Or maybe not either extreme...I just wanted to get this link out for somethoughts on Amazon's new Kindle. Please, my friends and fellow bibliophiles, go and read some of the page and watch their little videos.
How does one react?
[The wannabe-independent-bookstore-owner in me cries out in frustration and despair.]
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6 comments:
I do have thoughts and responses and probably a whole post brewing about this idea of electronic literature, ebooks and Kindle (versus/supplementing the older print forms); but, for now, I pose one question of great importance:
Can I throw a Kindle across the room like a book?
(Yes, I have been known to throw certain books--from exasperation at authors, characters, plots, etc.)
Tool of Satan--or at least proof that the demiurge lives on--that's my vote. Actually, I am bi-polar on these issues: a luddite with a secret love of gadgets. (OK, blog-posting from a MacBook makes it not-so-secret.) I hate the idea of it, but would take one as a Christmas present. Herewith, a couple of pros, then some cons.
Pros:
1. Access to text. This thing is ingenious: get a book in a minute, get it anywhere there is cell phone access (forget the wi-fi hotspot search).
2. Portability. Take a dozen books with you without compromising your back!
3. Note taking: type and store you notes (legibly--the big hit for me).
Cons:
1. False promise A: You can have it NOW! Collecting books is not the same as processing them. This taps into the chimerical techno-fantasy that we will someday be able to download text and knowledge directly to our brains.
2. False promise B: If you collect them all in one place, you'll actually read them! For some people that might work, but in reality, having texts at our fingertips is not the main issue: the real issue is discipline.
3. False promise C: It's green! Less paper is used, true, but the carbon footprint is still pretty big, what with production, replacement (Kindle II will probably be ready for NEXT Christmas), and battery production and charging, my hunch is this is not a win for the environment.
4. False promise D: Permanence. Your text and notes will be digital, so you can back them up and save them forever. Not likely--manuscripts and bound volumes will have a longer shelf life.
So on the balance, is it a good or bad thing? In terms of scholarship and archival concerns, it might be a useful tool, but the book still reigns as the greatest invention of all time (followed by drip coffee). But reading is also about pleasure, and for pleasure reading and proliferation of text, it could be a winner.
Other views?
Oh, and yes, you could throw it-but probably only once, and you would also be throwing all the other books that were loaded. So I think you wouldn't. And to Leslie's concern, I just overcharge for drinks at the coffee bar and start a 'Kindle novel discussion group' three evenings a week--once they see the stacks, they'll buy!
Clever solution, good sir!
I must say that I do see many advantages in the Kindle...but I really wouldn't want it [I don't like carrying expensive things as I am wont to damage stuff on a regular basis, accidentally of course] and I really hope that it does not catch on. Surprisingly or unexpectedly enough, Dr. Bressler brought this up in class today as we were working through a conversation on Graphic Novels [literary or not, medium or genre, etc...]. To drop all pretense of impartiality, I warn you that this will most likely turn into a rant.
Reading is a ferociously personal thing for me, and for others I suspect. Taking care of my books is also ferociously personal--I made sure to request people wipe their fingers before looking through my graphic novels [Mavel 1602, Kingdom Come, Last Temptation and some others] if they were munching on the tasty goodness of cookies or cinnamon buns. I refuse to dog-ear pages and have just come into my own as a beginning book desecrator [spelling] who underlines things. It is a tactile experience involving page turning and flipping and holding the binding with the proper support so it does not split too soon in its life. It is the feeling of carrying books that lends some weight to me as a person, because I know that what little I know is built upon that which I have read. And as for research, Mr. Gaiman [watch his little review], there is no hope of the kindle ever being more effective than print-outs or books. You can't spread a kindle out and compare things and you can't have the almost visceral pleasure of removing the tabs from a book you have finished using after a paper.
In short: The experience is incomplete. The Kindle is a lie, and Mark is right. People won't magically decide to read all of Tolstoy becaues they have it on their nifty little Kindle. This won't improve reading or make it more common.
Of course, I was born forty years old and enjoy being a crotchety old woman who likes to complain about how technology is slowly usurping humanity's insignificant handle on themselves.
[Darn you kids, get off my lawn!]
I like what has been said so far. I agree with Mark's assessment of the Kindle product--and all other forms of ebooks and distribution. I've added it to my wishlist, but probably won't own one till they drop to about $50 (how long?).
I know that people are often frightened by the ebook "revolution"--mostly because they're fearful of the downfall of print culture. I'm skeptical about such a problem, really. I find it hard to believe that print books will ever be dominated and/or replaced by electronic editions.
While I see the great need and benefit (especially in medieval studies) for electronic editions of certain texts, I also love my print books. There's something about spreading books out in front of me, about having stacks to peruse for research, about flipping through the pages, even about the smell. I love print books, and I know I'm not the only one.
Is Kindle a spawn of the Devil himself? I doubt it. Is it going to hurt our book print culture? I also doubt that. Does it have the possibility to revolutionize the field of ebooks and the way we read? Maybe. But I still believe in the power of books.
You sound like such a romantic there, Brandon, but I have to agree. There is something innately wonderful about books, and, while I must say thinking about this makes me extremely tired right now, sitting encircled by books on the floor to the point of being basically trapped while working on a paper is a semi-magnificent feeling.
In the end, I doubt that the Kindle [and its demon spawn] poses any particular threat to books during our lifetimes. Maybe in a generation or three, when Bradbury's extrapolations begin to surface further. I won't be adding one to my wishlist, but I won't disavow knowledge of people if they get one.
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