A Better Pencil Readers, Writers, and The Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron

A Better Pencil Readers, Writers, and The Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron

Dennis Baron is a professor of linguistics at the University of Illinois. He is writing about how technology expands and creates new varieties of communications. He includes his own experiences with early computers, Wordstar, and word processors. He is writing about the history of technology from the point of a social scientist.

He starts with what it means to transition from an oral culture to one where everything is written down. I liked Plato's idea that writing everything down limits memory. Written records started as a means to record business transactions.

In succession we learn about the development of writing tools and methods; pencils, clay tablets, handwriting, typewriters, early wordprocessors and computers, and the modern digital revolution are covered. In each section there are interesting anecdotes. Henry David Thoreau designed lead pencils. Pencils are still the most used writing implement.

There is a theme that each successive generation of communication technology expands the variety and amount of communication that occurs between people. It does not necessarily improve the quality of communication or education. More people are reading and writing, not necessarily writing better things. Another analogy is the move from the letter to the telegraph to the telephone. There is more communication with more people. Is it better?

If we think of the Google Books Project for example, the objective is to make all the books in a number of universities and libraries available to the public. Because the book is in the library it must have some value and be scanned into a database. Initially the goal is to push all the information into one place. The attempt to organize and clean the data was not the first priority. The idea is that it is a good thing to have everything available. There are benefits and drawbacks to this approach.

Dennis Baron includes arguments for and against the advancement of writing technology. He argues that digital technology is another step in a continuous line of progress from the pencil to the typewriter to the computer. Is it good that everyone can now be an author? Are face pages like myspace and facebook safe places for people to communicate? Is Wikipedia a reliable source of information? We get a sense that how we choose to use the technology is as important as the technology itself.

A Better Pencil includes many illustrations, black and white photographs, and anecdotes. He quotes many different people including Plato, Sartre, Thoreau, Shakespeare, and many others. There is an extensive index and notes. The book is easy to read, well laid out, and entertaining. If you are interested in the history of the written word, this is well worth reading.

Daily Thoughts 4/1/2010

The keyboard of a writing ball, seen from above. Rasmus Malling-Hansen inveted this writingmachine in 1865. Also called the Hansen writing ball.

Daily Thoughts 4/1/2010

I read some more of A Better Pencil on the way to see the dentist this morning. There is quite a bit of interesting material. Dennis Baron describes the experience of writing in clay tablets telling us that no tablet comes out the same and that they are often quite hard to read. He describes his early experiences using Wordstar one of the first word processors as well.

I especially like Dennis Baron's commentary on how as early as Gutenberg, people chose the author and publisher over the format of the writing. It did not matter so much that a book was printed on papyrus, vellum, or paper, the content was what was important to people. What Gutenberg did was make the content more available to people. The main detraction was that vellum and papyrus lasted over a thousand years leaving a more permanent record. Even in the 15th century "content was king."

This idea still has relevance to us today. It is the content that matters. The package is more of a convenience and a preference of tools than a necessity. There are benefits to printed works on paper as well as electronic works. I think there will be less paper books, but those that are printed will be better laid out, have higher quality paper, as well as better illustration to compete with digital books. They also will be printed more quickly, be more easily recyclable, and be easier to get. At least, this is my hope. Ebooks will make many more books available to people. This is especially true for books that are creative commons or no longer under copyright. Both the ebook market and the print on demand market are the two fastest growing segment of the publishing world.

I had a chance to stop by the library after my dental visit where I work to pick up two more books, Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran, and The Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick which is a fantasy novel.

Daily Thoughts 3/31/2010

John Hancock's Signature from The Declaration of Independence, United States, 1776

Daily Thoughts 3/31/2010

I am reading the chapter in A Better Pencil on handwriting. Schools are removing handwriting from the curriculum and going from printing to writing on a keyboard. I am a bit disappointed. I think of handwriting as an art form. It teaches that words are a form of art to be respected. I think the quality of the language will degrade when handwriting is removed from the curriculum. It is not that necesary in practical terms, but not everything is about being practical. Handwriting teaches focus and admiration for language.

I am vacation right now. I took a little break from reading and watched some Battlestar Galactica Season 4.0 on my computer. I have my new earbuds plugged in right now. It is a nice break from reading.

Daily Thoughts 3/30/2010

The Bookman, Thompson, Ruth Plumly: "The Gnome King of Oz." (1927)

Daily Thoughts 3/30/2010

I went to my local library this morning, but did not find anything which I wanted to read. I also took a bit of time to go to Target. I noticed that Target has a book club section. Publishers are starting to produce books specifically for reading groups. These usually include a set of questions after each chapter about what people are reading.

Almost everything there is bestsellers with some new authors. They have some cookbooks, pregnancy books, diet books, a self help section, and teen bestsellers as well. It is a way to see what popular titles people are reading. A few titles that looked interesting are Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and Nefertiti by Michelle Moran.

I learned that Thoreau designed pencils while reading A Better Pencil. The pencil is the premiere writing instrument. It is cheap, ubiquitous, easy to distribute and used all over the world. I prefer pens personally, but if you are looking for the most prevalent writing technology, it is the pencil.