March 19, 2008
A gloss to Pax and the Literary in the Digital Age
Parry’s formulation – “literary event” – aptly describes Pax, but it’s also an oxymoron, insofar as a literary text isn’t an event that one experiences, but an object that one interprets. This term points to the fate of “the literary in the age of the digital,” as Parry puts it. In digital environments, the emphasis on the event means that the literary becomes an object of experience rather than a interpretable text.
Parry’s formulation – “literary event” – aptly describes Pax, but it’s also an oxymoron, insofar as a literary text isn’t an event that one experiences, but an object that one interprets. This term points to the fate of “the literary in the age of the digital,” as Parry puts it. In digital environments, the emphasis on the event means that the literary becomes an object of experience rather than a interpretable text.