Remediation and Other Made-up and Misused Words...

Back in the early 80's when I was in grade school, I remember teachers whispering the term "remediation" -- as in "Little Johnny needs some remediation before he can move on to the 3rd grade." I wasn't quite sure what it meant, but I knew it was bad. So bad that little Johnny would hang his head in shame as he walked to the little room at the end of the hall to receive that help.

As I have become an educator myself I know that remediation is to remedy a situation. In Johnny's case remedying his inability to read, and while that is obviously a beneficent goal, it is impossible for me to shake the negative connotation of that word.

Now some 25+ years later, as I sit an read selections from Jay David Bolter's Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, I am annoyed.

Bolter, in a practice overused by academics, decided to take the word "remediation" and change its meaning. He use's it to mean some sort of a shift in medium -- a "re-medium-ation" if you will. He looks at the history of text from codex to computer and discusses what they mean to our culture. Granted the book was published in 2001 and even now some seems antiquated (my beloved Kindle was not even a glimmer in it's mommy's motherboard yet). But as I look at his use of "remediation" I can't help but think that there was no need to "correct" or "remedy" anything with the printed word.

There is nothing wrong with books.

While E. Annie Proulx quoted in Bolter's text may be wrong that "no one is going to read a novel on a twitchy little screen. Ever." She is more than correct when she says, "Books give esthetic and tactile pleasure, from the dust jacket art to the binding, paper, typography and text design, from the moment of purchase until the last page is turned...Books speak even when they stand unopened on the shelf." (read the entire article here) There is something about wandering through a bookstore with no particular aim in mind only to find the perfect book. One that will change the way you look at the world and everyone in it. As of now, there is no way that browsing the Amazon database and transmitting a book via the air will mirror that feeling.

How about a word that was created for this brave new world that is becoming ubiquitous in text-speak -- "hypertext"? The word itself was coined by Professor Ted Nelson in the 60's and has come to mean "text that links to other information." The word is even on Merriam-Webster's online, but first entries in a Google search link to sites like TechTerms.

I have to admit -- my inquisitive mind does love those links. A perfect example is used by Maine Writer's and Publisher's Alliance Director, Joshua Bodwell. Bodwell sends out frequent emails littered with recent stories, trivia, and upcoming events that every member looks forward to getting. If you are a writer in Maine you need to join, if only for those emails.

Proponents of digital over text talk about the individualized experience that hypertext gives. I'd have to argue that people have individualized experiences while reading hard print as well -- we are individuals after all, with our own thoughts and emotions that colors everything we read.

I've babbled enough. I think I am going to read something -- in the old school medium.