CAS 101
Literary Technologies:
The Internet and the Printing Press
Spring 2001

Kenneth C. Thompson

Roger Lathbury

Office:  Robinson A 401A

Office:  Robinson A 479

Office Phone:  703-993-2781

Office Phone:  703-993-1189

Office Hours:  TR, 11:00-12:00

Office Hours:  TR, 11:00-12:00
mailto:kthomps4@gmu.edu mailto:lathbury@gmu.edu

Course Web Page:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/ipp.s01.htm

REQUIRED TEXTS: 

RULES, REMARKS, CROTCHETS:

The purpose of this course is to encourage you to think about writing, texts, and literature in both usual and new ways.  The usual ways one you have heard about elsewhere: The class will try to further your ability to read carefully and profoundly and to write the same way.  Most readers find writing that is lucid, informed, precise, and shapely more informing and pleasurable than writing that is obscure, ignorant, inexact, and chaotic. You will produce three essays, the last one longer than the first two, during the first half of the semester; they should be as close to the products of a professional writer as you can make them.  The first half of many classes will be devoted to reading and writing from this customary perspective.  The second half, however, will be devoted to writing from another, less usual angle. It concerns the way texts are written, edited, made, and purveyed. For this purpose you will, during the first half of the semester, read a book on books by Henry Petroski and write about Shakespeare's Hamlet, which you are reading in a class by Professor Tacuich. This part of the class should help you connect the increasing use of technology to the cultural traditions of the past, to make you conscious of the links and occasional disjunctions between medium and message.  In the second half of the course you will prepare for a project on hypertext literature by learning about the history of information technology.  You will write two essays and take two exams and--in keeping with the subject of the latter part of the course--have the option of handing in your final essay electronically. 

We will enforce three rules with unamicable rigor: (1) In order to complete this course and get a grade above F, you must do all the assignments.  You must turn in all the written work and take all in-class writing tests, including the final. (2) We will exact penalties for late papers by reducing your grade one whole grade per class period missed (B becomes C, then D, etc. A paper more than three classes late fails.) (3) Under no circumstances will we accept written work after the date for the succeeding written assignment. You may not give us two (or more) papers at once; you may not turn in a paper until you have picked up the previous one and you may not pick up a paper in the same class as you give us one; we will not accept papers at the final. We have more than our convenience in mind; you do not benefit from comments if you cannot apply them on succeeding assignments.

PART I:  THE PRINTING PRESS

DATE

 ASSIGNMENTS (Hamlet)

ASSIGNMENTS (Printing)

Tue
Jan 16

 Overview of class and plagiarism lecture  
Thur
Jan 18 		Hamlet, Act I, Scene I.

Memorization of lines handed out in class one. 
You will be responsible for these lines any time
in the first fifteen weeks; if you take another course 
from me, Roger Lathbury, you will also still be 
responsible for them 		Lecture on texts before printing
Tue
Jan 23 		Hamlet, Act I, Scene I, continued The Book on the Bookshelf: Chapter One:
``Books on Bookshelves,'' p. 3-23
Thur
Jan 25 		Hamlet, Act I, Scene II.
 The Book on the Bookshelf: Chapter Two: 
``From Scrolls to Codicils,'' p. 24-39
Tue
Jan 30 		In class paragraph on Hamlet
Act I, Scenes III-V. 		The Book on the Bookshelf: Chapter Three:
``Chests, Cloisters and Carrels,'' p. 40-54
Thur
Feb 1 		Hamlet, Act II
 The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Four: ``Chained to the Desk,'' p. 55-74
Tue
Feb 6 		Paper due on one line of Hamlet not 
discussed in class (750 words minimum). 
Each person will be assigned a different line

Hamlet, Act III, Scenes I and II 		The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Five: ``The Press of Books,'' p.74-99

Lecture on typesetting and typography
Thur
Feb 8 		Hamlet, Act III, remainder of act The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Six: ``Studying Studies,'' p. 100-128
Tue
Feb 13 		In class paragraph

Sample essay for 6-8 page paper
due on March 1 		 
Thur
Feb 15 		Hamlet, Act IV

 The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Seven: ``Up Against the Wall,'' p. 129-145

Lecture on different methods of printing: letterpress, 
offset, engraving, xerography
Tue
Feb 20 		Hamlet, Act V, Scene I The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Eight: ``Books and Bookshops,'' p. 146-166
Thur
Feb 22 		Hamlet, Act V, Scene II

Paper due: How would you stage Act ...?
What cut and why? Topic subject to modification

The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Nine: ``Book stack Engineering,'' p. 167-191

 

Tue
Feb 27 		Explanation of mid-semester (longer) project.
Sample paper handed out based on Hamlet's 
first soliloquy, with textual choices adumbrated
and justified 		The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Ten: ``Shelves That Move,'' p. 192-214

Lecture on binding.

