The topic of Professor Hayles's lecture was a new concept to me, as I have never taken the time to think about the impact of new technology and digital media on printed texts. As Professor Hayle illustrated to us through several examples, some innovations to the print novel can be compared to some of the characterisitics of electronic textuality. The two main characteristics that I understood to be in connection with the books she used as examples were layered architecture and time delays. I really had no idea that books like Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Danielewski's House of Leaves, with their bleeding texts and codes, were out there. I think the main thing that I learned from Professor Hayles's lecture is that literature can be interpreted through more than just the actual words themselves and that the print novel can be a form of art.

Dr. Tatter's post raised some interesting questions about the significance of the encoder and decoder that I had not thought about during the lecture. However, I see how they do apply to the short stories we have read. If you stop to think about it, it seems accurate to say that different races encode and decode differently, as a result of past stereotypes and racial tensions. I think Sylvia associated the fur coat and stockings with a white person because she did not normally see them. However, the fur coat and stockings in my opinion could be more accurately described as a difference in class or wealth. I think that it is therefore important while encoding and decoding to keep in mind that all people have different perspectives and backgrounds, even when it does not pertain to race. Since I have been at college and therefore placed in new surroundings, I think that I have become more aware of this. While I realize that there are different encoders and decoders for men and women, I think these are less obvious.

The lecture by Professor Katherine Hayles introduced me to things I have never thought about. Growing up dependent upon computers and cell phones, I never would have recognized that print literature has become more and more uncommon becuase of the digital age. Looking at the excerpts from the novels she presented were fascinating and also new ideas. The authors playing around with codes, is something I have never seen, or probably just never noticed.

As Dr. Tatter mentions in his post there is disconnect between the sender and reciever (encoder and decoder) that become issues in race relations. I believe this is because everyone comes from different walks of life, therefore leaving them with a different perspective on issues such as the Confederate Flag or for instance Sylvia's view of the woman on fifth avenue. Some may think the Confederate Flag represents their heritage possibly because their family member faught in the war. On the other hand, someone who's family member was a slave may view the flag as a horrible reminder of that time. Each viewpoint is a result of different viewpoints and perspectives. I believe decoding and encoding between different groups of people whether it be sexes, race, or religion may never be on the same page, because each group will interpret or decode things differently than others. However, recognizing these differences in encoding and decoding among groups and respecting those differences will be the step to bridging that communication gap between groups.

I was intrigued by Professor Hayes presentation of technology in our print. I was fascinated by the numbers in the book about the father who lost his son during 9/11. I would have never thought of putting numbers into a book and trying to reference them to the corresponding letters on the phone. This coding and decoding scenario is a tool that plays roles not just in the technological since, but in the short stories that we have read in class. For me, I found the realtionship between the code discovery for Sylvia when she entered Manhattan. She was in a "new system" so to speak, and the coding was a different language to her. FAO Schwartz and the lady with the fur coat, were all elements that were out of her boundries, and therefore prohibited her from digestion of these new found elements.
I also found a relationship between The Working Poor and myself. In the story, I had to place myself in their situations and see how their daily life was a consistant struggle. When you have never been witnessed to the things that these families had faced, it takes some "decoding" shall I see to grapple what they go through. To relate in technological terms, if someone has never been on the computer then they are not quite sure how to operate it. In the same respect, I can say that because I have never been poverished to that level that it takes some sort of analysis to comprehend what the poverished familes face in daily life.

When I read the title of this cultural credit, "The Changing Form of the Print Novel," I was worried that it was going to be a very boring presentation. However, the lecture appealed to me in two ways. First, I found the examples that she used from the book very interesting and cool, for lack of a better word. When talking about the book People of Paper, Hayles showed us an example of the new kind of technology that is being used in the print novel when she showed us the passage where instead of the new boyfriend's name, there were holes there. In addition, the example that she showed where the boy is telling the story to his grandfather about his father calling and him not answering was very cool. The words started to bleed on the page and run together to the point that they could no longer be read. To me, this helped to show that the print novel is capable of so much; a great deal more than I originally thought. What I found most fascinating in her examples however was the last example that she showed. It was from the book House of Leaves, and it was the flipbook at the end of the novel that shows a man falling up the Twin Towers instead of down. It never occured to me that this could be done in the print novel. Hayles mentioned that a woman named Kathleen Fitzpatrick was worried that the print novel was becoming obsolete. Her slideshow made me wonder how anyone could not read a book like a House of Leaves and not be intrigued of what is possible in literature these days. Unfortunately, I didn't really pick up on the coding and decoding that Dr. Tatter writes about. But I can understand what he is saying about how some people can understand a code while others can't. For example, he mentioned the Confederate Flag. To some people, it is just a flag, a symbol of the south and southern pride. To others it is insulting and represents slavery. Maybe the person who believes the former cannot understand how the Confederate Flag is offensive to others, and vice versa. But anyway, I really enjoyed this cultural credit.

