ITH - Centrum för studier av IT ur ett humanvetenskapligt perspektiv
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2-3/2001

Forming the Text, Performing the Work
- Aspects of Media, Navigation, and Linking¹
by Anna Gunder

This article proposes a theoretical framework intended to facilitate descriptions and discussions of texts of works in different media. The main theoretical traditions which have inspired this endeavor are, on the one hand, textual criticism (with scholars such as Fredson Bowers, D. C. Greetham, Jerome J. McGann, D. F. McKenzie, Peter L. Shillingsburg, and G. Thomas Tanselle), and, on the other hand, hypertext theory (represented by theorists like Espen Aarseth, Jay David Bolter, Jane Yellowlees Douglas, Michael Joyce, George P. Landow, and Janet H. Murray). The study aims to combine and develop the perspectives of such theoretical traditions in order to suggest a more consistent and extensive set of concepts for the analysis of how narratives are stored and disseminated. The study examines the structural aspects of texts and works, and deals with storage, presentation and reproduction of works. Moreover, the structure of works and texts, as well as the navigation related to these structures, are discussed. The study also includes an in-depth discussion on links and linking, and a new terminology is suggested for the subject. The most important concepts discussed are work, text, version, variant, storage medium, storage sign, presentation medium, presentation sign, storage capacity, life expectancy, direct text access, indirect text access, copy, edition, impression, issue, monosequential, multisequential, content space and axial structure. Furthermore, the concepts of network structure and lateral structure as well as hypertext, ergodicity, link and linking are examined.

Contents

Part 1
1. The Concepts of Work and Text
2. Storage Medium, Presentation Medium and Text Access
3. Copy, Impression and Edition

Part 2
4. Structures and Navigation
5. Hypertext
6. Ergodicity
7. Links and Linking
8. Closing Words
About the Author

References

Stories are told in various media. We may read them in newspapers, books and magazines, watch them on television and at the movies, listen to them on the radio, on our car stereo or Walkman, or experience them on a computer screen. For a long time, storage media such as parchment, papyrus, paper and the like were, besides the human mind, the only media for storage of fictional and non-fictional texts. Since the late nineteenth century, though, new technologies have made it possible to store not only alphanumeric signs and illustrations but also sound and moving images. The most recent of these new media is the computer, with tremendous technical advantages in its ability to imitate and incorporate other, older media. Nowadays, the computer may, among other things, be used for reading a novel, watching a movie or listening to music.² This is roughly what is known as media convergence. Yet the computer does not only store and present texts of works from other media. Computer games, digital hyperfictions, and web pages are examples of works specific to digital media. In other words, they cannot be presented in any media but the computer.

In general, works are intended to appear in a specific medium; they are, for instance, created to reach the audience stored on printed sheets of paper between covers, on a CD-ROM, or in a newspaper. However, the intended medium is far from always the only medium that can store and present texts of a work, versions of it, or works deriving from it. It might seem easy to tell the difference between, for example, a text in a printed book and the same text stored as a computer file on a floppy disc. But when thinking about it, one might find it difficult to describe the differences theoretically. If you hear your neighbor reading aloud from Great Expectations on the other side of the wall, it would not be possible to tell whether she is reading from the pages of a book or from a computer screen.³ Yet, later when she is standing at your door step explaining that she happened to spill coffee on her floppy disc, and therefore wants to borrow your copy of Dickens’ novel to read the last chapter, some of the practical differences will show. "Anyway," she says before closing the door, "I’m glad I didn’t spill it on my floppy disc with Patchwork Girl or any other digital hypernovel!"

In order to describe texts of works in different media as accurately and precisely as possible, several aspects must be considered. Characterizing something based on the medium it is stored and/or presented in gives certain information about, for instance, how long the text could be expected to be legible and what equipment that is required for the text to be accessible to the user. Ordinary floppy discs and cassettes, for example, generally have shorter lifetimes than a bound book. To access texts stored in books no special device is needed, while texts stored on floppy discs require a computer, and texts stored on cassettes, a tape recorder.

However, most media may store different types of texts. Two examples of texts that can be stored on floppy discs are mentioned above. Another example is the printed book in which texts of various kinds may be found. Compare, for instance, a novel like Le Rouge et le noir with a traditional picture book for children or an academic dissertation. These are three genres different in content and style, but they are also structurally dissimilar. First, the texts do not consist of the same textual material; the novel contains, for example, no pictures. Second, the mode of navigation, that is, how the reader is expected to make her way through the text, varies since the textual material is ordered and organized differently. When reading the novel, the reader is expected to start on the first line of the first page and then continue straight on to the last word of the last page. However, in the academic dissertation, there are footnotes to consider, and at each small footnote number, the reader has to decide whether to jump to the footnote at the bottom of the page.

The aim of this study is to propose a theoretical framework for the description of texts of works in different media. Clearly, the medium storing and presenting a text does provide certain information, but it is even more important to examine the character and structure of texts. A text stored on a hard drive may have more in common with a text stored in a book than with other texts stored on a hard drive. What are the differences between the Sherlock Holmes short story "The Dancing Men" presented on a computer screen, on the pages of a printed book, and on printouts? In what ways does the short story "The Dancing Men" differ from the film adaptation Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Dancing Men or the cassette version of the short story? How can the interactive DVD video Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective be characterized and described? What terminology is required to describe these different works, texts, versions as well as the different media used to store and display them? Questions of this kind constitute the point of departure for the present article, whose aim is to offer a theoretical framework for the analysis of certain aspects of the structure of works and texts in different media.

Works are experienced through texts; works are performed as texts. To perform a work, then, is to form a text, to decide what the text will consist of, how the text will be stored and presented and how it will be structured and navigated. In other words, to perform a work is to form a text and to form a text is to perform a work. Besides being performed by the originator, some works require the performance of the user as well. This is the case with, for example, computer games and digital hypernovels in which the work cannot be experienced unless the user performs it by making choices. This consists in making choices that are carried out by clicking with the mouse or pressing the keys. It should be noted that, in this study, the term user designates the person experiencing a work, i.e. the reader, the listener, the player or the viewer.

A natural starting point for the description of these processes is to examine the concepts of work, text, version, and variant. In order to explain and describe the characteristics of the works that are the subject for this study, other types of works such as paintings, sculptures and buildings are discussed to some extent in the first section of the present article. Thereafter follows a section on the storage and presentation of texts in which the terms storage medium, storage sign, presentation medium, presentation sign, storage capacity, life expectancy, direct text access, and indirect text access are discussed. The next section concerns the reproduction of texts offering explanations of the notions of copy, edition, impression and issue. In the sections to follow, structures and modes of navigation, that is, how the reader is expected to navigate in different structures, are dealt with in several steps. The concepts monosequential and multisequential, as well as content space are of central importance to the discussion. Three types of multisequential structures, namely axial structure, network structure and lateral structure are discussed, as well as the concepts of hypertext and ergodicity. An in-depth discussion on links and linking in which a new terminology for the subject is suggested concludes the study.

The main aim of this article is to present a set of concepts facilitating descriptions and discussions of works and texts from a structural point of view. It is important to stress that the structural aspects of texts and works are discussed and described primarily from a user perspective. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the study mainly belongs to the theoretical traditions of textual criticism and hypertext theory, which has stimulated literary theory. By hypertext theory I here refer to the theoretical discussion on literature and digital media initiated by Jay Bolter, Michael Joyce, George P. Landow and Myron Tuman in the early 1990s, and continued by scholars such as Espen Aarseth, Jane Yellowlees Douglas and Janet H. Murray.⁴ The definitions and the use of the concepts mentioned above must be considered in light of these fundamental standpoints. This is particularly crucial since the majority of the concepts, their relation as well as other issues in the discussion, would be described and handled differently (to a greater or lesser degree) if approached from another angle or discipline such as library and information science, archival studies, computer science or law studies. I am acutely aware that something that from a user perspective seems to be a simple point-blank procedure, often is a much more complex and complicated process on a deeper, more technical level. On the surface level, that is the user level, a link is just a link, a connection between two places. However, below the surface in the technical sea, a link is far more complicated than that, and could not be described simply as a connection between two places.

