Clio Wired (History 696)

Janet Murray writes about The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace in a creative rather analytical way in Hamlet on the Holodeck. This reflects her background and interests in creating novels, stories, television programs, and movies. She relates to the strong, yet imaginative, character of Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager as she indulges in Victorian fantasies on the ship’s holodeck. Murray earned her PhD from Harvard, and she has worked and taught in and around computers and humanities at MIT. If weighed in a balance, the humanities side would kick in heavier than the digital analog or computer side of Janet Murray’s world. Murray sees the digital world as a medium to create narratives and stories. Computers exist for the sake of their creative uses rather than for the sake of computing. She sees “the most ambitious promise of the new narrative medium is its potential for telling stories about whole systems.”

Murray takes the reader on a light-hearted journey through the art of storytelling from assembly of the first book through Shakespeare, James Joyce, the Perils of Pauline, Gilligan’s Island, and all the way to Star Trek and ELIZA, the computer therapist. The world of computer geeks turned computer gamers and the creators of online soap operas. The technical aspect is secondary to creative possibilities, and the downside of web problems is virtually ignored. She shows us what positive, well-adjusted people can create on the internet and with technology without examining the absolute lack of accountability that can result in very negative uses of the medium. Murray’s view of the future of narrative in cyberspace is partly true but not complete.

Lev Manovich writes that “today we are in the middle of a new media revolution – the shift of all culture to computer-mediated forms of production, distribution, and communication” in his article What is New Media? Manovich’s tone and purpose is very different than Janet Murray while still answering questions about the place of new media in society. Manovich’s article concentrates on the analytical aspects of the subject rather than the creative side. They both lead the reader through the history of computers using punch cards and the changes in creative expression, but Manovich looks at the effect of computer use and development on people and society. He examines the Modularity of computers and their uses and their modulating effect on people and the way they analyze situations comparing the previous method of print mode. New media transforms something into a new format, and the “computerization of culture gradually accomplishes similar transcoding in relation to all cultural categories and concepts. The book narrative is active one way, while the new media is interactive. The user becomes co-author of the work rather than just the receiver of the author’s intentions. Manovich concludes with the idea that mental processes of processing, problem-solving, and recall become externalized through new media as opposed to the thoughtful repose of a book reader. He questions the positive and negative effects of new media on society, and his article is cause for reflection and discussion rather than the rose-colored glass view of Janet Murray. Both articles have merit, but Manovich brings an analytical view that must be addressed in the midst of the revolution.