The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
b-side
Thursday, March 22, 2018 — 3B
There’s no doubt we are
living in an age of screens, and
books have not been spared in
the relentless transfer of text
to electronic devices. Is this a
bad thing? How have writers
grappled
with
the
impacts
of
technology
on
human
connection,
communication
and interaction?
Sweetland lecturer Simone
Sessolo studies how technology
shapes the way we write and
think. His take on digital media
is refreshingly nuanced.
“Let’s not start by being
evaluative,”
said
Sessolo.
“Let’s start by observing and
describing.”
The software of e-reading
is perhaps more important to
consider than the hardware.
E-readers have become less
popular in recent years; apps
that users can download on
their phones and computers are
more convenient and usually
free, even when the content
itself is not.
“There’s
an
enhanced
attention
to
multimodality,”
Sessolo explained.
Technology
means
there
is no longer an inexorable
connection between object and
content. Sessolo held up a book
and demonstrated, explaining
he could read that book on his
laptop, his phone or an e-reader.
The physical book, once central
to obtaining knowledge, is now
one of many means through
which readers and writers can
communicate.
The relocation of print books
to digital mediums does mean
something is lost, however.
The Daily chatted with English
Professor Joshua Miller, and
he described an experience
that, for him, reinforced the
possibility for connection and
coincidence that physical books
allow.
“I had this very strange
experience
in
college
that
I
think
probably
can’t
be
reproduced anymore,” Miller
said. “I was in the library,
browsing through the stacks.
I just randomly picked up a
novel, and I decided to take it
to the checkout desk. I was on
the way there and the old call
slip card fell out of the book
so I reached down to pick it
up — and there was my father’s
name, in his handwriting, from
when he was a graduate student
20 years earlier. That’s the kind
of thing that won’t happen once
we’re fully digital.”
Miller, though enthusiastic
about
the
possibilities
for
creativity
that
technology
allows,
still
has
some
reservations.
“One thing that I think gets
lost a little bit is the book as a
curated object,” Miller said.
“The publisher and the editors
— and the author, if they’re
lucky — get to make decisions
about how the book comes
together — in terms of a unique
font, hardcover or softcover,
creative typography, whether
or not to include drawings or
images, the texture of the paper,
how raised or how smooth and
matte or glossy. That doesn’t
always happen with digital
material.”
Miller is also a margin-note
enthusiast.
“All of the books I have on
my bookshelves I keep in part
because they have my notes in
them. As a piece of technology,
the paper book is very good at
storing
information,”
Miller
said. “That data doesn’t get
lost unless I lose the book,
and no digital format has fully
succeeded in convincing me I
can reproduce that.”
Miller continued to clarify
his use of reading technology.
“I think we’re all still figuring
out what (e-readers) can and
can’t do,” Miller explained. “I
do have some concerns about
the shift from analog to digital
and what it means. We lose a lot
when we give up the material
book.”
Still, Miller isn’t by any
means
opposed
to
new
technologies.
“I use screen reading apps,
and I love them. It allows me to
buy a book and read it quickly,
so that’s really helpful … there’s
a lot of benefits to it,” Miller
said. “I’m excited about the
opportunities and possibilities
of new technologies, and I’m
trying to distinguish between
the changes that feel profound
to me and the changes that feel
incremental — and determine
what I think about each of those
different kinds of changes,
because both are there.”
Another important aspect of
reading technology is the issues
it raises regarding accessibility.
Sessolo noted in many ways,
technology has broken down
barriers between writers and
readers and thus democratized
access to books. Those who
don’t
live
near
bookstores
or libraries and people with
various
disabilities
clearly
benefit from the ability to read
using a screen; however, while
technology has the potential
to radically improve access
to written material, it’s also
important
to
consider
the
price
of
technology,
which
can exclude those who cannot
afford to buy e-books, e-readers
or other devices.
“Technology in and of itself
is not enough,” Sessolo said.
While
technology
is
promising
in
many
ways,
working toward economic and
social equality in all aspects
of life is still necessary in
order to fulfill the potential of
alternative reading mediums.
