Doctor Murray-John’s discussion of medieval manuscripts and computer technology was very informative and thought-provoking. The main question Murray-John prompted was whether or not presentation was as important as the substance of a work. Upon reflection, I determined that presentation can be just as important as content. I decided this because I am a very visual person and imagery and presentation can most certainly evoke certain feelings. If content is presented in pink text with hearts and flowers in the background, I will most likely associate this text with a femininity or girlishness. On that same note, if some kind of text is presented with a sports layout, personally, that text will suggest masculinity to me. I really believe that the way a work is presented has a great impact on our interpretation.
Another interesting point brought up by Dr. Murray-John was the issue of Genesis One and Genesis Two in medieval manuscripts. Essentially, the monk copyists took two different texts from completely different authors and placed them in the same telling of Genesis. This demonstrates how the concept of mash-ups is not a new idea and that people have been juxtaposing very different works together since medieval times. By copying the story of creation from one author and another author’s version of the story of Adam and Eve together, the medieval copyist has managed to make a work that is distinctly his own; he has made a mash-up.