ABSTRACT
The proliferation and generalized use of networked and programmable media (hereafter: NPM) imply, at the very least, some modulation of the systems of inscription which contribute to the construction of cultures.! This brief chapter addresses certain structures which underlie writing -a particular system of inscription - insofar as writing is implemented in, on, or as NPM. Writing here is conceived as a culturally privileged form of linguistic transcription which constitutes, amongst other things, literature. Writing is - centrally though not exclusively -a linguistic activity, the material traces of which have an essential graphic aspect. It allows language-making and its trade of signification to persist and garner authority, embodied in a wide variety of material cultural forms - the manuscript, the stele, the book, the graffiti-scarred wall, the spirit-writing tablet, the canonical scripture, the feverish textual archive of the Internet.2
