Pp. 14-15: The miraculous technologies of the holodeck. Ask yourself how far from 21st-century reality these are.
"Holonovels"--but why are virtually none of these set in Star Trek's present day?
P. 16: Instead of playing out one-episode conflicts, Janeway has been inhabiting her holonovel: just hanging out, doing the job of governess.
P. 17: "Will the increasingly alluring narratives spun out for us by the new digital technologies be as benign and responsible as a nineteenth-century novel or as dangerous and debilitating as a hallucinogenic drug?"
P. 24: "Will the literature of cyberspace be continuous with the literary traditions of the Beowulf poet, Shakespeare, and Charlotte Brontë as the Star Trek producers portray it, or will it be the dehumanizing and addictive sensation machine predicted by the dystopians?
P. 25: "she can shut the book" -- the virtue of literature is catharsis, controlled engagement with potentially violent emotions.
P. 26: "Eventually all successful storytelling technologies become 'transparent': we lose consciousness of the medium and see neither print nor film but only the power of the story itself. If digital art reaches the same level of expressiveness as these older media, we will no longer concern ourselves with how we are receiving the information. We will oly think about what truth it has told us about our lives."
