I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t there, but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about what was discussed.
That said, I’m considering going back because I actually feel like I missed out. Well, I feel this way after missing any lecture – I try to go to every single one – so don’t get big-headed or anything.
Anyway, apparently the death of books was brought up, as is natural when talking about the development of technology and the rise of the internet. Print is already obsolete, and yeah, that’s sad. Everyone likes books. But we have to accept this.
Admittedly, evidence shows that reading words off paper is easier than reading them off screens. Why is this? I don’t know. I don’t care. I don’t read much. All I know is that, as long as the option to have words on paper over screens is given to us, I’m happy. Lately I’ve been printing all my readings for all my subjects so that I can turn pages and highlight and stuff, but I don’t have any kind of deep, philosophical reason for doing this. I don’t care about the smell, for example, but I just find it easier. Perhaps this goes back to the apparent ease of reading off paper instead.
On a ever-so-slightly related note, I’ve heard stories of Adrian Miles tearing a book in half in a lecture once upon a time. If you’re going to do that can you give me a heads up? I’d attend that lecture. Might have to wait until Integrated Media though.
If I do it.
Now what was this about the ‘novel’? From what I could gather from Adrian’s blog post, a ‘novel’ is a pretentious ‘book’. It’s a narrative, is a better way of describing it. In book form. Pound print with a definitive story. Which is pretty much any book that isn’t for reference. ‘Novel’. He describes the novel as an assemblage of its parts and all the contexts and histories of these parts’ developments and inventions. Wow, that was a horrid sentence but I’m not fixing it. It’s bizarre how much this subject matches up with Communication Histories and Technologies, since last week we focused on the development of the printing press and how that was, itself, a conglomeration of other technologies. Weird. Still, I have to wonder how commenting on the slow social evolution of the novel is relevant to the ‘Network’. We could look at the evolution of the desk chair in a similar fashion. Yes, the network is more likely to threaten the prevalence of a novel than that of a desk chair, but we aren’t talking so much about the relationship between the novel and the network, rather how society is slowly leaving the novel behind as more and more efficient forms of narrative and information-keeping are developed. What if we develop more efficient forms of office furniture? Yeah, ok, not the best example.
But a book will become obsolete, there’s little doubt about that, but whether it will vanish is doubtful. It might, in a few decades, but for now it’s still going somewhat strong. People love books, and there will be a market for them for a long time, even if, like records, only hipsters and rich collectors get them. That said, records are being produced. Dance music and Hip Hop often comes out in CD, digital and vinyl forms, since DJs are likely to use the records when they perform. As time goes on this will likely be replaced by computer programs and synthesisers, but for the time people the record has found a market and is holding onto it, and it’s a market that CDs can’t take from it. CDs, on the other hand, are more likely to see their doom. What practical use is a CD, really, when we have all the data we need flying at lightning speeds through optical cables and ethernet ports? You can’t make that cool vinyl scratching sound on a CD. You can use it as a coaster, I guess, but you could also use a coaster. There is nothing that a CD brings to the table that a vinyl record and a digital file can’t provide, other than being a physical form that we can call our own – and really that’s a record too. So, by the logical of practicality, perhaps we as a society should abandon the CD and go back to LPs. Also, that would just be amazing.
Back to the book, since that idea of practicality does add something to this debate. There are definitely things that an ebook provides that a book doesn’t, and yes you can highlight them (kinda), you can save your spot, you can translate it, you can even get some programs to read them to you, but a book is – simply put and proven by research – to be easier to read. And, isn’t that what really matters? If this is a device for reading, then surely we should choose the one that makes that task the easiest?
Ok, ok, it’s more complicated than that. Books are more expensive than their digital counterparts. Why should we pay more for a slightly more convenient experience? I mean, books are heavy. Books are fragile. With a kindle or an iPad one can carry a library of books on trains and bikes and up stairs and all that stuff. In normal situations, a real, book-filled library is difficult to carry anywhere. Books are expensive. With eBooks you pay for the data, the graphic designers, editors, authors, marketing, incidental fees, but with normal books you pay for that PLUS (instead of data) paper, ink, binding and delivery. And all that stuff would come to cost more than anything that goes into the production of an eBook, and money is always a good reason to change our ways.
But we aren’t all going over to the digital written narrative. Everyone loves a book, probably more so than they appreciate an eBook. A book is our own, it’s there. If we need it, we can hold it. It’s like a pet, I mean, I doubt Neopets are gonna replace our cats and dogs anytime soon. I don’t think Farmville is gonna make people want to stop gardening, in fact it would probably make them want to garden more. I can’t speak for everyone, but if I read something great on a device, I go out and buy a physical copy so I can read it again proper. Likewise, when I (COUGH COUGH) digitally acquire a film or TV show, if I like it I will buy the DVDs or Blu-rays. There is something about watching or reading a malleable, touchable, physical copy that makes it more real. A book or a DVD isn’t erased by clicking ‘delete’. It’s there, it’s in a book shelf. It can be hidden, it can be destroyed, and destroying it is a fun process. Hell, simply watching/reading it is really just a slow path to destruction for books and DVDs, but that’s part of the fun as well. And I like destroying.