In the following, examples are given in order to illustrate and explain the concepts and phenomena that are being discussed. Thus the examples’ primary function is to illustrate the theoretical discussion and to offer a concrete complement to the theoretical descriptions. Accordingly, I have chosen fairly common examples to which many people can relate. Naturally, these in turn constitute a selection, since the aim of the study is not to provide an exhaustive inventory of examples, nor a discussion of intricate cases. For instance, there are web browsers that work differently from the ones that I describe, as well as there are other storage media than the ones I discuss. In addition, it should be emphasized that due to rapid technological development, especially in the digital field, the examples are to be considered more or less historical. What I describe as a trait characteristic of an ordinary web page or a computer game may be replaced by something else tomorrow. As a result, the theoretical framework presented is not to be thought of as fixed and complete, but as moldable and expandable.

[To the top]

1. The Concepts of Work and Text

In textual criticism the concept of work usually signifies an abstract artistic entity, whereas text is the term used to denote the representation of that entity, through which the work has to be experienced.⁵ My understanding of the concepts of work and text is within this tradition. However, I have adopted a broad definition of the concepts of work and text, deriving from a semiotic perspective. As I see it, all man-made products are systems of signs. All these sign systems can be considered as texts, presenting works. The work as such can never be accessed but through some kind of text, that is, through the specific sign system designated to manifest a particular work. The sign system may consist of alphanumeric characters, spoken language, music, still pictures or moving pictures, to mention only a few examples. Text (and sign system) is not to be understood as the physical manifestation as such, but as the abstract representation of a work, that in turn is presented in for example ink on paper.

The text could be said to function similarly to a lens, since it inevitably has an influence on the experience of a work. For instance, a poor edition of Jane Eyre studded with misprints distorts the reader’s view of the work while a textually correct edition offers a clearer view. The task of textual critics is traditionally to see to it that the text displays the work as accurately as possible, or, figuratively speaking, to clear the lens from scratches and dirt. If the broad semiotic understanding of the concepts of work and text is applied to man-made products in general, the principles of textual criticism could be considered applicable to anything intentionally produced by man. Thus, although textual criticism traditionally concerns literary works, the same principles may be applied to all kinds of works, such as maps, paintings, films, cartoons, buildings and sculptures.

In A Rationale of Textual Criticism, G. Thomas Tanselle writes that "[a]ll works of art have texts, whether usually called by that name or not, for they all consist of arrangements of elements; and all can be the objects of emendation, for those elements (or their arrangements) can always be altered, producing different textures."⁶ This is to say that equally to works of literature and music, works of sculpture, painting and ceramics have texts. However, in the latter case, the texts are the works, whereas, in the former case, the texts are not the works. A sculpture, a vase, a painting and a building are tangible, material works in which text and work coincide – a broken vase is a broken work and a broken text. This is to be compared with intangible, immaterial works like a novel, a song or a poem, where neither the work nor the text can be physically torn to pieces or demolished. Because of the nature of text and work of tangible works, and their interrelationship, they could, in theory, be referred to as either works or texts without one excluding the other. Here work and text are considered as physically inseparable and they both implicitly include the other. Therefore, I would say, the fact that Tanselle in his later writings rarely speaks of tangible works in terms of work and text does not forcibly imply a change of point of view.⁷

According to Donald McKenzie, the object of bibliography and textual criticism should not just be the traditional book and the text it stores, but also "non-book texts." "Scholars," he writes, whether their particular field is books, maps, prints, oral traditions, theater, films, television, or computer-stored databases, "note certain common concerns" as they all deal with records that "have a textual function which is subject to bibliographical control, interpretation, and historical analysis."⁸ It is important to remember, however, that McKenzie mainly discusses immaterial, intangible works, and narratives in particular.

As I see it, although they deal with different kinds of works, the restorer and the textual scholar share a common concern in that they both seek to clean the lens, to obtain a text that accurately presents the work. To restore a sun-bleached painting with a rip in the canvas and a broken frame means to carefully mend the canvas, repair the frame and brighten up the colors. Erasing the traces of the years that passed, the restorer tries to restore the work of painting to a former or original state. Similarly, the textual critic seeks to present a text of a literary work as accurately as possible. Often, but far from always, this is a text that corresponds to the text that the author intended to create and disseminate.⁹ 

In contrast to the restorer, the textual critic generally has to consider a number of texts deriving from the author’s manuscript and to decide which of these to recover and edit. For example, some tend to choose the author’s manuscript as copy-text while others are inclined to use the first printed, or published, version as copy-text.¹⁰ Another rather complicated issue concerns changes to manuscripts made by the publisher, and to what extent these should be considered and accounted for. As a result, methods for establishing text vary largely from case to case depending on the choice of copy-text, the preconditions regarding document access and quality etc. A manuscript may, for example, be available in its entirety or in fragments and in excellent or poor condition. But, there may just as well be no remains of the original manuscript or no copies of the first edition, leaving the textual scholar with copies of later editions and other material such as letters, diaries and notes.¹¹ All kinds of alphanumeric texts, irrespective of genre and artistic quality, have been treated this way.

An example illustrating the wide-ranging principles of textual criticism is Charles Dickens’ drawing room at 48 Doughty Street, London. As far as it can be determined, the room has been reconstructed to the state in which it was in the fall of 1839 when Dickens had just completed Nicholas Nickleby. Various documents describing the room (letters, diaries, paintings etc.), in combination with microscopic examinations of the walls and comparison to later homes of the writer, made it possible to reconstruct the room to a state allowing the visitors to the museum to experience the room as it was at the time when the young Dickens was living there. The work, Dickens’ Drawing Room at 48, Doughty Street, appears through the text that is the reconstructed room. However, whereas the person concerned with the "reconstruction" of the text of Nicholas Nickleby is called a textual critic and deals with alphanumeric characters and illustrations, the person reconstructing the room is called a curator and works with a sign system consisting of furniture, wallpaper, carpets, curtains etc.¹²

In theory, anything is to be considered a work regardless of which qualitative, aesthetic or other judgments that are attributed to it. But, traditionally, only works of original character are thought of as works. Consequently, to be considered a work, a product must have what is called "verkshöjd" (literally "work height") in Swedish. This implies that it must have a certain originality and independence in relation to other products.¹³ Of course, there are no absolute standards for measurement to rely on – there is no practical list of criteria forming a basis for the judgment of the would-be work. Even though this is not really a problem in the everyday use of the concept of work, the issue is indeed crucial in matters of copyright law in which a work’s status is of considerable consequence. In order for something to be legally considered a work it has to fulfill certain requirements concerning originality. It is important to note that in terms of copyright law, originality does not apply to the ideas as such, but to the way in which they are presented and formulated.¹⁴ The legal definition of the concept of work is obviously narrower than the one used in, for instance, textual criticism (and consequently in this study).

Henceforth, independently of this broad definition of the concept, work, as pointed out, denotes the abstract entity, whereas text is the term used to designate the abstract representation of that entity, the sign structure through which the work must be experienced. It should be stressed that the text is not physically more concrete than the work. A text can be corrupted, but not stolen or burned since what is stolen or burned is only the physical signs (i.e. ink, printing ink, magnetic particles) manifesting the text as well as the medium in which these physical signs are stored and presented (cf. storage signs/presentation signs and storage medium/presentation medium below). Thus, the text is not the word ‘text’ in print ink on this page, but the abstract constellation of the linguistic signs t, e, x and t. This is why different copies may carry the same text whereas the sets of physical signs storing it are as many as the number of copies.

