Revolution in the Valley
Monday, March 31st, 2008Andy Hertzfeld’s book, Revolution in the Valley, is indicative of what may be emerging as a new form of literature originating from the web: the blog. I’m not sure if this statement is factually accurate, but I believe the first published blog was Salam Pax. This book contained the writings of a middle-aged, English speaking Iraqi architect living in Baghdad during the US invasion, detailing daily life and his thoughts on the occupation. These books (and I assume there are others) represent what could be an interesting change in print media: the merging of the book and website, primarily the blog.
Now, there is nothing inherently new about printing a series of personal anecdotes in the form of a book; the selected journals and toenail clippings of famous writers and artists have long been published. What is interesting is that the stories in these two books were never intended to be put in a book. Rather, they were intended for people to read on a website. People typically have a much different way of reading a website than they do of reading a book. I will skim a website, and hardly ever read anything longer than three to four typewritten pages at a time. A book, however, requires a more concentrated form of commitment and a more critical eye. A book also has a longer line of conventions that people are more apt to look for when they begin reading, especially a nonfiction memoir.
Andy Hertzfeld’s book, because it was originally a blog, is like a series of personal snapshots. Much attention is given to the quirky humor of Burrell Smith and the “emotionally handicapped” behavior of Steve Jobs. There are also many anecdotes about finding creative ways to solve hard- and soft-ware problems and the creation of the classic Macintosh GUI and programs. The human stories often don’t give much of a background on the person involved and the technical stories often don’t give much background on the details. Instead of organizing a linear narrative based around the core concept of the birth of the Macintosh and then fleshing it out with personal anecdotes, Hertzfeld has let the anecdotes become the narrative. After reading about tiny details, such as the original control bar, Burrell’s method of playing Defender, and the changing of “do it” to “OK” do we get the overall story of the Macintosh team. What we’re left with is the impression that a team of offbeat creative programming geniuses put in an immense amount of time and energy into crafting an operating system and software that would define computer conventions we still use today, such as the “OK” box or the “trash.” But although major events are discussed in the book (such as the historic first meeting with Microsoft), they are not the focus and seem less important to Hertzfeld as Burrell’s friendship or crying in his performance review. This makes sense coming from the programmer himself, but it makes even more sense that these were originally written as a blog.
Does this mean that the standards for printed books will go down? If the internet didn’t exist and Hertzfeld took up this collection of anecdotes to a publisher, they would never get published without first being coalesced into a continuous narrative. So now that blogs are being made into books does this mean that the book is changing as a medium? Are linear narratives going to evaporate in place of a bunch of bite-sized puzzle pieces that form a Gestalt? Are the ideas of beginning, middle, and end about to become extinct?
I would say definitely not. As far back as the Modernists, people have been proclaiming the death of the book as linear narrative. I’m certainly not afraid that blogs are about to supplant books. I think an interesting peek into the future can be seen on Hertzfeld’s website itself, folklore.org. On the main page, stories are grouped into different categories on the left according to topic, author, or character. As “search” becomes even more ingrained into our culture and portable, handheld, internet ready computers become available, the blog will become even more commonplace and credible. However, this format will largely be used for things like news and journal entries, which were already fractured. People’s reading habits and materials will change, but I wouldn’t start burning the books yet.
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