Comments on: [Literacy] Reading Benjamin Franklin’s Blog on my iPhone

By: El Oso » Archive » They Have Returned With Their Secrets Unviolated

El Oso » Archive » They Have Returned With Their Secrets Unviolated — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:04:45 +0000

[...] But now there is a tempting 21st century alternative to shouldering the burden of gravity plus the printed book, and that is the e-book reader. With just one (nearly patented no less) click, I am able to fill my iPhone with – yet again – more books than I could possibly read. On my Amazon Kindle app for the iPhone I am currently reading Shop Class as Soulcraft. On Stanza (best app ever!) I am just getting started on Dostoevsky’s Poor Folk. Currently I have 13 unread books waiting for me in Stanza and three in on my Kindle app. The ease, weightlessness, and affordability of maintaining the traveler’s cherished illusion of “studiously turning over the pages of all the vast and serious works which, at ordinary seasons, we never find time to read” has never been so manageable. [...]

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:51:22 +0000

That “good percentage” exists but not in a quantitative sense, i.e. in the sense of a large number of people. It’s that relatively small percentage of the population who are the sensitive, the educated, the literary, the adventurous and so on that yes, people like yourself seek out and of which you count yourselves as members. But its always been a small clique.

The preference for zombification over stimulation is only going to intensify as the “real” world gets to be a harder and harder place in which to survive and succeed and one’s time and focus is scattered just trying to keep up.

By: oso

oso — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:48:48 +0000

We definitely have witnessed the atomization of all types of media. The album has become the track and the six pager New Yorker article has become a 140 character tweet.

Call me an optimist, but I think that there are still a good percentage of us who would much rather curl up with a book than zombify in front of World of Warcraft. Or maybe that’s just who I surround myself with. Maybe I am the one out of touch.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:06:42 +0000

But Jobs is right. No one reads anymore is perhaps an overstatement, but it feels true. Long-form print just doesn’t reach a mass audience the way it used to, which sucks for those of us raised on books and on the romance of writing — fewer and fewer people can make a satisfying living writing, and even those who do seem sad and disaffected. I remember reading about how Amy Tan or someone was complaining that no one was buying novels anymore.

There was a time when people were saying the blog is the new book and all that, but honestly I just don’t see online print (or print delivered by iPhone or some new distribution process) going much beyond where it is now: contributing to an atmosphere ambient with information but where no one has the time or focus anymore to curl up with something long and structured. It’s all going to be snippets, and good luck if you think people have the patience for something serialized.

Why live vicariously through a book when you can already lead a virtual life online? Radio and print are dead, TV and movies are dying. One day more people will be playing World of Warcraft than reading books or watching movies.

By: Elizita

Elizita — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:29:27 +0000

Hola Oso,

Sipi, educandose… leyendo… Unos sobreviven con agua ardiente, mota potente o esporte extremo… yo siempre me refugio en un libro, o dos, o tres o cuatro. Desde pequenita el package of thinly sliced wood pulp known as the book ha sido mi mejor amigo, el lugar donde me podia escapar en tiempos de tormentas y el encuentro fiel y placentero donde desarollar caminos que en las calles no alcanzaba recorrir.

Yo tambien creo firmamente en que the problem is that books need to reinvent themselves and discover a new distribution process De hecho, veo que el trafico generado por el portal nuestro (www.nochesdepoesia.com) queda una importante fuente de interes para los autores y les ayuda mucho qne difundir sus obras. La mayoria de los poetas que conozco logran vender algo de sus libros casi exclusivamente en persona, leyendo en series literarias, visitando escuelas, llegando a festivales locales, nacionales o internacionales.

Ahora, con el acesso internet un llega a conocer autores de todas partes… pero hacer que el libro papel llegue es recontra dificil a causa de leyes territoriales, logistica de envio e impuestos. Tal vez, encontraremos un libre comercio equilibrado que alcanzara sostener la creatividad, la difusion directa y la renta de los creadores.

Lo que si veo que funciona es…. unos pocos poetas ponen poemas en la red para que unos puedan bajarlos en la red, e igual que grupos musicos, la gente puede pagar algo voluntariamente, ayudando asi la difusion y el sostenimiento del autor.

Mucho que pensar y grandes revoluciones en el mundo editorial, tanto para los autores, los editores que los traductores…

Elizita
traductora literaria en Canada
y aficionada de poesia http://www.nochesdepoesia.com

By: catirestrepo

catirestrepo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:44:19 +0000

NO tengo mucho que decir, sólo que leer es un placer.

By: oso

oso — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:44:34 +0000

That’s right – if I’m not self-medicating, then I’m self-educating. Or, like now with this coffee in my hand, I’m doing both.

By: Georgia/Caribbean Free Radio

Georgia/Caribbean Free Radio — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:01:28 +0000

Well said, el Oso. I’ve always said that those who read with facility are essentially self-educating.

By: iPhone » Blog Archive » [Literacy] Reading Benjamin Franklin’s Blog on my iPhone

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:11:20 +0000

[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]