Professor Hayles’ lecture contained a topic that I had not thought much of. She talked about how the digital age has more or less taken over the print age. In this day and age, it is not uncommon to find newspapers, magazines, or even books online or on the computer. Paper seems to be an object of the past. She also drew a connection between digital and print. She said that without computers we could not have books and without books we could not have computers. The examples that Professor Hayles provided to grasp the concept of deeper meanings were very helpful in understanding her message. In one book, the lines and words came closer together as to provide the fact that the character was jumbled in his thoughts and very confused. Another book showed a person who was “talking” on the phone through punching in numbers for letters. Professor Hayles’ examples helped me to think of hidden meanings behind Professor Tatter’s examples. I think that the Confederate Battle Flag hides the opinions of those that hold it. Waving the flag gives that person pride without presenting any type of “real” opinion or words that people say. I think the woman with the fur coat and stockings provides a vision for Sylvia of something that she will never be, only someone that she can be jealous of. Inside Sylvia’s vision is something that she will never be, but that is not spoken or even thought of. If a member of the KKK uses the word American, he might only mean a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. No other race, background, or religion could be “American” to a member of the KKK. But to people of other races, an American could be anyone that lives in America, no matter what their race or religion may be. I think that men and women will never get each other because they choose not to. They could choose to tell the truth and understand it, but they don’t; they choose to tell the truth in hopes of the opposite sex knowing what they mean. Whatever they say usually has a deeper, hidden meaning contained in what they are actually saying.

This presentation was very interesting to me because it showed me a new form of the print novel. All that we ever seem to study and read are "plain" books full of sentences and chapters. The concept of numbers and codes and flip books in a book has never occurred to me. I was amazed at the creativity that these authors have. Innovation is constantly occuring in the digital media. I never knew that so much was going on with printed literature. The book with the name cut out of every page that it was printed on must have been a very tedious project. The coding of the phone numbers and the binary language of the mechanical toy are ideas that are so foreign, I am jealous that I could not have thought up such a thing.

Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a book that I really want to read. It really hit home to me. The cutting out of the cell phone on the answering maching is something that happens to me and it really made me think: if I am in that situation, what are the words that I would want to get through the static to my family? The flip book at the end of the son imagining his dad falling up into the building is so stange. We have all seen the real images on television of the people falling down. Up? Impossible. But we can all imagine the father's entire morning in reverse.

While reading The Working Poor, I felt like many of the people were speaking in code. Talking about tax forms and welfare forms and other governmental programs are things that I do not understand. Even some of the problems that occur in their daily lives were incomprehensible. I see an "easy way out." Why do they just do...? But that is not how they view it. That is not the reality of their situation. People themselves are coded. They code what they dont want people to understand about them. Some people can decode other peoples word and actions and others can't. Relationships can help form decoders into peoples live. I think that the service work that we will do this semester will help us to decode some lives and see into the real problems at hand.

Professor Hayles began by stating that "Literature is a verbal art" with "language as center." Little could she have known how well she would prove her point during her common hour presentation. Her own presentation focusing on the printed word and the codes of technology were further tied together by the fact that she presented her verbal argument aided by a power point presentation provided by a P.C., which was further strengthened by the black and white words of three printed novels. This accumulation of language, however, did center on her verbal account of what we were seeing on the screen. Interestingly, in the midst of her presentation the electrical cords that formed the heartstrings of her technological equipment failed her, and the power point presentation that had been stimulating our eyes became black and unfunctional. Thus, Professor Hayles was forced to continue, as language became not only the central source but the soul survivor in the multi-media mix that she had intended to incorporate into her discussion. However, in a few moments time, the power point once again gained power, and her words were again saturated with the presence of technology. As Professor Hayles continued with her planned discussion she began to focus on the potential role technology has to play on the written work. Her presentation confirmed the fact that technology is well-plugged into the written word. Thus, a future medium is the merging of the written word and technology. In this way the paradox that Professor Hayles discussed is explained: "Print is Dead, Long Live Print."

I found Professors Hayles's lecture very hard to understand because I have never been exposed to that before. I guess the most important thing she was trying to say is the way people communicate with each other. I definitley can see when I am trying to explain something, and the other person has no clue what I am talking about. Because it is coming from my mind, I know exactly what I am trying to say.

As for Sylvia, when she and her friends see the woman in a fur coat, they are not sure what the women is trying to communicate. I believe that the woman in the fur coast is trying to communicate that she is wealthy. That is the message I believe that she is trying to give off because why else would she be wearing a fur coat in the middle of summer? If she is not wealthy, she is simply trying to make herself look that way.

When it comes to men and women, I do believe that there is a significant difference in the way that each gender communicates. Men and women think differently so they would communicate in different ways. That is why men think women are so hard to get along with...

This lecture was very interesting to me. I have never heard of literature being portrayed that way before. I looked at the pieces as an attempt to create another medium of visual artwork, in addition to creating a work of literature. The way the authors composed their literature just reminded me of the same techniques that a painter or a designer use to create visual art. I thought it was very innovative and intriguing.

I'm sorry to say that this lecture did not interest me as much as it did Dr. Tatter. I was fascinated by the books that Professor Hayle presented as examples, although I believe that I would find it quite frustrating to try to decode some of the messages. I also sympathized with her when she spoke of the growing fear that the print novel will become obsolete. It is hard for me to believe that everything has become so technological. When I was younger, I was always reading, and I feel that it would be inconvenient almost if the print novel did one day become obsolete.