Computing As Writing - Softcover

Punday, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816697027 ISBN 13: 9780816697021

Verlag: University of Minnesota Press, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

This book examines the common metaphor that equates computing and writing, tracing it from the naming of devices (“notebook” computers) through the design of user interfaces (the “desktop”) to how we describe the work of programmers (“writing” code). Computing as Writing ponders both the implications and contradictions of the metaphor.

During the past decade, analysis of digital media honed its focus on particular hardware and software platforms. Daniel Punday argues that scholars should, instead, embrace both the power and the fuzziness of the writing metaphor as it relates to computing—which isn’t simply a set of techniques or a collection of technologies but also an idea that resonates throughout contemporary culture. He addresses a wide array of subjects, including film representations of computing (Desk Set, The Social Network), Neal Stephenson’s famous open source manifesto, J. K. Rowling’s legal battle with a fan site, the sorting of digital libraries, subscription services like Netflix, and the Apple versus Google debate over openness in computing.

Punday shows how contemporary authors are caught between traditional notions of writerly authority and computing’s emphasis on doing things with writing. What does it mean to be a writer today? Is writing code for an app equivalent to writing a novel? Should we change how we teach writing? Punday’s answers to these questions and others are original and refreshing, and push the study of digital media in productive new directions.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Daniel Punday is professor of English at Purdue University Calumet. He is the author of several books, including Five Strands of Fictionality: The Institutional Construction of Contemporary American Fiction and Writing at the Limit: The Novel in the New Media Ecology.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Minnesota Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0816697027
• ISBN 13: 9780816697021
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 179
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande