Well, yes, I read the wrong assignment. I am posting for Assignment 2: Palmeri, “The First Time Print Died.” This chapter suggests that even though some current scholars and compositionists believe we are living “a moment” in which technology is redefining writing, there have always been key moments when writing and the pedagogy of writing have been overhauled (remixed). Palmeri ushers in the influence of technology on the writing of the “previous moment” (1967-1974 – [when I was in college]). Back then, like now, it became necessary to rethink linear, alphabetic texts. Palmeri juxtaposes the current digital moment, in which Kathleen Blake Yancy contends that “literacy ‘is in the midst of tectonic change” (87) with the early ‘70’s moment, when “… writing courses would cease to be relevant unless they paid attention to visual and multimedia texts” (88).
To be honest, when I read scholarly chapters or articles such as this one, I am distracted by all the in-text (parenthetical) citations. They interrupt the flow of my reading. They do not make for good times. What jumped out to me in this reading were the references to multimedia texts I was familiar with in the ’67-’74 moment – when “… young protestors employed music, visual posters, costumes, and other nonverbal modes of persuasion” (91). It brought to mind images (literal and satirical) that I got to know back then:
Woodstock/Santana (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiKj1FNBE3Q),
Bruce Springsteen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_7NgPDNPtA),
Cheech and Chong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFUFw1GH6ic),
Saturday Night Live with the original cast,
The Smothers Brothers Show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnnmcP6FkWk),
Muhammad Ali (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeFMyrWlZ68)
Indeed, “the moment” was rich with “slideshows, photo essays, collages”(94) – the multimodal composition(s) of the time.