In its final report on the functional requirements for bibliographical records, the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) presents a definition of the concept of work that explicitly includes aspects of both definitions presented above:

[W]ork: a distinct intellectual or artistic creation.
A work is an abstract entity; there is no single material object one can point to as the work. We recognize the work through individual realizations or expressions of the work, but the work itself exists only in the commonality of content between and among the various expressions of the work. When we speak of Homer's Iliad as a work, our point of reference is not a particular recitation or text of the work, but the intellectual creation that lies behind all the various expressions of the work.¹⁵

Previously I argued that the principles of textual criticism could be applied to all kinds of works. This implies that the sign systems (in the semiotic sense of the concept) representing these works, the texts, can in principle consist of anything. Tanselle’s definition of text as "arrangements of elements" is extensive and covers other, more specified and limited uses of the term in which elements are to be of a certain kind and/or arranged in a certain way.¹⁶ In its broadest sense however, text could be understood as signifying elements in any form arranged in any way. Accordingly, a painting as well as a building, a garden, a manuscript or a vase may be considered texts. Also, these are not only individual texts, consisting of arrangements of elements (sign systems), but they could just as well, and at the same time, constitute elements of another text. They could all for instance be part of the text Charles Dickens’ home. In other words, depending on the perspective, the element can be a single letter, a phrase, a novel or a library.¹⁷

Adopting this wide definition of text makes it clear that it is possible to distinguish between various kinds of texts depending on the character of the elements of which they consist, e.g. what kind of signs that constitute the sign system. The following analysis concerns mainly texts consisting of alphanumeric characters, sound, and images. Elements of these modes of expression, as they may be called, are combined in different constellations, which we label film, fiction, picture book, computer game, cassette book, hyperfiction, and so forth. Thus the study mainly covers texts that are alphanumeric, cinematic, audible and/or pictorial.

Textual scholars distinguish between different forms of works. Distinctions are frequently made between, for instance, verbal works and visual works, works of literature and works of painting and between works that have a physical form and those that do not.¹⁸ Tanselle, for example, differentiates between on the one hand sequential arts using intangible media (such as language, musical sounds, and dance movements) and in which "the products have duration – with dimensions in time rather than in space"; and on the other hand stationary arts using solid, tangible media (such as clay, paint and rock).¹⁹ Sequential works are thus temporal, not spatial; stationary works are directly accessible whereas sequential works always have extension in time.

But restricting the definition of stationary works to works that use tangible media entails some difficulties, especially when it comes to digitally stored text. With today’s digital environment and technology, it is more obvious than ever that spatiality is not necessarily equal to permanency and physicality, characteristics associated with, for instance, paintings, photos, statues and ceramics. It might just as well imply transiency and virtuality as for digital pictures displayed on a computer screen or projected on a wall.

Furthermore, a division of works in, on the one hand temporal (sequential) works, and on the other hand, spatial (stationary) works is somewhat deceptive. There are no clear-cut forms of works. Intended or not, all works have, in fact, both temporal and spatial properties of some kind. For instance, a temporal work such as a picture book for children consists of spatial elements (the individual illustrations). The same goes for comic strips as well as for novels with illustrations, like Robinson Crusoe. But even literary works realized exclusively with typographic signs may have spatial properties. Pattern poetry such as Apollinaire’s poem "La Cravate et la montre" (Calligrammes) is one example.

Spatial works also have temporal properties (irrespective of the originator’s intentions) in the sense that they change over time; statues crumble, paintings bleach and buildings are provided with new roofs. Therefore, it seems more convenient to distinguish between mainly temporal works and mainly spatial works. This distinction can be made regardless of the medium (in Tanselle’s sense of the word) of the work.²⁰ As to digitally stored texts, this means that the characteristics of what the user actually experiences (and not the actual technical structures of the work) decide whether the work will be described as mainly temporal or mainly spatial.

It is essential to notice that several works may coexist in one and the same artifact. Together, these works form a whole, but they may also be considered individually. In an anthology, for example, several mainly temporal works are put together. The reader may either choose to contemplate a single work, for instance, a poem or a short story, or consider them all in relation to one another. Mainly spatial works may also appear under similar conditions. For instance, the paintings and sculptures of an art exhibition may either be experienced as individual items or as elements in the work – the exhibition – i.e. the selection, organization and display of a number of works of art.

The famous Silver Bible on display at Carolina Rediviva, the Uppsala University Library, may serve as another example. A theologian would probably primarily regard the Silver Bible as a manifestation of the work The Bible, while an art historian would most certainly focus on the ornaments of the covers. Like the art historian, the book historian would take interest in the ornaments, but also in the material of the cover, the quality of the paper, the ink, the binding, the type and the layout and so forth. Thus the theologian would pay attention to the mainly temporal, immaterial work whereas the art scholar and the book historian would find the mainly spatial, material work of greater interest. The same person may of course shift rapidly between these perspectives, and the overall impression of the Silver Bible is most likely to be a coalescence of both. After all, if one of the works was removed, the Silver Bible would no longer be the Silver Bible. Naturally, this does not only apply to the magnificence of the Silver Bible; any ‘book’ could, in fact, be described as consisting of a mainly spatial as well as a mainly temporal work.

Several textual critics have stressed the importance of this issue, rejecting the idea of the book or any other medium as merely a container and its contents as something that, without being affected, could be moved from one container to another.²¹ Anything, from extraordinary covers, as in the case of the Silver Bible, to the way in which the typographic signs are distributed over the pages, might have textual and aesthetic implications and therefore needs to be taken into consideration. Jerome McGann argues that in order to fully understand a work, it is necessary to examine both the linguistic and the bibliographical codes (typography, paper etc.). As a consequence, both aspects should be incorporated in critical editing:

Every literary work that descends to us operates through the deployment of a double helix of perceptual codes: the linguistic codes, on one hand, and the bibliographical codes on the other. . . .

Textual and editorial theory has heretofore concerned itself almost exclusively with the linguistic codes. The time has come, however, when we have to take greater theoretical account of the other coding network which operates at the documentary and bibliographical level of literary works.²²

Sharing this view, Donald McKenzie points to John Kidd’s research on Ulysses as an example of the importance of awareness and analysis of the bibliographical code. Kidd has shown how James Joyce’s fascination for numbers permeates both the linguistic and the bibliographical codes and how there is an intricate interplay between them. For example, Bloom reads a letter from his daughter who turned fifteen on the fifteenth of June. What is more, in Joyce’s proofs the letter is fifteen sentences long. A stunning example of Joyce’s bibliographical awareness is that the 1922 edition of Ulysses falls on precisely 366 leaves and 732 pages. As it happens, the story of Ulysses takes place in the year of 1904, which, as several times pointed out, is a leap year. A leap year has 366 days and 366 nights, 732 days and nights in all.²³

Closely associated with the distinction based on the predominance of temporal or spatial properties of a work is the division between works intended to be reproduced in multiple copies and works intended to be disseminated in only one original.²⁴ This is particularly apparent in Tanselle’s distinction between sequential and stationary works since he strongly emphasizes that the former can be made manifold, and that the latter is chained to a unique physical object. In fact, Tanselle’s distinction could be said to be based on these qualities of a work instead of on temporal or spatial properties.²⁵

The category of works intended to be made manifold embraces, for example, novels, poems, films, video games, cartoons, and pop songs. The other category, works intended to be disseminated in only one original, includes, for instance, sculptures and paintings. Often, this distinction runs parallel with the one regarding temporal and spatial properties of a work, as indicated in the examples given above. Personal letters and diaries are examples of mainly temporal works that are meant to exist in one original only.²⁶

However, several forms of works, such as drama, opera and ballet, fall in both categories or, if one prefers, in-between them. Take for example August Strindberg’s A Dream Play [Ett drömspel], which is intended to be read as well as performed on a stage with actors and props. Thus the printed text must be considered as intended for the readers as well as for the performers. This printed text, with stage directions and other instructions as to the performance, may be reproduced in multiple copies just like a novel.²⁷ At the same time, several productions of the play are made which differ from one another in various ways. In addition, each production consists of a number of separate performances that in turn are more or less dissimilar and, per definition, unique since they happen in real time. Hence, the printed text of the play that Strindberg wrote provides instructions for the performances of the work of drama known as A Dream Play. Productions, as well as each performance, of A Dream Play are based on these instructions. In fact, both the production and each single performance could be regarded as works represented through texts.

