----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 9:14:48 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: on paper (was: Re: Our Book and other book pictures)
In a message dated 2/28/2009 5:52:07 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: You snipped the meat of my message and responded to the sauce. The words are the art. The paper is only a tool for presenting it. Hell, until well into the renaissance almost all literature was oral. The paper and binding are just a tool. And an analogy that attempts to compare a book and reading device with a painting and a print is fallacious. ========= Sure, I was being flip. I often am. Trying to be humorous and lighten the mood. :-) No, I think print books are convenient and a reader often wouldn't be. Also unless they can come up with a mat background very paper-like I will not be comfortable reading a screen. One is soft to the touch and one is hard and one is reflective and one is not (even non-reflective screens are reflective), and one is tangible and the other is more ethereal. Also, you know, I like flipping through books rapidly and looking for stuff. In many cases, having to look things up by index would actually take me longer, a lot longer. I also just enjoy flipping through books and looking at things quickly. And I enjoy all the tactile things Godfrey and others mentioned. I also worry very much that all of us going to an electronic reader would mean we would in the end lose information, because there would be no back up copies. And I worry that it will take information more and more out of the hands of people that can't afford it, can't afford readers. Just as so much information on the Net now is out of the hands that can't afford computers. I see this last as a major concern. Education and information only for those who can afford it. While used books can be had for pennies. If we do see (I don't think I will in my lifetime) the demise of the book someday then I think the world will be much sorrier for it. Well, this discussion might get unpleasant if carried on longer, probably already has gone on too long. Overall, I've enjoyed it and I think it has been thought provoking. But I want you to know if I don't reply more, it doesn't mean I agree with you and that I thought you "won" -- we disagree. But I did win:-) No one wins if books disappear. While readers might have some advantages, they, like digital cameras, would have a lot of disadvantages too. Nothing is ever ideal. But, for me, books have been pretty ideal. I admit I am an unabashed book lover. And I'm a lover of literature. The medium is of less importance. I am fond of well made books, but I realize they're secondary to the art of the word. Okay, you win:-) Paul -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
