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sarahanne8382's review
4.0
In this age of evolving digital technologies, the elimination of physical documents for digital is becoming a more real possibility, dividing many people as to whether this revolution will be heralded as a wonderful saver of trees, time, and space, or if it sounds the death knell for literate society as we know it. In Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age, David Levy uses his extensive backgrounds in computer science and calligraphy to shed some light on this cultural debate. However he does so in a way incredibly unconcerned with which side wins.
Perhaps this ambivalence as to whether digital or physical documents prevail has a lot to do with Levy’s background. The “Preface” and “Introduction” provide considerable insight into Levy’s background. He began as a computer scientist, but found himself increasingly disgusted with the lack of creativity in his field, and decided to start over at the other end of the technological spectrum studying calligraphy. Eventually he was able to find a way to mix the two, and he now works to make computers capable of continuing the literary tradition previously carried out primarily on pen and paper. For him there is no great debate, computers have simply become another tool for creating masterpieces of the written word.
Another surprising, and slightly frustrating, aspect of this book is its lack of a central thesis. Levy explains that this is “a love letter to documents” (p. xxiii), but gives little more explanation for the structure of his book. Looking at this book as a love letter, maybe we shouldn’t expect it to be precisely arranged or to have an articulate point aside from expressing the author’s feelings, but with the extensive research Levy clearly did for this book, it seems that he would have something more complex than “I love documents!” to say. Each chapter tackles a different side of documents, and explains it thoroughly, giving historical backgrounds and elucidating relationships between different document types that many of us were probably never aware of, let alone spent time thinking about. Scrolling Forward is full of so many pearls of wisdom, it seems like there should be some larger context for this information than simply a better understanding of documents.
On the other hand, I can think of no better resource for understanding the cultural debate surrounding the development of digital documents. Levy’s background in such disparate fields of documentation gives him authority on this issue that few can equal. Because he is a true lover of all documents he is able to tell us the advantages of all documents, but he understands his love well enough not to hide “The Dark Side of Documents” either, devoting a chapter to the documentation of bureaucracy, including a frustrating misunderstanding he had with the IRS because of a missing document.
Personal anecdotes like these are what endear Scrolling Forward to its readers. It may not be a dry, well organized, authoritative, academic resource on the history of documents, but instead of dry organization, we get personality and interesting anecdotes in a book that still manages to be an academic and authoritative source on the history and use of documents. While it may be unusual to read a scholarly work that is so personal (every chapter contains at least one personal reference), tying the work so closely to himself forces readers to see that the documents Levy refers to aren’t just literary masterpieces or immaculate medieval manuscripts, but the stuff of everyday life. The first example document he uses is his receipt from a local deli, an example he picks apart in great detail to show his readers just how much information is included in something we often throw away without a second glance. If he can show the value of a document we generally consider unimportant, then how much more valuable are documents that we do treasure? By impressing upon us the great value of documents, Levy convinces his readers to continue on and begin understanding that documents are all around us, and that it isn’t as simple as one type of document being good and another being bad, because they’re all interconnected.
Scrolling Forward is great for anyone feeling beaten down by the hectic pace of modern life as Levy’s story about documents includes his own warning against such a life style and how he’s learned to stay away from it. When he decided to step back from the super-charged lifestyle of a computer scientist he relocated to the slower, more methodical world of calligraphy. After making the return to computers, though, he claims to have still maintained a rather sedate pace of life. This is where Levy’s only complaint against technology comes in, and it is that technology simply for the sake of technology rather than for a practical purpose or that controls us rather than us controlling it does nothing to help our society and could pull it apart. He proves the positive of this point throughout the book giving examples of how technology properly harnessed actually benefits our culture (for example, when email allows distant relatives to stay in touch).
Levy’s generally favorable attitude toward technology can be seen as beneficial for libraries looking to solidify their role as a digital document repository. His warnings about the proper use of these technologies can also be seen as arguments for skilled professionals (librarians) to help people use them effectively. Because of the almost memoir style of Scrolling Forward, it may not directly give librarians the ammunition they need to justify their roles in the changing technological climate, but reading through Levy’s arguments certainly put us in the right mind set.
Perhaps this ambivalence as to whether digital or physical documents prevail has a lot to do with Levy’s background. The “Preface” and “Introduction” provide considerable insight into Levy’s background. He began as a computer scientist, but found himself increasingly disgusted with the lack of creativity in his field, and decided to start over at the other end of the technological spectrum studying calligraphy. Eventually he was able to find a way to mix the two, and he now works to make computers capable of continuing the literary tradition previously carried out primarily on pen and paper. For him there is no great debate, computers have simply become another tool for creating masterpieces of the written word.
Another surprising, and slightly frustrating, aspect of this book is its lack of a central thesis. Levy explains that this is “a love letter to documents” (p. xxiii), but gives little more explanation for the structure of his book. Looking at this book as a love letter, maybe we shouldn’t expect it to be precisely arranged or to have an articulate point aside from expressing the author’s feelings, but with the extensive research Levy clearly did for this book, it seems that he would have something more complex than “I love documents!” to say. Each chapter tackles a different side of documents, and explains it thoroughly, giving historical backgrounds and elucidating relationships between different document types that many of us were probably never aware of, let alone spent time thinking about. Scrolling Forward is full of so many pearls of wisdom, it seems like there should be some larger context for this information than simply a better understanding of documents.