The existence of a work of drama lies in the performance of it. By this follows, as stressed by Tanselle, that a play may not have existed as a work but in the form of plans in the playwright’s mind and, to a greater or lesser degree, in written text.²⁸ Sometimes works of this kind are also transformed into other kinds of works. Or, it might be more correct to say that they are treated as other kinds of works. For instance, when reading and discussing A Dream Play in class, the work of drama has been somewhat transformed into a work of closet drama, functioning similarly to a novel.

But one could argue that closet dramas, novels, cartoons and films must also be "performed" since they must be processed by the human mind (read, watched, listened to, contemplated, etc.) to come into existence as works. In analogy, every single one of these performances is unique since each person experiences a work differently (not only in relation to other people but also from time to time).²⁹ The same goes for all works: every person in the audience applauding a performance of A Dream Play leaves the theater having processed/performed individual, and thus unique, mind performances. The real issue is whether the text causing this mind performance is one of a kind or not – the performance of A Dream Play is one of a kind, whereas the text of Great Expectations is manifested by signs printed on pages between covers on innumerable bookshelves around the world.

The novel Robinson Crusoe is a mainly temporal work intended to be reproduced in multiple copies. As long as the copies are identical in that they offer the same sequence of alphanumeric signs, in other words, the same text, they all represent the novel Robinson Crusoe. This is true regardless of whether it was published in 1945 or in 2000. However, the concept "identical" is somewhat relative since minor textual variants in spelling, punctuation and the like are accepted. If, for instance, the printing-press is stopped during the printing process in order to correct a misprint, some of the copies of that edition will contain the misprint whereas others will not. Another example of a variant is when the spelling has been modernized – the text with the ancient spelling and the text with the modern spelling both represent the same work.³⁰ Usually, textual scholars distinguish between accidental and substantive variants. Accidental variants are dissimilarities in spelling, word-division, italics, punctuation and the like that do not affect the meaning. Substantial variants, on the other hand, are variations that do change the meaning. A typical example of a substantial variant is when there is a difference in the choice of words or in the word order.³¹

However, there may be "copies" of a work where certain parts of the story have been changed or even left out. This is common when dealing with adaptations of a work to a new audience, like Robinson Crusoe for children or in a Swedish translation. In revisions of this kind, the copies no longer represent the work, that is the novel Robinson Crusoe, but a version of it.³²

Alterations to a work resulting in the birth of a version can be made either by the author or the editor. In the example with Robinson Crusoe, alterations producing versions for a young audience and for Swedish readers have been made by the editors. Authors producing versions of their own works are often, to a greater or lesser extent, influenced by an editor, a publisher, a friend or any other person requiring, proposing or encouraging the writer to make changes to the work. Dickens, for example, was persuaded by his colleague Edward Bulwer-Lytton to change the ending of Great Expectations from one in which Pip and Estella go separate ways to one in which they walk away hand in hand. In a letter to his friend and literary advisor John Forster, Dickens wrote:

You will be surprised to hear that I have changed the end of Great Expectations from and after Pip’s return to Joe’s, and finding his little likeness there. Bulwer, who has been, as I think you know, extraordinarily taken by the book, so strongly urged it upon me, after reading the proofs, and supported his views with such good reasons, that I resolved to make the change. You shall have it when you come back to town. I have put in as pretty a little piece of writing as I could, and I have no doubt the story will be more acceptable through the alteration.³³

There is thus a version of Great Expectations with an unhappy ending (the original manuscript version) and a version with a happy ending (the revised version that was printed in All the Year Round), and they were both produced by the originator of the work.³⁴

In order for a revised work to obtain the status of a version, the differences must be considerable:

When an author revises a work so radically that he can be said to have produced a work which creates a changed aesthetic effect, the result should be thought of as a different version. . . . On the other hand, a revision which does not constitute a different version is one which corrects, modifies, or extends a text without substantially changing its essential character.³⁵

Although James Thorpe, in the quotation above, explicitly discusses only authorial versions, the same principles are usually applied when distinguishing between what could be called editorial versions.

When thoroughly rewriting his or her creation, the author may create a new work instead of just a new version. Because at a certain point, when the changes have radically modified the work, it is no longer correct to label it a version. Instead, it has to be considered as a new, independent work. Of course, it is impossible to establish rules defining exactly how modified and/or different something has to be in order to no longer be thought of as a version, but as a new work.³⁶ What one scholar regards as a version, another may consider a new work. Similar problems also occur on the border between variants within the original work and a new version of it. How many changes are allowed to be made within the range of one work?³⁷ In both cases, the two alternatives can be pictured as the two hanging pans on a balance. In one of the pans, the scholar places for instance everything that supports a description of the studied object as a version whereas in the other, she places everything that supports a description of it as a new work. Sometimes one of the hanging pans is clearly heavier than the other; at other times it is very hard to tell the difference between the two since the amounts – the "indicators" – in the two hanging pans are almost equal. In the end, the result depends on the scholar, given that she is selecting, evaluating and placing the "indicators" in one of the two pans.

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2. Storage Medium, Presentation Medium and Text Access

Texts of works are, generally speaking, stored in some sort of media.³⁸ Common storage media for texts (in the broad sense of the word) are books, cassettes, CD-ROMs, floppy discs, DVDs, videocassettes, hard drives, etc.³⁹ Examples of storage media not frequently used in our time are rock, papyrus, parchment and bone. Thus, here the term storage medium refers to the material on which a text is "recorded" (no matter which elements constitute the text) or, to be more precise, to the material that carries the signs representing the text, i.e. the storage signs.⁴⁰ The storage signs for a printed text may for example be alphanumerical signs in ink, print ink, paint or crayon on paper. But the same text may just as well be stored as Braille signs, magnetic impulses on a magnetic tape or as pits and flat areas on an optical disc. A set of storage signs on a storage medium may be erased (e.g. when formatting a floppy disc or erasing lead from a sheet of paper) or replaced by another set of signs representing another text (e.g. when re-recording a video tape or when saving changes to a Word document). Storage media may exist independently of storage signs – a clean sheet of paper, an empty floppy disc, tape or CD – while storage signs cannot possibly exist outside some kind of a storage medium.

Evidently, all forms of storage media cannot store all kinds of text. This is because many storage media use storage signs that can only store certain types of texts. A book, for instance, uses storage signs that could not possibly store sound, and a canvas uses signs that are unable to store animated films. Furthermore, a distinction can be made between analog and digital storage signs. In the example above, both the book and the canvas are storage media using analog storage signs. An ordinary cassette tape and a videotape also use analog storage signs since the magnetic imprints on the tape constitute a direct representation of the text and the signal recorded corresponds to the signal originally heard by the microphone or seen by the camera.⁴¹ In other words, a beat on a big drum results in the groove on a gramophone record taking a big swing.⁴²

Magnetic storage signs are not always analog, but may just as well be digital. Floppy discs, DAT-tapes and hard drives store text as magnetic imprints. However, unlike the cassette tape and the videotape, the imprints represent binary code that in turn represents the text. The original visual or audible signal is sampled and converted to a specific number reflecting the intensity of the signal. It is the binary form of this number that the magnetic imprints on the tape represent (analog-to-digital conversion). When the tape is played, the original signal is reconstructed from these numbers (digital-to-analog conversion).⁴³

Storage media using digital storage signs (digital storage media) are generally magnetic or optical. Floppy discs, DAT-tapes, zip drives and hard drives are examples of magnetic digital storage media. Common optical digital storage media are CDs and CD-ROMs. The ability to store various texts consisting of typographic signs, sound, and moving as well as still images is characteristic of digital storage media.

