Original_To:  BITNET%"mbu-l@ttuvm1.bitnet"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Date:         Thu, 12 Nov 1992 06:30:00 EDT
From:         "Composition Digest (Robert Royar,
              Moderator)" <R0MILL01@ULKYVX.BITNET>
Subject:      (Fwd: *C&CD*) IBM, "Ulysses," and "Illuminated Books and MS" (13)

Entry: 13
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 18:34:38 -0800 (PST)
From: Gardner Campbell <Campbell@usdcsv.acusd.edu>
Subject: IBM, "Ulysses," and "Illuminated Books and MS" (13)
Message-id: <921111183438.1367@USDCSV.ACUSD.EDU>
Reply-to: Computers & Composition Digest (R. Royar) <R0MILL01@ULKYVX.BITNET>

I'm glad to see a few folks speaking favorably of
IBM's "Ulysses."  It ain't just another blackboard,
that's for sure ... that is, if and only if it is
seen in its widest context, a context that the Big
Blue Salespeople don't usually make available,
unfortunately (they are salesfolk, not literati).
What is this context?  Well, "Ulysses" is *one component*
of a larger package called "Illuminated Books and
Manuscripts"; the other four "illuminated books"
in the package are "Letters from a Birmingham Jail,"
*Hamlet*, "The Declaration of Independence," and
*Black Elk Speaks*.

But the context doesn't stop there.  I am addicted
(via Bakhtin and Ong) to the notion of writing
as voice.  What better way to realize that notion
than in the *performances* available as *glosses*
on the words in this package?  When I think of
five *different* performances of "Ulysses" available
to the student, who might then be invited to
consider the interpretative choices and consequences
inherent in lyric (or any verbal, for that matter)
performance, I say wow.  This kind of vocalization
is *precisely* what I labor long to get my students
to do for themselves.  If they can watch and listen
as five agile readers have a go, then think about
what they've witnessed, they might crack the code
themselves.  At least they'd have more help than my
dulcet tones alone.

And there's more, the REAL beauty part.  Here's where
my eyes roll back in my head and I become dizzy with
possibilities.  "Illuminated Books and Manuscripts"
comes with all of Shakespeare, all of the Bible--as
the flyer says, "over 90 additional works ... for you
to illuminate your own books and manuscripts."
What the students can learn to imitate, in short, is
not simply the authoritative voice (although that's
certainly a skill worth learning), but the acquisition
and constitution of authority.  Put another way,
the students can, by illuminating their own books,
learn that this IS a conversation and that THEY can
join in.  And since the conversation is sparked by
and returns to print, after all, the multimedia daemons
have (I think) a better chance of serving wisdom than
hijacking it with what could be only more TV.

IBM isn't sure how to do this--YET--but it should
be possible now to capture full-motion video of
*student* performances, *student* readings, *student*
"talking head" authorities, and add them to the
illuminations as well.

Yes, IBM (and any such company, although that one's
the mother of 'em all) can come across very glitzy
and brain-dead when they trot out their new
gee-whiz "educational" material.  The demo I saw was, uh,
competent but fairly innocent of any profound implications,
to put it gently.  But I do believe the authoring system
built into "Illuminated Books and Manuscripts" is
a wonderfully exciting tool, and I can't wait to get
my hands on it.

Truth to tell, I'd have plenty of fun anyway:  I
love wandering through "Ulysses" and finding out
about everything from Tennyson to syllepsis to
Homer to the dramatic monologue, all by clicking away
as the Muse directs.  But the authoring system lets
me respond to the Muse with my own multimedia "scribbling,"
as it were.  At last, a way to merge highlighters AND
creative, informed marginalia.  A deluxe edition indeed.

Sorry for the wind.

Gardner
Campbell@usdcsv.acusd.edu
Campbell@acusd.bitnet

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