be most relevant to you. Josh on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2076 Wed, 14 Aug 2013 15:24:13 +0000 Josh 2076@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ A digital re-imagining of Borges' THE ALEPH: The Aleph: Infinite Wonder / Infinite Pity <a href="http://hirmes.com/aleph/" rel="nofollow">http://hirmes.com/aleph/</a> robshort@gmail.com on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2050 Wed, 24 Jul 2013 20:48:44 +0000 robshort@gmail.com 2050@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ ...oh, and Pound's Cantos robshort@gmail.com on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2049 Wed, 24 Jul 2013 20:46:51 +0000 robshort@gmail.com 2049@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow robshort@gmail.com on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2048 Wed, 24 Jul 2013 20:31:21 +0000 robshort@gmail.com 2048@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest William Gaddis's The Recognitions Joyce's Finnegans Wake mbranson_1993 on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-2047 Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:09:27 +0000 mbranson_1993 2047@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I apologize for weighing in late and it may be too late at this point to really matter, but I would share a couple of points: (1) Our students experience "overload" due to processing printed texts. They do not like this (particularly at the sophomore level) and when they do engage a text, they are often processing at least music and video. They tell themselves the "big lie" that this "background" noise helps them, but it does not--particularly when we are talking about "overload." (2)Today's students classify themselves as "multi-taskers," so it would be interesting to hear from them about if and when they do experience "overload." If you collect this information, I would appreciate your sharing it with us in this forum. (3)I go back to Terry Heick's assertion that 21st century learning occurs based on "form and interdependence." Students respond to video and audio far better than to text (partly because they are different-styled learners). Also, students do not believe they have the time to process a text between all the other things they are having to do. (4)When you mentioned in the syllabus this phrase--"a pathological condition"--the first "text" the spring to my mind was Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange." Alex, the protagonist, is our student today--overwhelmed with access to multiple modalites of receiving information (I will confess this assertion is based partly on my reading of the novel as well as Kurbrick's film) and set adrift from any sort of "order" in his life. . .There is a new novel I have heard reviewed, "The Panopticon," that seems to address some similar issues that Burgess did 50 years ago. . . I wish you luck and strongly encourage the use of video. . .and you may consider an opening gambit: show your class the Verve's video, "Bittersweet Symphony" and engage them in a conversation about it and "overload." pcfyfe@gmail.com on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-1953 Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:00:08 +0000 pcfyfe@gmail.com 1953@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Sounds great and I'd be interested to see how the syllabus develops, if you're willing to share it as you go. A few suggestions to fill in some of the C19th: Have a look at Andy Stauffer’s article “Ruins of Paper: Dickens and the Necropolitan Library” (RaVoN 2007) <a href="http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/016700ar">http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/016700ar</a> and the sources within, including Dickens’s wonderful Household Words piece “Bill-Sticking” <a href="http://www.djo.org.uk/household-words/volume-ii/page-601.html">http://www.djo.org.uk/household-words/volume-ii/page-601.html</a>. Speaking of Dickens, you could both theorize and experience information overload by assigning Bleak House, a novel deeply interested in the circulation of documents as well as the shortcomings of institutions designed to manage them. Reading an enormous novel would also give you occasion to reflect on modes of reading, memory habits, etc. then and now. On the shorter side, try George Eliot’s fascinating novella The Lifted Veil, in which info overload is figured as uncanny omniscience. Richard Menke has a chapter in Telegraphic Realism which brilliantly links those thematics to the emergence of photography. Also, you might check out some of the references to the information overload within the C19th periodical press in <a href="http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/eng_faculty_publications/1/">this article</a>. Lastly, add to your critical contexts list David Weinberger’s recent Too Big to Know. Good luck! -- Paul Dorothea Salo on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-1948 Sun, 24 Mar 2013 22:33:33 +0000 Dorothea Salo 1948@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ What? No Memex? <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/">There must be Memex</a>. Memex is obligatory. Re the above suggestion, I have <a href="http://pinboard.in/u:dsalo/t:trithemius">an entire linklist</a> that is more or less Trithemian that may be of use. Also a <a href="http://misc.yarinareth.net/trithemius.html">half-assed but Creative Commonsed translation</a> of some of the Good Bits. Apologize to your students for my abysmal Latin skills. jean_bauer on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-1947 Sat, 23 Mar 2013 11:30:30 +0000 jean_bauer 1947@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I think you have a great list already. One work I like to have students read, is De Laude Scriptorum (In Praise of Scribes) by Johannes Trithemius. It was written in 1492 and is a call for monks to continue the scribal tradition despite the invention of moveable type. I've found it be be an excellent conversation starter on how texts are created, the modern emphasis on "original" work, and a nice starting point for a discussion of information overload. Josh on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-1946 Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:59:59 +0000 Josh 1946@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @<a href='/profile/rachaelsullivan'>rachaelsullivan</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-1945">post</a>: Two short novels that may be interesting for this class are Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas, and