Storage media do not just differ in what they can store but also in how much they can store and for how long they can store it. The storage capacity of a storage medium varies, both in relation to other forms of storage media and to storage media of the same kind.⁴⁴ An illustrative example of the variation in capacity between different storage media is the Swedish encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin. In print, it requires twenty-four volumes of an average of 500 pages per volume. The multimedia edition of the work is stored on six CD-ROMs. Each disc contains all the articles of the print edition as well as all the search functions, while pictures and additional multimedia features such as birdsong and short video clips are distributed among the discs. Stored on DVD, one single disc holds the entire multimedia edition.⁴⁵ In reality, then, one disc stores the same text (alphanumerical characters and pictures) as twenty-four books and, in addition, sound, moving images and search functions.

Historically, the storage capacity of computer hard drives has increased remarkably. The first hard disk was introduced in 1956 and was provided with fifty 24-inch aluminum disks. The total storage capacity of this hard drive, the Model 305 Disk Storage unit, was five megabytes, i.e. five million characters.⁴⁶ Today, less than fifty years later, the hard drive of an ordinary personal computer might have a storage capacity of forty gigabytes, that is forty thousand megabytes.

Preserving texts for a period of time is the task of every storage medium. In archival science, storage media are discussed in terms of life expectancy (LE), a concept used to "clarify different expectations about the ultimate survival" of documents carrying information "by describing the anticipated longevity of the various media on which they are recorded. Life expectancy is determined both by the chemical and physical properties of the medium and by how it has been housed and handled."⁴⁷ So the life expectancy of a storage medium concerns the ability to preserve storage signs in such condition that they can fulfill the task of representing texts. LE values vary and may be longer or shorter. Sand, for instance, has an extremely short LE (a message written on the beach will often be erased within a couple of minutes) while certain kinds of rock have a very long LE (for example, cave paintings dating from the Aurignacian period c. 28,000 – c. 22,000 BC have been found in Dordogne in France.) Naturally, it is difficult to determine the exact LE value of a certain storage medium, and LE values are therefore generally very approximate. Or, as one researcher puts it, LE values for storage media are similar to miles per gallon ratings for automobiles – the actual mileage may vary.⁴⁸

Material type and quality of both storage medium and storage signs have a strongly significant influence on the LE value. Granite or limestone, lead or ink, acid-free paper guaranteed for 350 years, or recycled cheap paper – the choice is decisive. In fact, paper has a LE value of between 6 months and 500 years depending on the quality and the conditions under which it is stored.⁴⁹ Likewise, the LE of magnetic tapes and optical discs vary because of the use of different component material. The storage signs of a magnetic tape consist of magnetic particles; one could say that the magnetic particles constitute the ink of the magnetic tape. It is crucial that these particles remain magnetic – if the magnetism is lost the storage signs are erased and the text becomes irretrievable. As it is, certain types of magnetic particles are able to retain their magnetic properties longer than others.⁵⁰ One example of differences in LE value as to optical discs are "green" CD-Rs (recordable CDs) that are considered to have a shorter LE than "gold" CD-Rs.⁵¹

With an expected lifetime of 500 years, microfilm has by far the longest LE among the analog audiovisual storage media.⁵² This is the same LE value as for high-quality paper. However, it is important to remember that, with paper, we know for sure that it can last for 500 years, while we still have to wait another 450 years before we can tell whether a 500-year-old microfilm can still be read.

The material of the storage medium is one reason why many analog audiovisual media have relatively short LE. Comparing a printed, high quality book with an audio book of Winnie the Pooh there is little doubt which one of them that is likely to be enjoyed by more than one or two generations. Although used to the same extent, the storage signs in the book will presumably still be intact serving their purpose when the cassette tape will no longer function, i.e. when the storage signs have altered or disappeared due to loss of magnetism. The covers may be stained, the spine mended with tape and the pages yellowed, but the text will still be the same as long as the storage signs do not fade and as long as all the pictures and pages are left. The cassette tape is, to put it simply, made of plastic, which generally is more vulnerable to time than paper is. The book may suffer rather severe damage without the storage signs being affected, whereas the cassette tape has to be in good condition for the storage signs to be accessible. Furthermore, as already mentioned, the degradation process of the tape’s storage signs is comparatively fast, i.e. the loss of magnetism in magnetic particles is generally faster than the fading of ink.⁵³

Digital storage media storing text as magnetic imprints (floppy discs, DAT-tapes, hard drives and the like) change and age similarly to a traditional cassette tape. Optical discs, on the other hand, function differently. The binary code that is stored as magnetic impulses in magnetic storage media is represented by pits and flat areas called lands on optical discs.⁵⁴ The technique used for producing these pits and lands varies from one type of disc to another. With molded discs, like CD-ROMs, the pits are actual hollows in the polycarbonate (the plastic).⁵⁵ Similarly to magnetic audiovisual storage media, optical discs suffer from being made of plastic. Moreover, it should be noted that a given sequence of bits (hence called "bit stream") might be stored differently in different storage media depending, among other things, on the physical properties of the storage medium.⁵⁶

Clearly, material type and quality have a great influence on life expectancy. But to obtain maximum longevity, it is also of considerable importance that storage media are preserved and handled properly.⁵⁷ The conditions under which a storage medium and consequently also the storage signs are stored may largely expedite, or impede, the aging process. Inscriptions on church floor gravestones, for example, are often fully readable, provided that they have not been constantly exposed to the feet of the members of the congregation. Storage signs of gravestones having been frequently marched upon vanish whereas they remain intact on gravestones situated in less frequently visited areas of the church floor. In the same way, my personal copy of Madame Bovary will most certainly have a longer lifetime than the copy of the same edition at the public library. Exposing a CD to heat and bright sunlight will expedite the degradation process. In fact, a report on the life expectancy of different storage media published by NML (National Media Laboratory) indicates that many of the storage media that are currently used, including paper, have longer LE if kept in a cool (15º C) and relatively dry place.⁵⁸

Another aspect to consider is that some storage media and storage signs may degrade faster if handled and used often. A cassette tape suffers far more than a book from frequent handling. Dust, fingerprints and different kinds of debris have a negative effect on tapes. But even the mere use of the tape, i.e. putting it in the tape recorder and listening to the text it carries, often wears the tape.⁵⁹ This can be compared to texts stored in ink on paper, where the storage signs are not exposed to any electro-mechanical device every time the text is read. Thousands of pairs of eyes may read the same sentence without the storage signs being damaged. But if the sentence is written in Braille and read not by a thousand eyes, but by a thousand fingertips, the reading will indeed cause damage to the storage signs. In this respect, optical discs are extremely durable since the laser beam causes no wear to the storage signs.⁶⁰

The aging process happens gradually regardless of whether the life expectancy of the storage medium and the storage signs is estimated to be short or long. Words on a gravestone fading away during a period of hundreds of years is like the message in the sand eroding in extreme slow motion in front of your eyes. The aim of conservators, whether they deal with books, films, paintings, furniture or buildings is to slow down this process as much as possible by means of appropriate preservation conditions and handling. An enormous problem that book conservators are faced with is the destruction of paper due to acidification: "Literally billions of books and documents made during the last century and a half are disintegrating before our eyes." In the early nineteenth century one started to use aluminum sulfate in the manufacturing of paper. This resulted in paper becoming acidic, remaining so even after the manufacturing process. The acid makes the paper brittle and shortens its LE value remarkably.⁶¹

