So here I am, Psychology, Computer Instruction, and Self-Help books to my back, prepared to defend the written word in a format different from the one you are reading at the moment. If you can see my point, then great; if you can't, that's what the Comments section is for.
EDIT: The title for this was originally: The Written Word (and the Printed Page), but I decided that I should make up for last Thursday's and make this one short and sweet.
Sometime during the middle of last week I stumbled upon the comic above, and soon after found in my Twitter feed a link which directed me to Huffington Post, to Marc Ruxin's article "The Death of Touch and the Lost Joy of the Unexpected."
In his article Ruxin spells out the inevitable demise of the Compact Disc (the Music Store), the DVD (Movie Rental Places), and the Book (Book Stores in General); being in the digital age, with inventions like the iPod, Netflix, and the Kindle, soon all media is fated to end up in convenient little handheld devices, a turn of events which Ruxin conservatively describes as being "good and bad."
As someone who cares a great deal for the environment, I'm thrilled that someday the resources and raw materials used in books and CDs might one day be spared. What I find distressing about all of this is the disconnect that will occur, and is occurring, because of this not-so-subtle move from hard copy to soft.
At a mall last year I walked into an HMV (a large music chain, for you Americans) and saw that they had a sale on graphic novels. Upon walking up to the counter and handing the cashier my purchase (DC's Final Crisis), I was surprised to hear her tell me, "This one's really good."
The shock of meeting a girl who knew comics aside, this was pivotal to the first of two points I want to make: people should sell books.
I know a lot of people who might describe HMV as one of those massive soulless corporations, interested only in profits and nothing else. That may be true- but HMV hires people. I've bought many, many books on Amazon and Half.com, but have never had the opportunity to talk to the seller about the book, to ask them their favourite part or if it's even a decent read to begin with. If there's a bookstore you frequent, you know that the people who work there have opinions, and that they're always up for providing them if you ask.
My second point is difficult to separate from my first, but I believe that books should be exactly what their definition(according to WordWeb) entails: "A written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together)."
I can't imagine a world where instead of walking up to my bookshelf I pull open a drawer and take out a Kindle, a gadget that can hold up to fifteen-hundred books. Instead of walking up and down the aisles of a Chapters (a large book chain, again for the Americans), or perusing the shelves of my favourite used bookstore, I'm downloading a full novel in less than sixty seconds. If I don't feel like reading a book, no huge loss, I can just delete it and look for another one. Instead of buying a book strictly on the basis of its cover (not always a bad decision) I can just see what Amazon recommends based on my previous books downloaded.
This might be a strictly personal thing, but I genuinely enjoy feeling the pages of a book between my fingers. I love the feel of a brand new book with the spine intact just as much as I love a book that's worn from many readers, spine creased in their favourite parts. Real books feel and smell and look. I defy Amazon to provide a book open for download where I stumble across a receipt someone has left as a bookmark, or a note left in the margin for a class they took years ago.
Ruxin dealt with music and film as well as books, both subjects I care about strongly in their conversion to a media built for convenience instead of interaction. For me, however, literature has the most to lose in all of this. People will continue to listen to music and to watch movies, but I don't think people will always read books.
Call me a Luddite, but you can keep your Kindles and your e-books to yourself. I don't mean to judge you if that's what you're into, but when it comes to the written word, I strongly believe it belongs with the printed page. Call me a hypocrite, but if I could print this out and hand it to you in person, I would gladly do that instead.
The above is a panel taken from the comic Gunshow. Being a very cool guy, KC Green, the creator of Gunshow gave me permission to use this panel for my blog. Clicking here will bring you to the full comic, and the full site.
Sometime during the middle of last week I stumbled upon the comic above, and soon after found in my Twitter feed a link which directed me to Huffington Post, to Marc Ruxin's article "The Death of Touch and the Lost Joy of the Unexpected."
In his article Ruxin spells out the inevitable demise of the Compact Disc (the Music Store), the DVD (Movie Rental Places), and the Book (Book Stores in General); being in the digital age, with inventions like the iPod, Netflix, and the Kindle, soon all media is fated to end up in convenient little handheld devices, a turn of events which Ruxin conservatively describes as being "good and bad."
As someone who cares a great deal for the environment, I'm thrilled that someday the resources and raw materials used in books and CDs might one day be spared. What I find distressing about all of this is the disconnect that will occur, and is occurring, because of this not-so-subtle move from hard copy to soft.
At a mall last year I walked into an HMV (a large music chain, for you Americans) and saw that they had a sale on graphic novels. Upon walking up to the counter and handing the cashier my purchase (DC's Final Crisis), I was surprised to hear her tell me, "This one's really good."
The shock of meeting a girl who knew comics aside, this was pivotal to the first of two points I want to make: people should sell books.
I know a lot of people who might describe HMV as one of those massive soulless corporations, interested only in profits and nothing else. That may be true- but HMV hires people. I've bought many, many books on Amazon and Half.com, but have never had the opportunity to talk to the seller about the book, to ask them their favourite part or if it's even a decent read to begin with. If there's a bookstore you frequent, you know that the people who work there have opinions, and that they're always up for providing them if you ask.
My second point is difficult to separate from my first, but I believe that books should be exactly what their definition(according to WordWeb) entails: "A written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together)."
I can't imagine a world where instead of walking up to my bookshelf I pull open a drawer and take out a Kindle, a gadget that can hold up to fifteen-hundred books. Instead of walking up and down the aisles of a Chapters (a large book chain, again for the Americans), or perusing the shelves of my favourite used bookstore, I'm downloading a full novel in less than sixty seconds. If I don't feel like reading a book, no huge loss, I can just delete it and look for another one. Instead of buying a book strictly on the basis of its cover (not always a bad decision) I can just see what Amazon recommends based on my previous books downloaded.
This might be a strictly personal thing, but I genuinely enjoy feeling the pages of a book between my fingers. I love the feel of a brand new book with the spine intact just as much as I love a book that's worn from many readers, spine creased in their favourite parts. Real books feel and smell and look. I defy Amazon to provide a book open for download where I stumble across a receipt someone has left as a bookmark, or a note left in the margin for a class they took years ago.
Ruxin dealt with music and film as well as books, both subjects I care about strongly in their conversion to a media built for convenience instead of interaction. For me, however, literature has the most to lose in all of this. People will continue to listen to music and to watch movies, but I don't think people will always read books.
Call me a Luddite, but you can keep your Kindles and your e-books to yourself. I don't mean to judge you if that's what you're into, but when it comes to the written word, I strongly believe it belongs with the printed page. Call me a hypocrite, but if I could print this out and hand it to you in person, I would gladly do that instead.
At that same HMV I met a girl who had gone to school with Avril Lavigne (brought up since I think I was buying her second album).
ReplyDeleteSorry for the ranting about books and stuff, and for ranting so much in general. Considering there are two posts a week, I think one for rants might be pushing it a little. We'll see if I can maybe fix that.
evan. i just ranted about this print vs. ebook deal. and i agree. i miss the secondhand bookstores with their musty shelves in london.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying about a disconnect. In high school, I was constantly lending out books to friends. I would first entice them with a famous best-seller, then lure them into reading what I wanted them to read. without actual, substantial books, I doubt lending would've been so successful.
ReplyDeleteI, too, love the feel of a well-worn paperback book in my hands.
But what about textbooks that students will use once and then sell back to a bookstore? With kindles, I think the user is able to highlight and bookmark specific passages. And if you're a college student with a low budget, buying electronic textbooks could be the perfect solution: light, inexpensive and easily returned.
Is there really no place for devices such as the Kindle or the Nook?