Thur
Mar 1 		Mid-semester project: present the three texts
of ``To be or not to be'' (or another part of
the play, depending) and then present your
version, explaining in detail why you opted
for the choices you did. Paper should be 6-8
double-spaced typed pages, exclusive of the
reproduced text 		The Book on the Bookshelf: 
Chapter Eleven: ``The Care of Books'' p. 215-231

 

PART II:  COMPUTING, THE INTERNET AND HYPERTEXT

DATE

REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS

SUGGESTED ASSIGNMENTS

Tue     Mar  13

Literary Technologies:  READ Baron, From Pencils to Pixels, available online at
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/
baron/aitg/pencils.htm. 

The Net as media:  READ Naughton, A Brief History of the Future, pp. 3-12. 

Look at the Brief History web page, http://www.briefhistory.com/index.htm

Thur    Mar 15

Computing in the 19th century:  READ Campbell-Kelly, Computer, pp. 9-28. 

Computing in the 1940s:  READ Campbell-Kelly, 79-99. 

Look at the images of early computers at 
http://ftp.arl.army.mil/ftp/historic-computers/. 

Explore the Virginia Tech History of Computing site at http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/index.html. 

Tue     Mar  20

Interactive computing:  READ Campbell-Kelly, pp. 207-213. 

The PC:  READ Campbell-Kelly, pp. 233-240. 

 

Thur    Mar  22

Watch Englbart’s 1968 demonstration of interactive computing, available online at
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/
1968Demo.html

Mar 23rd—INCOMPLETE WORK DUE FALL 2000

  

Tue     Mar  27

Exam #1 on the history of computing

 

Thur    Mar  29

Information management, the Internet and the Web:  READ Campbell-Kelly, pp. 284-298. 

Origins of the Internet:  READ Naughton, pp. 49-76

Listen to the interview with Naughton at http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/
460000/audio/_462435_naughton.ram
Fri 
Mar 30 		Smithsonian Visit:  meet at the information booth on the mall side of the Museum of American History at noon or at the Vienna Metro at 11am.  

For Tuesday, April 3rd write 500 words (typed) describing five objects or processes you saw at the Information Technology exhibit on the 1st floor covered in Naughton and Campbell-Kelly

  

Tue     Apr 3 

ARPA, distributed communication, and packet switching:  READ Naughton, pp. 77-109. 

 Watch The Internet:  Behind the Web in class

Thur    Apr 5

Network interconnection and TCP/IP: 
READ Naughton, pp. 151-167. 

Study Chroma, available at:
http://marrowmonkey.com/chroma

and Little Red Riding Hood, available at:  
http://www.6amhoover.com./index_flash.htm

Tue     Apr 10

The idea of information management in Bush and Nelson: 
READ Naughton, pp. 209-228.

For the idea of information management in Vannevar Bush, READ As We May Think, available online at
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/
flashbks/computer/bushf.htm

For Ted Nelson, study his home page at
http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/

STUDY the Feed Magazine piece on Ted Nelson at http://www.feedmag.com/html/
document/98.02nelson/intro.html. 

READ the article on Nelson at
http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin
/archive/98/dec98/xanadu.html

 

Thur    Apr 12

Tools for information management at CERN and NCSA:
READ Naughton, pp.  229-245

Commercialization and open architecture:
READ Naughton, pp. 264-277. 

READ Berners-Lee’s CERN proposal, available online at http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html

WATCH Lawrence Lessig’s talk at the IPEF at
http://www.ipef.org/events/ipef2000/webcast.asp

Tue     Apr 17

Hypertext Literature Workshop on the 4th floor of Enterprise Hall 

Hypertext
Eastgate Systems: The site for "serious hypertext"

Stuart Moulthrop

Deena Larsen

Thur    Apr  19

Hypertext Literature Workshop on the 4th floor of Enterprise Hall 

 

Tue     Apr  24

Work on final project

In-class presentations of hypertext projects and discussion of interview with Stuart Moulthrop available at:
http://www.washingtonreview.com/moulthrop.htm

 Look at the Corcoran Gallery's Media/Metaphor exhibition, available at:  http://www.corcoran.org/Biennial/HOME/index.asp 

Thur    Apr  26

Final project due:  
See http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/ipp_dual.htm
for the assignment

In-class presentations of hypertext projects and presentation by Maryam Kasmai of her digital art work and discussion of the Art and Visual Technologies program.   

April 30th–LAST DAY OF CLASSES

Look at Maryam Kasmai's digital art at:  http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/HumenSW.gif 

(See also T.S. Eliiot's The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock at
http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/Pruf.htm) and Botticelli's 
The Birth of Venus available at:  
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/botticelli/
venus/venus.jpg

 

http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/Visitor3.gif 

(See also Carolyn Forche's The Visitor at
http://student.monterey.edu/dh/deanjustinec
/world/poems/war2.htm)

 

Tue     May 8

7:30-10:15am--Exam #2 on the development of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the printing press.  An advance copy of the exam is available at:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/FinalCAS101.htm