“The thing I’d like people
to consider is that democracy
only exists in action,” Sessolo
explained. “To democratize the
experience of new technology,
get involved with whatever you
can.”
Miller
emphasized
the
importance
of
accessibility
when considering multimedia
works.
“Publishers
are
understandably
concerned
about losing readers who require
accessibility or are sympathetic
to the politics of accessibility,”
Miller
said.
“There’s
class
issues too — writers are often
writing about the precarity
of everyday life and scenes of
crisis, so they want to reach the
widest audience possible and
engage the issues that they’re
describing. They don’t want
to write a novel that can’t be
checked out of the library.”
How have writers addressed
and used technology in their
work?
“I think authors are adjusting
slowly,” Miller said. “There are
some writers who have found
digital platforms and e-books
to be a natural fit or work really
well with pre-existing forms.
Now there’s Twitter fiction and
things like that, but the divide
in technology between turning
books into digital forms and
digitally-born books is still
pretty firm. My guess is that
more and more writers will
figure out how to use these
technologies digitally.”
Associate English Professor
Madhumita Lahiri noted in an
interview with The Daily that
short-form writing lends itself
to incorporating slang, emojis
and abbreviations. The long
publishing process for novels
often means quick cultural
changes
render
words
and
phrases obsolete, even if the
author was innovative a few
years earlier.
“I think it’s easier if you
know it’s going to be published
in the next week,” Lahiri said.
“The thing that’s tricky about
emojis in particular is that
their meanings are extremely
unstable.”
Miller talked about the rise
of
short-form
writing
and
reading apps.
“The number four app in
the book section of the iOS app
store is Hooked,” Miller said.
“It’s a storytelling platform
that allows authors to tell
captivating stories in a really
short form as a series of text
messages.”
Still,
there’s
a
cultural
pushback against shorter forms
of narrative.
“The micro of culture has
been maligned by people who
have said attention spans have
gone down, which I think is
exaggerating a true fact too
much,” Miller explained. “The
shift from a book to a machine
to apps on other devices does
increase
the
likelihood
of
distraction and I think makes
it much harder to stay focused.
On the other hand, I think
the emphasis on short-form
storytelling isn’t necessarily a
bad thing.”
While there are many long-
form novels that interrogate
the
role
of
technology
in
modern life, there are fewer
that
actually
incorporate
technology as part of the
reading experience.
“There are a lot of works
describing
technology
in
relatively analog formats, so I
don’t know when the tipping
point is going to happen and
people are going to figure
out how exactly to make that
work,” Miller said. “There are
definitely people who are using
text language or acronyms —
people are thinking and writing
about speech and language
issues.”
The
ways
technology
has changed language is a
source of cultural anxiety. Is
technology disintegrating the
very foundations of language?
Sessolo
doesn’t
think
so,
particularly because slang isn’t
a 21st century creation.
“We’re talking about these
abbreviations with the feeling
that they’re new,” Sessolo said.
“But if we look into stenography,
that’s what stenographers have
been doing for a long time.”
Combining text with other
media such as photographs or
paintings is also not new. In
fact, the practice goes back
hundreds of years.
“Some pages (of medieval
books) look like the homepage
of a website. People have always
experimented
with
design,”
Sessolo said.
Similarly, the popularity of
serialized narratives harkens
back to earlier trends.
“There’s
a
19th
century
version of serialized fiction that
was published in newspapers or
magazine in chapters and then
only put together as a book
later,” Miller said.
Lahiri echoed this sentiment.
“When the Dickens novel
was a serial, it would come out
on the weekend. You could send
in some comments, and then the
next one came out — whether or
not it was true, people felt that
they had some input,” Lahiri
said. “People have always felt
a certain interactivity with the
fastest media of their day.”
Lahiri
also
stressed
writers have been integrating
technology into literature for a
long time.
“If you back to 18th and
19th century novels, there’s
all this stuff that we don’t
understand that is often about
specific technical devices — a
kind of shoe or a kind of lamp.”
