| Sumario: | This article analyzes textual materiality in Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End, a 2006 sf novel set in the near future. The theoretical impetus for the analysis is provided by N. Katherine Hayles's investigation of "the contemporary pressure toward dematerialization" caused by the growing popularity of digital machines and the science of cybernetics, which, apart from influencing our understanding of the idea of the human, affects also our perception of textual embodiment. As a result, the materiality of books starts to be regarded as something expendable, an old-fashioned kind of interface with no meaning whatsoever. Disgreeing with this view of books, Hayles argues that textual materiality is one of their essential characteristics, as the physical form plays an important role in the cultural chain of these texts' production, assimilation, and influence. Taking into account works by Hayles and other writers dealing with book history, editing, archival science, and the digital revolution in general, the article proceeds to analyze, first, the conflict over digitization of an academic library as depicted in Vinge's novel, and second, the creative crisis that the main character--a poet--experiences as a result. Ultimately, it is argued, the relationship among author, text, and reader, as presented in the novel, illuminates debates about textual materiality taking place in contemporary digital-humanities scholarship.
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