The Harmless Yank Hobby

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 12/06/2006:

> Anyway,  one might as well say that the internet is alot like 
> reading...  but different.

I think it's fair enough to note that the types of references and 
allusions used in literary texts are similar to hyperlinks on the 
Internet. I can't see any problem with that at all. They've both been 
placed into a text by an author for a reader to follow (or not).

What's very different to reading those references and allusions (or 
hyperlinks) which an author has inserted into his or her text is web 
surfing, where a reader digresses from one topic (or text) to another 
on a whim (or for whatever reason). It's the difference between 
reading, interpreting, and discussing GR, say, and being subjected to a 
regular Friday night slideshow entitled 'My Pynchonian Camping Holiday 
to the Adirondacks'.

Most would agree, I think, that there is a difference between saying 
that x in Pynchon's novel is a reference to y, and saying that x in 
Pynchon's novel reminded me of y. Both are valid responses, are more or 
less relevant in different contexts, and can of course lead back and 
forth from the one to the other. But they are not the same thing, and 
trying to elide the difference between the two is just plain wrong, in 
my opinion.

best