Lahiri said. “When we look
at
technological
references,
there’s a lot more novel-length
fiction about technology than
there is actually incorporating
it. I think that the kinds of
expressions used in texting
would have to work the way
dialect and slang work in
literature in general — it would
have to show us something
particular about that moment.
I wonder if part of it is that
people don’t know what it is
that we would gain from seeing
that on the page.”
Given
the
fast
pace
of
technological
innovation
in the 21st century, this is
certainly an exciting time to
be a reader and a writer. Here
are a few recommendations
for
narratives
and
novels
that incorporate or discuss
technology in unusual and
meaningful ways.
Lauren
Beukes’s
“Broken
Monsters”
(Harper,
2014)
is a Detroit-set thriller that
Technology, ebooks and
new frontiers of narrative
MIRIAM FRANCISCO
Daily Arts Writer
You may know him as Jay
Dee, J Dilla or even his given
name, James Dewitt Yancey,
but there’s no denying that the
man with many monikers was
an undeniable genius. Taking
part in the mid-’90s hip hop
and neo-soul boom that crafted
some of the best music of all
time, the Detroit producer is
responsible for bringing funk to
a new playing field with other
legends like Q-Tip and Dr. Dre.
J Dilla revolutionized the genre
with his incredible take on
the art of sampling, bringing a
human touch to the computer-
generated beats of his era.
His hand in the great music
of the ’90s and early 2000s is
unmistakable;
the
laid-back
groove of Erykah Badu, De La
Soul, The Roots, Slum Village,
A Tribe Called Quest, Common
and many more owe their unique
sound to the collaboration of
Yancey and his singular use of
sampling and drum machines.
Dilla’s influence is found in
almost all of current hip hop,
living on in the remixes and
beats of music mainstays from
Flying Lotus to Kanye West and
the headphones of millions.
Yancey was born in Detroit
in 1974, growing up with his
family’s appreciation for music
and the deep-rooted traditions
of his city. According to his
mother Maureen “Ma Dukes”
Yancey, her son was musical
from a young age, playing with
a Fisher-Price record player for
hours on end and accumulating
his first 45s given to him by
family. This laid the foundation
for an illustrious career as a
producer who changed the hip
hop game, starting with the
formation of his first group,
Slum Village, in the final years
of high school with fellow
Detroit rappers T3 and Baatin.
Their first album Fantastic, Vol.
1 came out in 1996 to critical and
local acclaim.
This was a stepping stone
toward
the
greater
Detroit
hip hop scene, of which he
became a lasting fixture. His
friendship
with
producer
Joseph “Amp” Fiddler created
a
fruitful
mentorship
from
which Dilla mastered digital
production and created his
signature sampling style. From
there, his talent could be seen
on albums like The Pharcyde’s
1995 Labcabincalifornia, which
are still revered today. That
style is what sets him apart
from other producers of his
era — Dilla threw convention
to the wind with everything he
did, learning techniques from
Amp and building off of them
towards an incomparable sound
of his own.
Amp’s influence on a young
Yancey
contributed
to
his
affinity and skill for sampling
and
drum
machines
like
the MPC (MIDI Production
Center) in its earliest 60 and
3000 models, a collaboration
between Roger Linn and Akai
which revolutionized digital
music production by giving
artists the opportunity to use
their own samples in lieu of
preloaded drum sounds like
those of the Linn Drum. In
Dilla’s
last
interview
with
Scratch Magazine before his
untimely death in 2006, the
producer claimed that Amp
encouraged him to learn by use
and not the manual, saying that
“(Amp) was like, ‘I’m not going
to show you to work it. You gotta
learn on your own.’ He was like,
‘Don’t use a book.’ Ever since
this day I never read the books
to samplers and all of that, I just
try to learn them.”
