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Please forgive the cliches, but in order to avoid becoming roadkill on the information superhighway, contemporary writers must learn to deal with the internet which is after all simply a mind boggling information and communication medium. If McLuhan is correct in stating "the medium is the message," then we all need to learn how to negotiate the medium before we can even start to perceive the messages.
Computers are the tools we use to tap into the information data bases, to join online conversations, to buy products on commercial sites. Understanding how computers work, understanding how people use computers to connect with and persuade each other (in written language) is vital to what is now posed as a new kind of literacy. I would argue such a literacy is not new. Any new technology requires learning and adjustments. I for instance am not very literate in cell phone technology. My (admitedly willful) ignorance requires that others assist me in placing a simple phone call.
Most computer skills are simply that -- acquired skills, like dialing a phone or punching a number, that allow the user to complete other tasks, such as sending an email, sharing a journal entry, finding needed information. So once we have the necessary computer skills, such as keyboarding and mousing, we can move on the rhetorical features of the writing or researching tasks.
Question: Why do we have to read a novel, especially a science fiction novel?
First of all novels are fun. Secondly, novels require a sustained effort on the part of the reader. Novels focus on the human condition in a widely varied and complex manner. When we enter the world of the novel, we enter the lives of others, and depending on our critical skills and the art and craft of the novelist, we just might learn something about ourselves.
Novels are an important medium for our best storytellers, allowing the storyteller to focus our attention over an extended time frame in many different genres, each with its own forms and features.
Science fiction tends to use contemporary subject matter (the sciences and technology) to pose interesting social problems. Please refer to the Le Guin handout for more explanation here.
Do we really have to read all this stuff?
Yes.
Do we really have to read all this stuff?
Yes.
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