Naturally, conservators handle storage media in all the stages of the degradation process. Often, their task is not only to preserve storage media, but also to restore them in order to retrieve texts and works. One of the main advantages of analog recording (analog storage signs) is that the deterioration process is usually discernible. This makes it possible to detect degradation of quality and to transcribe the text before it becomes completely unreadable. Digital storage signs on magnetic tapes, on the other hand, show little, if any, quality deterioration. Once the tape fails, the damage is severe since sections of storage signs are irrevocably lost.⁶²

But restoration of storage media and storage signs is not always an option. Often, especially with very old documents, the storage medium as such is a valuable cultural artifact, a work that must remain unaffected. The primary effort is then to prevent further deterioration. In many cases, though, it is not only the mainly spatial work (the storage medium) that is of great interest, but also the text of mainly temporal (or mainly spatial) works that it stores. However, retrieving and transcribing texts stored in old and damaged storage media without any negative effects on storage medium and storage signs, may sometimes be very complicated and difficult.

The Vindolanda texts, dating from around AD 92 and onward, have proved a challenge for papyrologists in this respect. The documents from the Roman Army in Britain are of two kinds: ink tablets and stylus tablets. The ink tablets were fairly easily deciphered by the use of infrared photography making the faded ink clearly visible. The stylus tablets, on the other hand, were more damaged since the colored beeswax, in which the text had been recorded by incision with a metal stylus, in most cases had perished. What was left for the papyrologists to work with was therefore a wooden surface covered with scratches caused by the stylus penetrating the wax. Having been reused several times, the tablets did not only contain scratches from the storage signs of one isolated text but from a number of texts. To be able to read and transcribe the texts, engineer scientists and papyrologists are currently collaborating in the development of image processing techniques making it possible to digitally analyze the tablets.⁶³

Some storage media do not only store text but they also present it to the user; they are both storage medium and presentation medium.⁶⁴ Under normal conditions, that is at the time when the Vindolanda texts were still intact, no special devices were needed to read them. Tablets of this kind, along with books, gravestones, paintings, letters and messages written in sand, are examples of storage media that are also presentation media. The introductory phrase of the print version of the short story "The Dancing Men" ("Holmes had been seated for some hours in silence, with his long, thin back curved over a chemical vessel in which he was brewing a particularly malodorous product.") is stored as characters in print ink on a sheet of paper in a book and presented to the reader in exactly the same way.⁶⁵

Just as a distinction can be made between storage media and storage signs, it is possible to distinguish between presentation media and presentation signs. The presentation medium of the phrase quoted above, for example, is the printed page of a book while the presentation signs are the letters in print ink. As to a painting, the presentation medium is the canvas and the presentation signs are the paint with which it is covered. Characteristic of these cases is that the text is stored as it is to appear to the user; the storage signs are also the presentation signs. When the storage medium is the presentation medium and when the storage signs are also the presentation signs, users could be said to have direct text access.

However, it is far from always the case that users have direct text access. It is not possible to watch The Adventure of the Dancing Men with Jeremy Brett and David Burke simply by looking at the videotape on which the text is stored, nor is it possible to listen to the audio book "The Dancing Men" by holding the cassette tape close to one’s ear. The reason is that the storage signs somehow differ from the presentation signs. This may be related to size, as for slides and microfilms, or to more radical differences as for texts stored in binary code appearing to the user in the form of music or video clips. Users can only experience texts stored in a storage medium as a set of magnetic imprints, a pattern of hollows, or in mini-format on a considerably reduced scale if it is presented as moving and still images, sound and alphanumeric characters (of course in a number of constellations). Generally, this cannot be achieved in the storage medium, and a separate presentation medium is therefore required. A television set, a film screen, loudspeakers and a computer display are common examples of presentation media.⁶⁶ Here, the term indirect text access indicates that the presentation medium and the storage medium are two separate items and that the presentation signs are not the same as the storage signs.

Books are, among other things, practical in that "they can be read by the unassisted naked eye," as Peter Shillingsburg puts it in a discussion on printed and electronic scholarly editions.⁶⁷ Of course, this is because the book has direct text access, i.e. the storage medium is also the presentation medium and the presentation signs coincide with the storage signs. For obvious reasons, no technical apparatus is needed to make storage signs appear to the user as presentations signs when the text access is direct. However, when the text access is indirect, an electric, electro-mechanical or digital device (e.g. a tape recorder, a microfilm reader, a projector, a video tape recorder, a CD-player, a Walkman, a computer, or a phonograph) is necessary to perform the text, that is to read the storage signs in the storage medium and present them as presentation signs in the presentation medium.⁶⁸ The tape recorder, for example, reads the magnetic imprints of the tape and then presents them as sound in loudspeakers.

Thus one could say that these devices function as interpreters translating storage signs into presentation signs. The translation process as such, however, functions differently depending on the character of the signs. Digital storage signs, for example, need to be converted while the analog storage signs can be projected or played directly. This is because analog storage signs store a direct representation of the text in question. With direct text access the storage signs are analog. But this does not mean that all analog storage signs provide direct text access. Storage signs of magnetic tapes, for example, may be analog and the storage signs of reels, OH-films and slides are analog. In all these cases, the text access is indirect since the storage signs are not intended to function as presentation signs as well. Even though it is possible to watch texts stored on slides in bright light, the Major Oak of the Sherwood Forrest is supposed to appear as a magnificent, verdant tree against a blue sky, not as a brownish miniature.

The process consisting of retrieving bit streams stored in a digital storage medium and from that make words, video clips, film, music etc. appear in a presentation medium, is executed by the sophisticated device known as a computer. The task of interpreting binary code is complicated due to the fact that any specific bit stream, like 00010101 for instance, may, in principle, represent anything: a character, a sound, an image, and so forth. Therefore, in order to gain access to a digitally stored text, not only the appropriate hardware is required but also the appropriate software. The proper computer program, then, is indispensable if digital storage signs are to appear as presentation signs. In an essay on these matters, Jeff Rothenberg stresses the importance of software:

In effect, document files are programs, consisting of instructions and data that can be interpreted only by the appropriate software. That is, a document file is not a document in its own right: it merely describes a document that comes into existence only when the file is "run" by the program that created it. Without this authoring program – or some equivalent viewing software – the document is held cryptic hostage to its own encoding. . . .

The meaning of a file is not inherent in the file itself, any more than the meaning of this sentence is inherent in its characters or words. In order to understand a file, we must know what its content signifies, i.e., what meaning it has in the language of its intended reader. Unfortunately, the intended reader of a digital file is a computer program, not a human.⁶⁹

Even though software other than the original (i.e. the program that created the document) may sometimes be able to read a file, it is only the original software that can ensure that no information is being lost.⁷⁰ Therefore, when speaking of the computer as a device for performing texts, I refer to the hardware as well as the software required in order for users to gain access to the text and experience the work.

To sum up, all copies of works can be described as having either direct or indirect text access. Characteristic of copies with direct text access is that the only technical device required to read the text is the physical item functioning both as storage and presentation medium, i.e. the book, the newspaper, the painting etc. As to copies that have indirect text access, on the other hand, no less than three gadgets are needed to experience the work: the storage medium, the proper device, and the presentation medium. The three parts may be clearly detached constituting three isolated items – videotape, video recorder, TV; reel of film, projector, film screen; gramophone records, phonograph, loudspeakers, etc. Sometimes the device in question and the presentation medium share a common "shell" whereas the storage medium is, more or less, on its own. This is the case with, for example, a cassette tape recorder, a microfilm reader, and an old-fashioned horn phonograph.

