The Thinking Alphabet

In the chapter on "An Alphabet That Thinks," Richard Lanham presents several thoughtful concerns about the emerging trend of electronic texts. The thesis seems to be concerned with how electronic texts, especially e-books are fast replacing the nostalgia of printed codex. The critique for most part holds that electronic culture is irreverently changing the textual face of the reading experience. Lanham steers away from this popular critique and proposes that it is time that we looked at how textual experience can be dynamically adjusted through an evolved set of alphabets--alphabets that think.

In his conception, the alphabets are personified, which can think and therefore, can exist as a rhetorical reality. To adapt to this new possibility, Lanham believes that one should conceive e-texts as having a "polyvalent" form including text, sound, and graphics. Previously the text was flat and linear bounded within a tw0-dimensional world. But the polyvalent identity of this neo-text capacitates spaces that can be utilized for dynamic embeds such as an image clip or a sound bite; in the process it renders reading more real and more rhetorical.

Although Lanham's definition of neo-text is a practical possibility, his philosophy behind creation of such text is somewhat contentious. He proposes that the C-B-S (clarity, brevity, sincerity)model of composing text has to give way to a more self-conscious production of texts that privileges a sort of rhetoric of intent rather than a representation of fact. This is somewhat disturbing. GIven the understanding that electronic communication affords customized package of information based on the purpose and context, but it still obviates the need to be transparent not only rhetorically but also directly. As such the C-B-S theory of communication holds good even when one when intends to package audience and context specific information.