I just hate giving up on a book. Well, not giving up, because I really was enjoying the book, but setting it aside for who knows how long because I wasn’t able to give it the kind of attention required. That’s what I have decided to do with How We Became Posthuman by Katherine Hayles. It’s a hard thinker of a book that requires regular, sustained attention. Even though I knew this I kept shooting myself in the foot. I would settle down with the book, spend twenty minutes figuring out what was going on when I last left off, and then read for an hour, put the book aside and weeks would pass before I would pick it up again.
Clearly this person isn’t posthuman enough. If I were I would have no trouble picking up right where I left off because I would have not terabytes, but yottabytes of memory all indexed and accessible. Since this is not the case, I had to spend more and more time at each sit down with the book reorienting myself.
I do want to give the book a go again some other time because it is ever so fascinating. It is about information theory, cybernetics, techno utopia and what this means for humans and literature. Because, you know one day, say the techo wizards, we won’t need to have bodies, we won’t grow old, we can live forever because we will be able to upload our consciousness to a computer. The problem is, they all assume that life as a computer will be just like or better than life as a human. But part of being human is having a body. When there is no more body, what does that mean? And what does it mean for literature. Literature, like humans, has a body–the body of the text, the body of work, etc. It belongs to a very physical world connected to the human body. When humans don’t have bodies anymore, what will happen to literature? Something worth pondering.
That is just the first couple chapters of the book. When I started the next chapter in which the deep dive of exploration begins, I felt I had too shaky a grasp on the beginning due to my start and stop reading pattern. I could have decided to start over, but this is a library book from the university where I work and I have already had it since January. The prospect of starting over at this point was too discouraging. Just not the right time. I am glad I began it though because I know for sure I would like to read it. Maybe I’ll try again at the end of the year over a long holiday vacation.
I have a few “drat” books for exactly the same reason … some books you know you’ll like but they just need the right sort of time and energy to get the most out of them and if you can’t do that, it’s better to read something at the time that you can.
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whisperinggums, precisely. Right book, wrong time. I am surprised it doesn’t happen more often really.
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I had to do that with the Gormenghast Trilogy. I loved it, but it was SO BIG and very slow reading (and very slow story) and I just can’t do it right now. But I received it as a gift so I can go back anytime and dive back in… (your failed book sounds interesting, though!)
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wherethereisjoy, oh and you were enjoying Gormenghast so much too! But I totally understand. Lucky that you own it so it will be easy to get back to when the right time does arrive.
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I always used to leave books like this for my summer recess when I knew I would have at least three weeks clear to concentrate on them but since I’ve got involved in running the Summer School that’s no longer possible. Your post has made me realise how much I’ve missed having that space. Perhaps I could carve out time in the winter when nobody much wants to be out and about doing things?
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No body certainly means no literature and your post brought that home to me very strongly. I agree about the Gormenghast books, they reaklly are marvellous but do demand careful reading so are very much “well drat” books – the antithesis of reading someone like Tolkein I suppose.
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Ian, it is a disturbing book that brings together computer and information science, philosophy and literature to examine something I had never considered before. One of these days I will have the time and energy to try it again. I’ve not read Gormenghast but I think it is on a bookshelf somewhere. It’s another one of those someday sorts of books (series really).
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Alex, It is nice have give yourself a space of time for concentrating on certain books. I enjoy the last two weeks of the year. It’s cold out so I don’t feel bad staying indoors under a quilt. Bookman is experiencing his busy time at work and so is gone all day. And we don’t go anywhere or do anything for the holidays which makes it a quiet, stress-free time for me. Perfect for reading. Hope you can find a time when you can carve out that space for yourself again!
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Katherine Hayles as you’ve described her book reminds me of Sherry Turkle, who, I must say, is much easier to read. Yes, ‘drat books’… I have a few. Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age and Marilynne Robinson’s non-fictions are some of them. As Alex suggests, leaving them for the lazy days of summer may be a good time, but then they sure don’t sound like beach reads. Hopefully you can attack Hayles again in the summer. 😉
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Arti, oh, Turkle, I should read her one of these days especially her latest. She has a bit of a different focus though no less interesting it seems. I can’t speak to Taylor, but Robinson’s nonfiction is definitely not easy! She really makes you work but in the end it is worth it. We’ll see how summer goes!
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The strengths of this book ‘How We Became Posthuman’ come from its three guiding questions (or stories) on virtual reality: 1) how information lost its body, or how it became a separate entity from the material in which it’s embedded, 2) how the cyborg was created and how it became a “technological artifact and cultural icon” after World War II, and 3) how the “historically constructed” idea of the human is influenced by a different construction called the posthuman. .
A staggering achievement. However,Hayles glazes over the disparity between between the richest and poorest societies on the planet.
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Dana, yes, I was in the midst of how information lost its body which is ever so fascinating but I kept floundering due to my inability to spend any consistent time with the book. Hayles is not alone in glazing over disparities between rich and poor. There is quite a lot of that when it comes to tech discussion.
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I actually have a copy of this, and have only ever dipped into it and read bits here and there. It IS a tough read and I don’t blame you in the least for putting it aside. I have masses of drat books, and notably anything that’s heavy duty philosophy at the moment. After those years at the university, my brain has decided it’s on holiday and will glaze over at first sight of a tricky sentence! 🙂
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Litlove, I can’t say I blame your brain for wanting a bit of a holiday! It’s rather amazing really that we don’t have more drat books than we do.
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Timing really is everything and some books definitely require constant attention and uninterrupted reading time, which I cannot always give. This is why I have such a big stack of partially finished books by my bedside. Maybe you can save it for your upcoming vacation and concentrate on it on its own? I am glad, I must say, that I am not the only one who takes advantage of renewals when it comes to library books–I can usually get away with multiple renewals, too, at the library where I work!
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Danielle, timing is everything, I agree. One of the advantages of working at a library is long checkout times and multiple renewals. The job has to come with a few perks, right? 🙂 I returned the book. Bookman will have four days off during my vacation and we are already making plans of things to do. I’m hoping the weather will be a bit warmer and dry by then since most plans involve being outdoors!
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