On the other hand, I can think of no better resource for understanding the cultural debate surrounding the development of digital documents. Levy’s background in such disparate fields of documentation gives him authority on this issue that few can equal. Because he is a true lover of all documents he is able to tell us the advantages of all documents, but he understands his love well enough not to hide “The Dark Side of Documents” either, devoting a chapter to the documentation of bureaucracy, including a frustrating misunderstanding he had with the IRS because of a missing document.
Personal anecdotes like these are what endear Scrolling Forward to its readers. It may not be a dry, well organized, authoritative, academic resource on the history of documents, but instead of dry organization, we get personality and interesting anecdotes in a book that still manages to be an academic and authoritative source on the history and use of documents. While it may be unusual to read a scholarly work that is so personal (every chapter contains at least one personal reference), tying the work so closely to himself forces readers to see that the documents Levy refers to aren’t just literary masterpieces or immaculate medieval manuscripts, but the stuff of everyday life. The first example document he uses is his receipt from a local deli, an example he picks apart in great detail to show his readers just how much information is included in something we often throw away without a second glance. If he can show the value of a document we generally consider unimportant, then how much more valuable are documents that we do treasure? By impressing upon us the great value of documents, Levy convinces his readers to continue on and begin understanding that documents are all around us, and that it isn’t as simple as one type of document being good and another being bad, because they’re all interconnected.
Scrolling Forward is great for anyone feeling beaten down by the hectic pace of modern life as Levy’s story about documents includes his own warning against such a life style and how he’s learned to stay away from it. When he decided to step back from the super-charged lifestyle of a computer scientist he relocated to the slower, more methodical world of calligraphy. After making the return to computers, though, he claims to have still maintained a rather sedate pace of life. This is where Levy’s only complaint against technology comes in, and it is that technology simply for the sake of technology rather than for a practical purpose or that controls us rather than us controlling it does nothing to help our society and could pull it apart. He proves the positive of this point throughout the book giving examples of how technology properly harnessed actually benefits our culture (for example, when email allows distant relatives to stay in touch).
Levy’s generally favorable attitude toward technology can be seen as beneficial for libraries looking to solidify their role as a digital document repository. His warnings about the proper use of these technologies can also be seen as arguments for skilled professionals (librarians) to help people use them effectively. Because of the almost memoir style of Scrolling Forward, it may not directly give librarians the ammunition they need to justify their roles in the changing technological climate, but reading through Levy’s arguments certainly put us in the right mind set.
alexander0's review
3.0
As a brief, well organized, poetic introduction to a (post?)structural notion of document, this is a great start! Even though this book is more than a decade old, it still holds up.
I had some qualms with the fact that the book centers very strongly around historic discourse and academic work related to the document and doesn't consider where the author's definitions might lead one to see a document being in more extreme cases. For example, the notion of document is very centered around being a product of a human, and necessarily a product that is a part of individual's consciousness, or is at least a part of an understood and intentionally designed process as a norm. I specifically see this as a limitation. In fact, the first chapter called "Meditation on a Receipt" could be replaced with a new first chapter or perhaps it could be followed by another called, "Meditation on a Meme" and discuss how norms could emerge through subconscious mimicry, and that would have reframed several later chapters.
Likewise, I had trouble with accepting the idea that only people create documents. If one is a scientist, specifically in a positivist or post-positivist tradition, one might argue that nature has its own documents. Or within a Spinozian or Deleuzian tradition that often action itself is experiencing the world in order to create communication or a language with nature, which thereby IS, by Levy's definition, nature speaking through its systematic existence. If that is true, then nature contains documents, that admittedly are still understood through human translation, but are not themselves grounded on any closed group of individuals' cognition. Rather it is grounded on the common affects created by that non-human body.
I had some qualms with the fact that the book centers very strongly around historic discourse and academic work related to the document and doesn't consider where the author's definitions might lead one to see a document being in more extreme cases. For example, the notion of document is very centered around being a product of a human, and necessarily a product that is a part of individual's consciousness, or is at least a part of an understood and intentionally designed process as a norm. I specifically see this as a limitation. In fact, the first chapter called "Meditation on a Receipt" could be replaced with a new first chapter or perhaps it could be followed by another called, "Meditation on a Meme" and discuss how norms could emerge through subconscious mimicry, and that would have reframed several later chapters.
Likewise, I had trouble with accepting the idea that only people create documents. If one is a scientist, specifically in a positivist or post-positivist tradition, one might argue that nature has its own documents. Or within a Spinozian or Deleuzian tradition that often action itself is experiencing the world in order to create communication or a language with nature, which thereby IS, by Levy's definition, nature speaking through its systematic existence. If that is true, then nature contains documents, that admittedly are still understood through human translation, but are not themselves grounded on any closed group of individuals' cognition. Rather it is grounded on the common affects created by that non-human body.
drmarti's review
3.0
This is well-researched and readable. Even though it's now 15 years old, it doesn't feel dated. And it brings together many topics I'm interested in: book history, reading practices, information science, bureaucratization, literary history, and bibliography. My only quibble, I guess, is that I've encountered all of these subjects before, and this book didn't really add anything new for me. I preferred reading another book in a similar vein, James Gleick's The Information. But for others less familiar with the topics covered, it would be a great overview.
mlindner's review against another edition
3.0
Read 25 Sep-24 Nov 2009. Pretty good but read at work during breaks so the author’s point was kind of too spread out for me. Instead, I recommend Avatars of the Word.
pussreboots's review against another edition
2.0
Link+ due 4/13
An interesting exploration of what documents are in the early days of ebooks and the world wide web. Sadly it's rather out of date in places.
An interesting exploration of what documents are in the early days of ebooks and the world wide web. Sadly it's rather out of date in places.
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