Bob, I think your argument is a little shortsighted. It's as if you assume that content creators will not adapt to the new medium of distribution. If the e-readers restrict themselves to being utilitarian only, you'd fail to grab the paper luddites and the aestethics geeks (aka iPhone diciples), but it's hardly a showstopper. A delaying factor, maybe, but not a showstopper.
It took a couple of centuries from the inventions of the printing press until the first fiction novels got wide distribution. It took until the invention of cheap transport to get the news around. With electronic distribution, that cost comes down even further. What irks me, though, is that the internet relies on a rather fragile infrastructure. :-( Jostein 2009/3/1 Bob W <[email protected]>: > The mistake you're making, Mark, is thinking that reading a novel, or even a > recipe book, is a utilitarian activity like getting from A to B. It isn't. > Reading a classic book is like looking at a Rembrandt painting. There is a > world of difference between looking at an original oil painting and looking > at a reproduction, and it encompasses not just the act of looking, but also > everything that goes around it, such as the gallery, the place, the people, > the other pictures in that place, and many other factors. Reading a printed > book is a similar experience and goes beyond the words themselves to > encompass the book itself, your surroundings and so on. It's a long way from > being utilitarian. If you (and more importantly the producers of e-readers) > don't understand that then these devices are doomed to fail. > > Bob > > > -- > 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. > -- http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ http://alunfoto.blogspot.com -- 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.
