If exposure to televison may affect the way we read then the web and
hyperlinking certainly should too.  So I have another question, is the
web going to effect our reading books in the sequence they were written?

Regards,
   Rick Parker


> Ken Armstrong wrote:
> 
> >  The real  question here, one that regularly recurs with a bang on the
> > McLuhan discussion list, is whether the TV/point 'n' click generation
> > is (or even can be) literate or not, i.e. is literacy in decline? To
> > be honest (for emphasis, not contrast :), I'm really not sure. I am
> > inclined to think that what my 12 year old daughter does when she
> > reads a book, after a zillion hours in front of the tube, is different
> > from what I do (she stays awake, for one thing).
> > But I'm not sure; she  still  has to visually process the marks on the
> > page and imagine the words that she  reads. In sequence.

Marcia Karp wrote:
> 
> Dear Ken,
>     Your last two words above interest me.  Do you think readers (I'm
> interested in literate ones who read because they want to) necessarily
> read the poems in poetry books in order?  What, in addition to numbered
> or some sort of demarcated sequences, brings the reader through the book
> poem after poem, if anything does?  I don't mean to put you on the
> spot.  Just that your words sparked my interest, and perhaps with your
> teaching experience, you can help.  All others invited, too.