Reading Platforms

Abstract

Reflecting on the history and future of the book, the chapter imagines several possible alternatives to electronic texts as we know them today. The terms “platform” and “format” guide a speculative exploration through an archive of extant literary technologies—micrographic prints, Computexts, HyperCards, and ePUBs—and consideration of these distant materialities and their associated practices, interfaces, and affordances. The way in which a book’s spine or a reading chair realign the positions of the back, eye, and hand suggests another type of structuring when reading electronically, within environments made of polymer, rare metals, and liquid crystal. How does one mold the human senses to fit such alien media? The history of electronic books ultimately attests to the process of trans-mediation, contested at the boundary of hardware—paper or silicon—and software—body and code.