Home >> Hobbies >> Reading

What Is a Fluid Text Vs. a Stable One?

A stable or fixed text is one that doesn't change. Hard-copy books are stable, in contrast to digital documents which the creator can revise easily. Digital material is fluid, as there's no guarantee its form is permanently fixed. However, some scholars, such as literary critic John Bryant, argue that even paper-and-ink texts are more fluid and less fixed than people realize.

Fluid Vs. Fixed
- Throughout the history of the printed word, part of print's power has been to give words permanence. Novels Charles Dickens wrote in the 1800s still tell the same story, using the same words, more than a century later. Digital documents, by contrast, may not stay the same for even 24 hours. For example, an online newspaper can rewrite a story to fix an error, whereas a hard-copy newspaper can't do more than print a correction the following day.
Document Types
- In a 1994 paper, Xerox researcher David Levy argues that a simple fixed/fluid division ignores the fact that both digital and paper documents have multiple purposes. A hard-copy book may be fixed, but a paper shopping list is fluid: the shopper may add or delete items multiple times as he changes his mind about his purchases. Online, a writer may customize a group email with additions for particular correspondents, but publish an e-book in what's meant to be a fixed form, even if it's corrected later.
Textual Criticism
- Literary critic John Bryant says that even literary hard-copy classics are fluid documents. When the writer works on them, they may go through multiple changes after the supposedly final form, in response to feedback from editors, publishers or friends. Second editions or translations of important works result in more visible changes, but even though readers may think the new text is fixed, having multiple versions in circulation or in people's homes proves that it's really fluid.
Controversy
- Creating a definitive edition of a literary work, Bryant says, often involves going back and rereading the writer's original manuscript. Because many such manuscripts include typos, crossed out words or penciled-in lines, and may differ from the published, edited version, the text is no more fixed and definitive than a fluid digital texts. English Professor Alex Gil argues that Bryant's efforts to use fluid digital editions to capture writers' creative processes and changing thoughts amounts to mind-reading writers' intentions when they edit their work, rather than letting the manuscript fix the work.

Reading