If data differentiation broke the monopoly of writing [in the twentieth century], the computer at the beginning of the twenty-first century breaks the monopoly of vision associated with reading. Interactive text… stimulates sensorimotor functions not mobilized in print reading, including fine movements involved in controlling the mouse, keyboard, and/or joystick, haptic feedback through the hands and fingers, and complex eye-hand coordination in real-time dynamic environments. Moreover, this multisensory stimulation occurs simultaneously with reading, a configuration unknown in the age of print.
Katherine Hayles, Electronic Literature
So, obviously I’m totally into this, but I kind of wonder… could we say that the one area of literature that begins to challenge this sense that these things were “unknown in the age of print” might be the erotic and romantic genres of literature? And if so, that seems useful— at least to me, but y’all know where my interests lie. :)