The first thing that caught my eye in Nelson’s writing was the inclusion of this quote by Annie Dillard:

Whenever a work’s structure is intentionally one of its own themes, another of its themes is art.

I loved the structuring of the book and the comparison it draws to hypermedia, the internet and the workings of the human mind. It reminded me instantly of VCE Psychology, and learning about nodes and neural pathways within the brain (although I seem to be able to recall very little of this topic..). My very vague recollection points to many varyingly discombobulated pathways that take us from one thought to another, and the idea that we can take many different pathways to arrive at the same destination, much like with the internet as a mode for gathering information.

What I really loved about Nelson’s writing however, was his ability to make computer programming seem sexy – or at least, sexier – a topic that (until this course), I had never given a second thought. The possibilities are urgent, exciting and personal and from Nelson’s perspective, present an opportunity for fulfilment of the individual; physically, psychologically and emotionally, rather than simply an opportunity for corporate advantage.

Nelson writes of three approaches to the oncoming computer era. There are those who like the incompatibility and complication, and say it is the new world and that we must learn to live with it. Others, already hating computers, correctly dread these matters and hope vainly to stop the computer tide. Nelson’s suggestion of a third approach, is one that unifies and organises in the right way, so as to clarify and simplify our computer and working lives, and indeed to bring literature, science, art and civilisation to new heights of understanding, through hypertext.

While it is difficult to imagine a version of myself alive in 1980 with an opinion on this oncoming computer tide, I can only imagine that a piece such as Literary Machines would have quelled any of my lingering doubts or apathy. As a 21 year old in 2014 whose mind instantly goes on holiday at the mention of anything vaguely scientific or technological, Nelson’s ability to focus on the advantages for the individual, particularly within other arenas such as literature or art, his ability to convey urgency and his expression of political frustrations may have been just the things to get me going in the early 80’s.