The so-called electronic book or e-book (best known is perhaps the Rocket eBook) is an excellent example of a case in which the three are together instead of being separated as described above.⁷¹ In an object the size of an ordinary printed book, the storage medium, the presentation medium, and the device converting storage signs to presentation signs, are thus found. It is no secret that the Rocket eBook, in trying to convince the readers that this is the book’s new look, imitates certain characteristics of the printed book such as its size and its portability.⁷² From this point of view, one can easily see how there might also be certain commercial interest in simulating direct text access, the mode of the traditional paper book.

Of course, the e-book is nothing but a rather simple computer. The only difference is the name, which implies that this particular computer has more in common with a book than with other computers. The label ‘e-book’ refers to the entire package including storage medium, presentation medium and the device required to perform the storage signs and present them as presentation signs, in the same way as the machine, known as the computer, generally includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory (storage medium) and output facilities, i.e. display, loudspeakers etc. (presentation medium).⁷³ In some cases, it is all included in one practical carrier, like the Rocket eBook, a Pocket PC or a Palm Pilot. In other cases, however, computers require entire rooms with air-conditioning. Naturally, the capacity in terms of performance, processing skills, etc., largely varies between different kinds of computers, which, in turn, has consequences for which texts they are able to store and present. For a number of reasons, it is, for example, possible to play the computer game Doom in a Pocket PC but not in a Rocket eBook.

Another interesting aspect of digital storage and presentation media is that they are generally remarkably flexible. Some digital storage media are compatible with several different presentation media, like a DVD, for example, that may either use the display of a computer, a television, or – if the text is only aural – even the loudspeakers of a stereo. Similarly, loudspeakers connected to a computer or a stereo may present music stored on CDs. There are also digital presentation media that may present texts of several types of storage media. The display of a computer, for instance, can show a text stored on the hard drive, on a floppy disc, on a CD-ROM, on a DVD etc. But it is not only exclusively digital storage and presentation media that are flexible; some presentation media have the ability to present texts stored in analog signs as well as texts stored in digital signs. On a television, for example, one may watch movies that are stored on videotapes or on DVDs. Stereo loudspeakers is another example; they may present texts stored on gramophone records, cassette tapes, CDs, etc.

The life expectancy of the physical storage medium is for obvious reasons decisive both for copies with direct text access and those with indirect text access. If the storage medium and the storage signs are too much damaged, the text is lost regardless of whether it is stored on a tape, a CD or in a book. However, there is a major difference in that the condition of storage medium and storage signs is the only aspect to consider when dealing with direct text access, whereas several factors are relevant when dealing with indirect text access. Whether the stored text is undamaged or not is insignificant if there is no apparatus with which to present it to the user. If a microfilm is intact around the year of 2450 it is of little importance if there is no microfilm reader to enlarge and present the text with. As for videotapes, the issue is well known, and in several cases there are only one or two appropriate and functional videotape recorders in the world at specialist laboratories.⁷⁴

A recent example reminding us of the consequences of obsolete formats is Nelson Mandela’s last speech before he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The three-hour speech, given in 1964, was recorded on so-called dictabelts, a type of audio recording used between the 1940s and the 1960s. When the recording was rediscovered, one major problem turned out to be the lack of technological devices with which to render the speech – it was even feared that all dictabelt machines had disappeared. However, after great efforts and by means of one of the last remaining machines in the world, the National Sound Archive at the British Library was finally able to retrieve the sound. In 2001, for the first time since 1964, it was thus possible to listen to Mandela’s defense speech.⁷⁵

Floppy discs from the early stages of computer technology are more than four times as big as ordinary floppy discs that are used with today’s personal computers. Additionally, their storage capacity was largely inferior.⁷⁶ But even if an ancient floppy disc would slip smoothly into a contemporary disc drive, this does not mean that the computer would be able to present the text being stored on it. In order for this to be feasible, the storage medium and the storage signs must be undamaged. Moreover, the appropriate device and presentation medium are needed, which means that both hardware and software must be available and functional.⁷⁷ Thus deterioration of the storage medium/the presentation medium (including storage signs and presentation signs) is the only threat to texts stored in books and other storage media offering direct text access whereas texts stored in digital media are faced with several dangers: physical decay of storage media, obsolescence of hardware, unavailability of software, and loss of information about format, encoding or compression of files, etc.⁷⁸

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3. Copy, Impression and Edition

Works are represented by texts that are stored as storage signs in storage media. The individual physical manifestations – books, CDs, tapes, etc. that we can buy, forget on the bus or borrow from a friend – are each and every one to be considered a copy.⁷⁹ Roughly speaking, copies of mainly temporal works intended to be manufactured in large numbers are all reproductions made from a master.⁸⁰ From a historical perspective, the master was a printing form used to imprint the text that was to be reproduced on a receiving material such as paper, tissue and metal. In fact, the earliest surviving printed item, a Buddhist charm dating from the eighth century, is believed to have been printed from metal plates and to have been one out of a million copies.⁸¹

In the history of printed books, printing forms have been made of various materials such as wood, steel, and copper. The oldest method used when inscribing on the printing form a text that was to be multiplied was cutting in relief, which is also the technique used by the movable type. However, letterpress, as this process is called, is not the only form of printing. When using the technique called intaglio, the text, instead of being cut in relief, is incised or carved into the substance constituting the printing form (used for example in engraving). A third printing method is planography, i.e. the manufacturing of copies using diverse photographic, xerographic (as in traditional copying machines) and chemical techniques.⁸²

Until the mid-twentieth century, the letterpress method and the procedures invented by Gutenberg in the fifteenth century dominated the printing of books.⁸³ In this process, the printing form is an assemblage of individual types set by hand or machine, i.e. the typesetting. Keeping much type standing, particularly during the hand press period (1500–1800), was inconvenient and expensive since it required large amounts of type. Due to lack of type, more substantial texts were seldom typeset at one time, but typeset and printed sheet by sheet.⁸⁴ In the eighteenth century, printers tried to replicate the standing type in metal plates, but it was not until in the beginning of the nineteenth century that the use of stereotype plates became widely spread among printers.⁸⁵

The result of the introduction of plates in the printing process was that one typesetting could be stored for several years and that it could be reused repeatedly during that period. This lead to a remarkable increase in the number of copies produced from one master since it was no longer unusual that several impressions were made from the same typesetting. An impression is all the copies printed from one typesetting at one occasion.⁸⁶ Before the introduction of plates, only one single impression was usually produced from an edition.⁸⁷ Here the term edition is used in the original bibliographical sense of the word and is to be understood as the abstract, theoretical analog to the concrete setting in the form of standing types, plates or other.⁸⁸ The edition of a novel printed in the eighteenth century, then, is the arrangement of alphanumeric signs constituting words and sentences whereas the setting, the printing form, is the arrangement of physical types representing these words.

However, in the world of books, the term ‘edition’ is also used as a designation of all the copies made from one edition: "An edition, first of all, is all the copies of a book printed at any time (or times) from substantially the same setting of type, and includes all the various impressions, issues, and states which may have derived from that setting. As to the meaning of substantially the same setting of type, there are bound to be ambiguous cases, but we may take it as a simple rule of thumb that there is a new edition when more than half the type has been reset...."⁸⁹ To further complicate the matter, the term is also commonly used to designate a specific selection of copies of an edition: leather-bound edition, pocket edition, first edition etc.⁹⁰ The current bibliographic term for ‘edition’ in this sense is issue, and this is also the term used here for a particular group of copies of an edition.⁹¹ Furthermore, in order to avoid ambiguities, the total of the copies produced from one edition (i.e. a type-setting or a master) will consistently be referred to as ‘copies of an edition’ and not an ‘edition’.