This
on-the-fly
education
gave Dilla a creative edge to
sampling, one of the most
prominent signatures of his
work being his disregard for a
function called quantization,
which snaps beats to a more
uniform grid. Instead of using
quantization
to
polish
his
production, J Dilla embraced
the humanity of music-making
and let the beat take him
where it wanted to go. Roots
drummer Ahmir “Questlove”
Thompson says Dilla’s beat on
The Pharcyde’s song “Bullshit”
produced
the
most
“life-
changing moment he’d ever
had,” which inspired him to
rethink everything he’d been
taught as a drummer. In an
interview with Red Bull Music
Academy, Questlove said that
at first listen, Dilla’s beats
“sounded like the kick drum
was played by like a drunk
three-year-old. And I was like,
‘Are you allowed to do that?’”
This stunned response was
one of many to Dilla’s unique
approach to drums and bass, as
he created a signature low-end
sound that grooves and flows
throughout each of his songs.
His
work
with
production
groups like The Ummah, in
which he worked with A Tribe
Called Quest’s Q-Tip and Ali
Shaheed Muhammad and hip-
hop supergroup Soulquarians.
Dilla’s command of sampling did
not only present in his technical
skill with machines like the
MPC, but also an incredible
knack for sourcing jazz and soul
records and bringing them to
new heights.
This
skill
for
creating
incredibly original music out of
already existing samples is what
put Dilla on the map in the first
place, but also what carries his
legacy into the present. His last
album, Donuts, was released
three days before his death from
a rare blood disease in 2006,
and mostly recorded and mixed
from his hospital room. Despite
the conditions in which it was
produced, Donuts is arguably
J Dilla’s most acclaimed and
celebrated solo album, a stark
example of his skill for creating
instrumental hip hop from
unique sources and influences.
Some
have
argued
Dilla
may
have
been
the
last
great jazz innovator, as his
command and creative affinity
for
imperfection
lifted
his
music to a level beyond his
contemporaries. Whatever one
may think J Dilla stands for
in the history of hip hop and
soul, it’s clear that he was a
revolutionary figure who truly
shifted how people thought
about production. Dilla’s use of
technology to further his art
is proof of hip hop’s reliance
on and celebration of digital
production, but also of what it
is capable of. Dilla humanized
the buttons and knobs of his
machines beyond recognition,
disregarding norms left and
right to create a lasting legacy
which lives on in every track he
touched. Whatever name you
know him by, one thing is true
— that James Dewitt Yancey
changed the face of hip hop
forever.
J Dilla & the computer-
generated beat revolution
CLARA SCOTT
Daily Arts Writer
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Dilla humanized
the buttons and
knobs of his
machines beyond
recognition
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
SECONDARY
skillfully
incorporates
text
messages and texting lingo into
the narrative structure.
Alena Graedon’s “The Word
Exchange” (Doubleday, 2014)
introduces us to a not-so-
distant future when humans
rely on a device to look up the
meanings of almost every word.
Xu
Bing’s
graphic
novel
“Book from the Ground” (MIT
Press, 2014) is pictographic
text written entirely in emojis
and symbols.
Diary of a Zulu Girl is a blog
by Mike Maphoto composed of
a fictional young woman’s diary
entries about her journey from
a rural area of South Africa to
Johannesburg. The blog entries
have been compiled into two
books and the series is ongoing.
Gary
Shteyngart’s
“Super
Sad True Love Story” (Random
House, 2010), written in both
letters and emails, is a new take
on the epistolary novel genre.
Spent
is
a
game-based
narrative in which players are
given a fictional $1000 per
month and confronted with a
series of choices on housing,
health care, employment and
bills. The game, which was
created
by
the
advertising
agency
McKinney
for
the
Urban Ministries of Durham,
incorporates
aspects
of
computer games with a strong
narrative structure. Spent is
intended to educate players
about the precarious situation
of people living below the
poverty line.
Jennifer
Egan’s
“A
Visit
from the Goon Squad” (Knopf,
2010) includes both discussions
of technology and a chapter
written entirely in PowerPoint
slides.
Though
technology
is
shaping both written content
and the reading experience
in
thought-provoking
ways,
it’s hard to predict where
technological innovation will
take us next —and what that
will mean for readers and
writers.
“Technology
is
allowing
storytelling as an art to happen
in all sorts of places in really
interesting ways,” Lahiri said.
“How that relates to print is
still something we’re figuring
out.”