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
