So, yesterday, I am sitting next to a woman on the train who is reading her Amazon Kindle. She either has poor eyesight or forgot her reading glasses, because the text was so big she was lucky if there were 10 lines of text on the screen. It drove me crazy watching her press the little side button every half a minute or so to turn the virtual page and it made me realize that it would not be fun or relaxing for me to read a book for pleasure (as opposed to reading for academic or other knowledge -- which is fine with me) using an Amazon Kindle. Granted I may not have to blow up the text that big (if I had my glasses) but the particulars of reading that kind of new media text is a materiality that is not friendly to my sensibilities as a reader. It is not a reading world in which I feel safe and comfortable -- at least not yet.
The texture, feel, smell, and physical presence of books is not something one can take easily away from a lifelong reader, scholar, and teacher of the written word. Although I get that I have to see text in a new way or become a teacher that is as obsolete as an IBM Selectric Typewriter or as clunky and ineffectual as a Hewlitt Packard Desktop Computer. However, I feel the need to pause for reflection here. Ten plus years ago when I was going through a divorce, a child custody battle, and changing careers, the only thing that would alleviate my acute attacks of anxiety was to go to a bookstore or library. Surrounding myself with books had a calming effect on me that was better and more positive than anything else I tried at the time -- including alcohol or prescriptions. During that time, I looked a lot like this well-known cartoon.
So, to quote the cliched statement that "books saved my life" is pretty significant for me.
To be practical, yes, it would be cool to have a device that makes text appear like magic and could be blown up to readable fonts when I forget my reading glasses. I am not saying new media text is bad -- and for many it is better -- but for some of us -- the "old way" is always going to be relevant or comfortable for us in ways that run much deeper than the opinion that we just need to get on the new media bandwagon.
But to recognize my own comfort levels with text only serves to make me realize that I must recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate the many levels of textual materiality in which my students are comfortable. Composing text in new media formats is something I already have my students utilize and I look forward to experimenting with more ways in which to turn student "writers" into student "composers" by unlocking creativity and ability through new media writing and the materiality of varied finished texts -- be they digital or crayon created!
Wysocki wants us to realize that "the materiality of writing might be understood to include social relations -- say, between students and teachers in the writing classroom; relations of rece, gender, class, ethnicity ,sexual orientation, generation, and region, among others within the classroom and/or the larger social realm . . ." This to me means that we cannot divorce ourselves from who we are as a person from who we are as writers and readers and teachers. So, it follows that we cannot expect our students to write or read or react to text or the materiality of text the same way we do or even the way the student next to them does. We all need to be comfortable "living" in the "materiality" of our words.
That being said, I spent an hour on Amazon. com last weekend doing searches for old, out of print books that I might want to buy someday and "preserve" in my collection. It had a familiar calming affect in the midst of the busy-ness of my weekend. Enjoying the experience of Amazon's virtual library of books may not be quite the same as surrounding myself with them in a building -- but it is a step in the right direction for me in opening my mind to new possibilites.
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