“Literature Reformed”
by Marc Hansen
As we embark on the beginning of the second decade of the century, it’s becoming abundantly clear that this really is the digital age. We are engrossed in our technology. There’s not a household without a tv and a computer, or a person without a cell phone or music player. World’s going down the toilet? Well, give me a second, I’m waiting in line for the new iPad. Still don’t have a job? Well, no need to worry, as long as you can still buy the newest, latest, greatest toy with another bank loan. These days you can’t even survive without all of your gadgets, but the truth is I hadn’t really minded until now, when it’s hit me where it hurts most: books. I suppose it’s only the natural progression that soon even books would be relegated to a digital file, but if I can help it, I’ll try and do everything in my power to make sure that society continues buying real, physical books, instead of the Kindle. That’s right: he whose name cannot be spoken. I guess, I’m not really giving the Kindle (and the iPad, for that matter, now) enough credit, but it’s time to really compare regular, old-fashioned books and the Kindle, once and for all. While physical books are for happy, faithful book-lovers, the Kindle is for aggressive, ominous killers, who want to destroy the medium, strip away everything that makes it what it is, and ultimately, gain world control. Or something.
I’ll admit that the Kindle does have some useful qualities, as it would have to have, or there would be no other way its evil creators could plant the idea that this destructive bomb is a good idea into consumer’s brains. But seriously, it does allow the reader to enlarge the print size, which is pretty helpful for the elderly, as well as anyone whose farsighted, and if you’re traveling, it’s much easier to pack a small Kindle with all of your books on it, then all of your physical books, which would take up a significant amount of space. Another positive I’ve heard is that it’s more convenient to buy books on your digital Kindle, have it directly downloaded to the machine, and be able to own the book immediately and that’s where I draw the line. (on physical paper I actually drew a line there - see reading on paper is better than reading on a computer, even though that's what you're doing right now). I love going to the bookstore. It’s like the difference of watching a movie at home or actually going to the theater to experience the film. When I get in the car to drive to the bookstore, it feels more eventful and special. I’m physically getting out of the house, instead of just staying inside, and have that anticipation on the drive over there of finally being able to get a copy of that book I’ve wanted to read. When I picture the Kindle, I think of a bunch of mole-y, shadow people, enclosed in their homes, living off of a computer, and never seeing the sun or going outside.
Not to mention that the Kindle just loses that lovable, human quality that physical books seem to possess. Reading should be intimate. Most of the joy comes from the actual story, but your surroundings affect the experience. Isn’t it always better when you’re curled up in your cozy, warm bed reading, than reading in public, when you’re surrounded by lots of people and distractions? Like I said, reading is meant to be an intimate experience, where you get so involved you can’t stop turning the real pages and even bring the book with you to the bathroom so you don’t have to put it down. One of my favorite things to do is read for hours in the jacuzzi and have the warm, miniscule, water molecules jump onto the grainy pages of my paperback. If I took a Kindle with me in the jacuzzi, I’d just get electrocuted. I like getting my books stained and looking beaten down - that’s proof that they’ve been used, whereas, on the Kindle, I could just delete the file of my book once I’m done with it. Some would say that they’d prefer not having physical books take up all that space, but I love having a stack of books I’ve yet to read, and all the books I have read on my shelf. That’s my life on those shelves.
Finally, books have a history to them that Kindles can’t obtain. You could ask me why I don’t mind that all the music I own is digital and on my iPod, but I love my iPod and I couldn’t live without my computer. The real difference is that the change from CDs to mp3 files on iPods didn’t seem all that drastic, because the way we’ve listened to music has constantly been changing. It just seemed like the next step in the process of evolution. First, we had records, then we had 8-tracks, then we had cassettes, then we had CDs, and now we have mp3 files. Every decade or so, we’d have a new way of listening to music, so an iPod just seemed like the newest way to essentially do the same thing. Books, on the other hand, have always been books. For hundreds of years, they’ve stayed in the same format, on paper, banded together. To change that would be to change what books are all about. Reading has always been a form of recreation, and I take pride in knowing that when I’m writing with pencil and paper, I’m writing the same way our greatest authors, from Shakespeare to Jane Austen to FitzGerald, wrote. I’ve held books in my hands that were published over 150 years ago, and it’s a magical feeling knowing that what you have in your hands is not only that old, but was once new. You can see the history and it’s nice to think that authors today are still publishing their works in the exact same form. Those books can survive for eternity, while with the press of a button, the books on the Kindle could be gone forever.
While some supporters of the Kindle would say that it’s the actual content of the books that count, and I agree that that is the most important thing, I still ask them this question: Was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for example (or insert your book of choice), meant to be read on a lit-up screen? When Mark Twain was writing the words down, was he picturing his readers reading his book in this form? No, Mark Twain had never heard of a computer. That’s not how Mark Twain envisioned his book while writing it, and that’s not how it’s meant to be read. Yet that’s essentially all a Kindle is: a lifeless computer. Our species have always written on actual pieces of paper, and we always will.
Some of the jokes (like the print size) really did work better on paper, further proof of my point.
I agree completely. Books are the best of friends - they're always sitting there patiently for you right where you last left off, they teach you the most important things in life, and let us escape. Reading is absolutely not just about the story, but in the context in which you are experiencing it, too. YAY BOOKS :)
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