The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira by César Aira. The former is about writers (most real, a few imaginary) who at some point made the decision not to write; the latter is a bit harder to encapsulate but I've reviewed it <a href="http://asymptotejournal.com/article.php?cat=Criticism&id=42&curr_index=2">here</a>. As for non-fiction, maybe Rita Raley's work through courses like <a href="https://engl252.wordpress.com/">"Distracted Reading"</a> and her recent talk on <a href="http://www.livestream.com/mithdigitaldialogues/video?clipId=pla_d75c5f1b-4500-4b7c-acf0-6892d0e49412&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb">disintegrated reading</a>, and N. Katherine Hayles on <a href="http://engl449_spring2010_01.commons.yale.edu/files/2009/11/hayles.pdf">hyper attention</a>. Many of the "debates" (usually just <a href="http://www.dispositio.net/archives/1340">sensible responses</a> to <a href="http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1040&fulltext=1">shitty opinion pieces</a>) in DH on literature as data would be good here, too. Oh, and drones and Google Glass. And things like <a href="http://onemilliontweetmap.com/">this</a>. rachaelsullivan on "What texts would you use in a "Literature of Information Overload" course?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-texts-would-you-use-in-a-literature-of-information-overload-course#post-1945 Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:55:43 +0000 rachaelsullivan 1945@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ This fall, I'm teaching a course called "Literature of Information Overload." It's a 200-level undergraduate course in English. Students will mostly be sophomore English majors, I'd imagine. I need help with selecting texts for this course! Below is a draft of the course description and a list of texts I've started (obviously I won't include all this on the syllabus, but I just wanted to give a sense of what I'm thinking). I'm looking for fiction, non-fiction, films -- you name it. Even if I don't use something in the syllabus, I'd like to compile a longer list of "recommended reading and resources" to post on the course website. I'm open to all ideas/suggestions. - - - - Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. They listen so much that they forget to be natural. This is a nice story. <a href="http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/stein-atom-bomb.html">Gertrude Stein, 1946</a> Information overload is a contemporary cultural concern with a rich past. This course will cover a broad sampling of texts from different time periods to consider how our current confrontation/struggle with digital technologies both is and is not new. We will pay attention to the various forms that information overload takes: a pathological condition, a burden on attention and social bonds, a renaissance of knowledge access and production, and even a non-issue. Most importantly for our purposes, the texts we read and view will help us to ask how our understanding of knowledge, literature, and even ourselves evolves alongside technological innovations. Through studying texts that comment on, represent, and/or actually produce the feeling of overload in readers, we will encounter questions like: <ul> <li>How do people experience and describe information overload (or a sense of "too much") across cultures and chapters of technological development? In what ways is the contemporary predicament of information management similar to and different from struggles of the past?</li> <li>How does information overload contribute to distraction and changing modes of attention, and why is this relevant to today's readers of literature? </li> <li>What are the differences between information and literature? What is at stake in efforts to make a distinction?</li> <li>If we accept the story of how humans are becoming increasingly dependent on their reference tools and technological devices, what new types of machine-human hybrids emerge? What reasons might we find for accepting or resisting this cyborg vision?</li> </ul> Through engaging with these questions and the texts (some alphabetic and others visual) on the syllabus, we will learn how information overload functions as a subject matter, a form or structuring device, and an affect generated by the work itself. This final affective quality of information overload (the feeling of having too much to know and organize) is a familiar frenemy of college students, so I hope that you will draw on your personal experiences to enlighten our discussions and inform your writing. - - - - ideas for literary texts Jonathan Swift, "The Battle of the Books" (1704) Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself" (1855) Gertrude Stein, selections from Tender Buttons and/or "Composition as Explanation" Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel" (1941) Thomas Pynchon, "Entropy" (1960) Franz Kafka, "The Burrow" (1971) Michael Joyce, Was: annales nomadique: a novel of internet (2007) Something YHCHI Nick Montfort & Stephanie Strickland, Sea and Spar Between (2010) ideas for critical/theoretical texts Alex Wright, selections from Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages (2007) Specifically the introduction and chapters on "The Ice Age Information Explosion" and "The Age of Alphabets" Tom Standage, selections from The Victorian Internet (2007) Vannevar Bush, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/">"As We May Think"</a> (1945) Neil Postman, <a href="http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/Criticisms/informing_ourselves_to_death.paper">"Informing Ourselves to Death"</a> (1990) Philip Elmer-Dewitt, Time magazine article: <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,978216,00.html">"Take A Trip into the Future on the Electronic Superhighway"</a> (1993) Clay Shirky, <a href="http://boingboing.net/2010/01/31/clay-shirky-on-infor.html">"It's Not Information Overload. It's Filter Failure"</a> (2008) Ann Blair, <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/11/28/information_overload_the_early_years/">"Information overload, the early years"</a> (2010) or a selection from Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age (2010) Nick Carr, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/">"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"</a> (2008) Cathy Davidson, introduction and chapter 6 ("The Changing Workplace") from Now You See It (2011) Elizabeth Gruber Garvey, selections from Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance (2012)