During the last fifty years, setting with type has gradually been replaced by other techniques for setting. Planographic forms of printing, such as offset lithography and photo-offset, more or less ruled out the letterpress, only to, by the end of the twentieth century, face great competition from computer typesetting, so called desktop publishing, and digital printing techniques such as print on demand. Thus the composer no longer works in front of a case with types holding a composing stick, but with a keyboard in front of a display.⁹²

Consequently, the printing form serving as the master in the manufacturing of copies is rarely standing types or plates nowadays, but computer files stored in some kind of digital storage medium. In fact, most books that are produced today could be described as sophisticated printouts since they originate from a computer file. However, it should be noted that computer printers use different printing methods; a laser printer, for example, uses planography, while the dot-matrix printer uses relief.⁹³ The concept of edition is valid also when the storage of the text intended to be reproduced, is digital. Copies are produced from files, which could thus be said to function as typesettings. Furthermore, copies produced from one file at one occasion constitute an impression whereas all the copies of an impression distributed at the same time is an issue.⁹⁴

Again, it should be stressed that the perspective adopted is that of the user. The unity of an edition is here a question of whether the stored files will produce exactly the same sequence of alphanumeric signs or not. The digital instructions (the binary code) for the typesetting as well as the technical processes involved in the production of a single copy may therefore differ. As a matter of fact, they often do but without it being noticeable to the user. In other words, two copies that to the user appear to be two copies of an edition, may, on a more technically sophisticated level, be radically different.

Desktop publishing and settings being stored as computer files have largely facilitated the reproduction of texts. Corrections and changes can be made without resetting the entire text; modifications in layout (typeface, margins, etc.) as well as major changes to the text itself (such as insertions, deletions and rearrangements) are performed in a few keystrokes. This means that new editions are far more easily accomplished with digital typesetting than with any other method.⁹⁵ Moreover, an important difference is that a text stored as a digital file can easily be reproduced and disseminated stored on various storage media. Still, whether the text is stored on a CD, a floppy disc, a hard drive, in a flash memory or in a book, all copies originating from the same typesetting, i.e. the same computer file, are copies of the same edition. This implies that copies do not necessarily need to look the same to be of the same edition; whether thick, rectangular and in paper, or flat, round and in plastic, there is, from the user’s point of view, only a difference in storage medium and storage signs, i.e. the edition has been produced in several storage media versions.⁹⁶

An example of an edition reproduced in several storage media versions is Stephen King’s bestseller Bag of Bones (1998) that can be bought directly from his publisher Simon & Schuster either as a printed book or as an electronic text (similarly to several of his other works). Worth mentioning is also King’s novel The Plant, which was only published in a digital, downloadable version. Hence, quite opposite to what is generally the case with novels, and particularly those by well-known writers, The Plant appears exclusively in a digital version.⁹⁷ However, not only writers with primarily commercial objectives are attracted to cyberspace and digital storage media, but also textual scholars. In Sweden, the most extensive project of its kind is the critical edition of the Swedish nineteenth-century literary classic C. J. L. Almqvist’s "Collected Works," where the texts are published simultaneously in a book version and a digital Internet version.⁹⁸

Yet maybe the most illustrative example describing editions in multiple storage media versions is the everyday handling of digitally stored texts. Finding an interesting article on the Internet, we may download it and save it on the hard drive (personal computer copy). Finding it uncomfortable to read a fairly long article from a screen, we print it out (paper copy). Then, having been entirely absorbed by the fascinating theories presented by the article’s writer, we decide to save the text on a floppy disc as well (floppy disc copy) – just in case the hard drive would crash. In the end, we possess three copies of the same edition, but in different storage media versions.

It is important to stress that copies of an edition are not necessarily textually identical.⁹⁹ There may, in fact, be variants within a storage media version such as a misprint in the first impression of a printed text that was corrected in the second, and dissimilarities due to italic and bold letters turning ‘normal’ by mistake (cf. textual variants). Naturally, similar discrepancies also occur between storage media versions – for instance, there is no reason to transmit errors and mistakes from a printed version to a CD version. But storage media versions may also differ because of more radical changes having been made to the text. Intentionally or by accident, material might have been added, removed or changed. In digital versions, for instance, the text is often furnished with additional links and indexes or in other ways modified to take advantage of what the digital medium has to offer in terms of search functions, navigation tools, etc. Also, the ability of the digital medium to store moving images (video clips, for example) and sounds are frequently exploited. One example previously mentioned is the Swedish encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin that exists in a book version, a CD-ROM version as well as a DVD version, where video clips and sound have been added to the digital versions. If regularly updated, the digital versions may come to differ even more from the print version. Thus different storage media versions of an edition may grow further apart textually if one of the versions is repeatedly updated. As a result, the storage media version soon becomes a new version of the work and eventually even a new work.

The crucial question, then, is how much a text may be modified before the typesetting must be considered altered to the extent of having generated a new edition. Of course, there is, and will be, a difference of opinion over this matter; the digital copies of Nationalencyklopedin might be thought of as products of another edition than the printed book or as products of the same edition. Or, it may be more accurate to choose neither of these alternatives, but to distinguish between an (original) edition and an augmented edition since most changes are additions of textual material. In other cases, depending on the way in which the text was altered, it might be more correct to speak in terms of a revised or a reduced edition.

So far, the discussion has principally concerned the reproduction of mainly typographic texts. However, the principles of the manufacturing of copies are also applicable to the reproduction of texts that cannot be stored on paper, such as computer games, music and films. Like typographic texts, these kinds of texts are reproduced from an edition and may be stored in different storage media.¹⁰⁰ The Beatles’ Help! for instance, that was released on LP in 1965 may probably today be found in as many storage media versions as there are storage media available for storage of audible texts: on audio CD, cassette tape, mini disc, DAT tape, hard drive (in MP3 format or other), etc. There may also, of course, be other differences between these versions than that concerning the storage medium: for example, a remixed version of Help! was recently distributed. Similarly, the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love exists on reels of film used at movie theaters and on videotape for private use. The film can also be purchased on DVD with additional material such as cut scenes and interviews with the cast.

Even though what one could call the stage-one producers of copies (that is the different agents in the music industry, the film industry, the computer game industry, as well as in the book industry) never cease dreaming of and struggling for complete control over the manufacturing of copies, the reproduction of texts continues even after the stage-one copies have left the producer. Legal or not, copies are manufactured both on a small scale for individual use and on a more organized and commercial scale where they are retailed (so-called pirate copies). In bibliographical terms, however, regardless of copyright laws, all copies carrying text of the same typesetting (in a broad sense) are produced from the same edition. The reason for this is that the concept of edition is not defined by the identity of the producer of the copies, but by the setting from which a text is reproduced. When photocopying the text in a book, the bunch of papers is, just as the book, to be considered a copy of a new impression of an edition. The two copies are of the same edition but of separate impressions. Consequently, as long as the copying of audio CDs, CD-ROMs, videocassettes, books and texts stored in other storage media continues, the number of copies of editions will keep on growing. On the other hand, "copying" the text by typing it word for word does not create a copy of the same edition (in the bibliographical sense of the words ‘copy’ and ‘edition’), since the typesetting is no longer the same.

In the previous sections I have used the terms work, text, version, variant, storage medium, presentation medium, copy, edition, issue and others. It should be noted, though, that, although using another set of terms, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has dealt with the same problems that I have discussed here. However, these two sets of terms are conceptually different from each other and they are therefore not directly compatible. To illustrate similarities and differences, IFLA’s terms have continuously (mainly in footnotes) been discussed in relation to the terms used in this study.

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Notes

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[To part 2]
[To references]