I would personally define “digital book history” as “book history done using digital tools and method.” (Trettien 8:12), meaning we study every facet of the book (its content, its materiality, its contextual background, how and why it’s made and disseminated, etc.) with the help of digital technology. This is no different than digital humanities where we analyze and examine humanities through digital means. The digital approach that I was drawn to was Substrate because of how Trettien was able to beautifully describe how, in terms of digital book history, it is “the layers of nonsymbolic, asemic matter that enable a technology to store, record, and playback cultural memory.” (16:11) It really goes to show how these terms that are often used in their most ordinary and simplistic context can have so much wiggle room to be used and applied in a field that is not very common or even physical like digital media and book history (even though Trettien gave the examples of undersea internet cables and e-waste). With that being said, I was often confused by Trettien’s terminology when she explained the studies in digital book history because it was an absolute information overload. But it really goes to show how incredibly complex and in-depth such studies are, from the big abstract ideas of a book down to its minute detail like “how the formal qualities of certain materials have constrained or enabled various genres, habits, or modes of writing.” (17:40) The primary source that I want to work with is Jeanne-Marie Goes to Market from THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN CHILDREN’S BOOKS because not only I am interested in analyzing the Caribbean culture, lifestyle and history, but also in particular, the book reveals a lot more information than one would might expect from a children’s book about the Caribbean’s colonial history with white people.
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Hi Elvis, I agree that the digital book history entails the use of digital tools. There was a lot of information that Trettien gave about digital records. The making of books and the preservation of certain books were put into focused for us to have a better understanding of why books are in Digital form. The digital approach Substrate is very unique as it is used to store information and play them back even culturally. I like how she emphasizes how different genre of books are made possible to be appreciated by different generations because of digital book history. I like the primary source you will be focusing on because this sounds very interesting, especially the Caribbean culture of it.