Thanks BJ Thomas for this week’s letter, a nice meditation on the changing nature of the printed word in a digital society – something that we think about a lot around here. We too hope there’s a future with good old-fashioned books and maybe even a few newspapers. And like BJ, we prefer a flashlight over a backlight any day. Meantime, BJ, you can pick up your winner’s spoils, a bag of Strictly Organic coffee, at our office, 704 NW Georgia.
So I’m reading in the national news today that now, in addition to Kindle (shudder) trying to change how people think they read books, there is a new technology designed to insert visuals of what is being read – an awful creation referred to as a “Vook.”
Oh Dear Lord!!!
The whole idea of reading a fiction book – one of those hard (or soft) cover bound stack of papers – is to devour words and imagine. Create places, people and circumstances and think for YOURSELF – not, for goodness sake, to have someone else do it for you. You might as well go watch something brainless on TV.
I would imagine that there are thousands of ideas as to what Jane Eyre might have looked like. Or some of the Shakespeare characters. Don Quixote. The Count of Monte Cristo. Nancy Drew – even the heroines of Danielle Steele novels. If you let someone create a video of that character, doesn’t it lose some of the excitement of the written word?
I am a book lover. I have friends who are book lovers. All of my sisters, and my children are lovers of REAL books. The ones you can curl up in bed with, or under a tree, or on the sofa on a rainy day. Bend down the corners, lightly mark with a pencil; inhale the fragrance of the printed page. Does a Kindle have a fragrance? Can you hide it under the covers with a flashlight to read deep into the night? It has been hinted that I have too many books. Ummm… You can never have TOO MANY BOOKS!!
There is a poignant story by Oregon writer M.K.Wren, A Gift From The Shore. After the Holocaust two women, in their search for survival, dip found books in wax to preserve them for the future, and store them in a cave on the Oregon coast. Fiction? Or not?
I am reasonable about my books. History, reference, inspiration – not so many novels. But what I have is all REAL paper. And, I must confess, I still have some of my storybooks from my childhood.
Technology is OK to a point. However, we have lost the art of handwriting, texting and IM has shortened communication to a staccato stream. Let’s not lose the enjoyment of real, honest to goodness books!
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.
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Well put BJ, we must not lose the essence of reading.
But, don’t you think that the essence of -reading- is the word that is being read, not the media those words appear on or in? Although not an owner of the latest cyber craze, it would be nice to be able to access limitless titles and volumes without the chore of running them down. Many of the titles I am interested in are usually obscure–some out of print. Used book stores in Central Oregon are woefully inadequate in that regard and Portland is more than a short drive. The possibility of downloading one of these titles instantly and having immediate access has an appeal I hadn’t much thought about until now.
I too am an admirer of books–own thousands, some four hundred years old (Elizabethan English is a REAL chore to read!). I would hate to think that they would not exist in a few short decades. But a Luddite-like distaste for the direction publishing is headed a waste. ANYTHING that brings the written word to more people who are actually interested in reading it is to be applauded.
Ideas can be communicated through many means. Before the written word there were the story tellers in the Homeric tradition. I am sure there were people who lamented the Gutenberg press. Paperbacks made literature more affordable to the masses, and I am sure someone lamented the loss of guilt-edged pages in leather bindings. Times change. Technology changes.
There are advantages to the technology. Think of the minor authors and myriad of titles that are going to become available. The price of books is outrageous–particularly text books–beyond all common sense. Can you imagine paying $23 for a download of the latest Alex Cross novel or Sarah Palin autobiography? Ideas will not be stopped by artificial barriers of politics, economics, culture or religion. Anyone with access to the web will be able to get the books they want.
You, personally, do not have to embrace the technology, but it is not the end of the world–or the printed word–as we know it. Just the next step in the natural progression of things.
Here’s to all things written!
Well said again Mr. Cramer! The important thing is not the medium of transmission of the “word” but the “word” itself and, especially nowadays, it is vital to get as many people as possible reading. It appears we are both bibliophiles!
But once one has mastered the mechanics of reading the next step should be to learn and preferably master critical reading (and listening, and viewing). So much is published nowadays – especially in digital media with their low up front costs (compared to publishing a hardback) that the critical faculties are more important than ever. These skills are necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff and then to appreciate and analyze the wheat!!!
Schools don’t seem to do a good job teaching these skills – many seem to equate critical skills with “snobbishness”, “elitism”, “racism”, “anglocentrism” or even “sexism”: to avoid such charges schools seem to have adopted a laissez-faire culture (i.e. whatever works for you is “good”!).
Good books on this – have you read them?
A Nation Gone Blind, America in an age of Simplification and Deceit- Larson
In Defense of Elitism – William Henry
The Middle Mind- Curtis