Programming Under The Wizard’s Spell
The computer is a tool that has become indispensable to modern families and companies. In flourishing so successfully, the computer has passed from being incredibly complex and unusable to anyone who was not well-versed in its intricacies, to being consumer-oriented and user-friendly. In Ellen Ullman’s essay, Programming Under The Wizard’s Spell, she attempts to convince the reader that the computer has been oversimplified to the point of no return. The simplification of the computer made it more user-friendly and therefore more appealing to customers. However, this only blinded people to using the computer the way corporate America wanted them to, without understanding it.
Firstly, this essay is a hybrid, as it is a mix of the expository and comparison and contrast essay. In the first part, she attempts to examine the differences between various Microsoft operating systems and the Unix operating system.
Then the author tries to answer the questions What is it?” and “What is it not?” in paragraphs 3. Ullman states, “Unix always presumes that you know what you’re doing.” In referring to Microsoft, she describes it as “consumer-oriented, idiot-proofed, covered by its pretty skin of icons and dialog boxes.”
She has tactfully drawn the boundaries between the two products, which start to take on the appearance of the good and the corporate-induced bad. Ullman has now inferred her goal: she wishes to convince the reader of her convictions about the new computerized corporate America. Also, she uses simple wording, narration, and a somewhat comic anecdote of her experiences, effectively leading the reader to draw negative conclusions about the new consumer-oriented computer. She does not truly attempt to be objective but gives the illusion of objectivity by shortly stating in the first paragraph, a reasonable, professional choice in a world where Microsoft platforms are everywhere.”
This is a reasonably good statement that inspires the reader to believe that Ellen Ullman is weighing the good and the bad. Furthermore, the reader can only conclude that there were so many more bad things than good things about Microsoft that it is most likely a bad product that hinders our computing freedom. This conclusion is, of course, the only one possible for anyone who reads the essay. She made it this way without actually expressing this opinion herself. She is merely telling a story littered with an unfavorable tone that seeps out of the text through her choice of wording: My computer.”
I’ve always hated this icon. Ullman infantilizes Windows in order to ridicule it and further convince the reader of the negativity of these sorts of programs. Ullman’s purpose in writing her essay was to warn the reader of the dangers that may ensue from the oversimplification of such a complex machine. The title she chose conveys her convictions well. However, as she explains her misfortunes with Windows, she uses certain terms and expressions that not just anyone can understand. She wrote this essay for an audience of other computer fans that she tries to convince of the perils of forgetting how a computer really works, not just how the operating system works. In conclusion, Ellen Ullman’s ultimate goal was that Corporate America saw the complex computer as a wild beast inaccessible to most, so they tinkered with it to finally make it the new user-friendly computer system, man’s new best friend.
But in doing so, they destroyed its instincts. Her vision of the industry is most obviously personal, and through her essay, she ultimately succeeds in persuading the reader that her convictions are almost fact. This is a good example of how one’s opinions can be successfully diffused to others.
