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I’m rereading Chapter 5 of Elizabeth Eisenstein’s The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, the abridged (and illustrated) version of her classic two-volume study of the printing press. I’ve always been struck by the way in which printing–mass distribution—helped to foment revolutionary thought during the Reformation. Eisenstein calls it a “movement that was shaped at the very outset (and in large part ushered in) by the new powers of the press (page 148).” And she points out that between 1517 and 1520, Luther’s 30 publications sold more than 300,000 copies. More generally, making new ideas accessible pretty clearly promoted individual learning and individual critical thought.

But Eisenstein argues that the ability to create fixed and uniform copies of books was counter-revolutionary as well. Printing identical copies makes for authorized texts and authorized ideas, religious and otherwise. These authorized texts get preserved, canonized and studied. So making ideas fixed subverted individuality.

What’s striking about the tension that Eisenstein documents is the likelihood that it has been repeated by other media technologies (newspapers, radio, movies, television) and is being repeated now by the internet and social media tools. Big new ideas spread quickly. But do they soon settle down to conventional wisdom? Are search and social media both creating revolution (think North Africa and Wikileaks) and conformity (think groupthink, repurposed content, and unsearchable ideas)?

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Blackstone Audio’s business philosophy raises a major concern with me, not just about their company but about similar businesses. There is a large range of people in the United States from those who have the most modern technologies and those who not only have little or no computer based technology but are also barely educated and barely literate. Most people in the publishing market struggle to understand that those who are in the front seat of e-publishing and digital technologies are a minority in the United States. E-publishing is in an anachronistic space where we’re attempting to perfect digital literature (i.e. hdread.com) when only a small portion of Americans have the capability to access and own those technologies.

Class rooms are the perfect example, every child should have a tablet PC, which is in the $300-$800 range, and be taught how to use it, but it isn’t a realistic demand in any sense. Some publishing companies, like Blackstone, must be assuming that changing the market to all digital will force parents and consumers to make the investment to have the right technology, but it will take many generations to isolate the distribution of the written word to the cloud. I don’t disagree with companies for wanting to be at the peak of digital publishing capabilities, I’m disappointed as an educator that there is so little support of most companies in taking action to bridge the gap between the barely literature population, a good portion who do not even own desktop PC’s, and the technology that is threatening to make literature and published works even less accessible.

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After listening to guest speaker Jennifer Margulis’s presentation, I realized what a great opportunities freelance writing can bring about. Her experience of traveling to Niger to document the story of the giraffes for the Smithsonian was inspiring. There doesn’t seem to be much security in freelance writing, but I believe writers are at their best when writing on  topics they’re passionate about.

Margulis listed the five elements of writing (strong characters, narrative arc, tension/drama, dialogue, character growth) and I never considered how these five could apply to non-fiction or technical writing, as they are generally guidelines for fiction. However, it makes perfect sense. Any good piece of writing, whether it be a newspaper article or a short story, includes these five elements.

I am considering researching the history of travel writing or perhaps a specific travel writer for my paper. I haven’t begun to look for resources, but I imagine they won’t be too difficult to find.

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Thus far, the guest speakers from Blackstone Audio, Craig Black and Rick Bleiweiss, have been the most interesting to me.  I was especially struck by the software they showed our class that both reads to you, highlights the word the narrator is reading, and allows the reader to follow along as if reading a traditional book.  While these features by themselves do not make a remarkable product, the combination of the three seems to be a winner.  This product has exciting possibilities for students – it brings an entirely new way to learn to the table.  In the future, instead of simply reading our textbooks, we will also be listening to them.  Consequently, increasing the amount of the material retained and making for a new way to learn and study.

Another topic brought up during Craig and Rick’s visit to our class was the impact audio books and ebooks may have on print publishing.  Will our mom-and-pop bookstores be in danger of closing?  Personally, I doubt that electronic publishing and audio books will wipe out the paper book.  What it comes down to is the preference of the individual.  I prefer hard copies of books while someone else may prefer audio books.  To each their own, I say.  I am just glad that the advent of ereaders has engaged a whole new audience in reading.