“The Great Gatsby was last updated in 1924. You don’t need it to be refreshed, do you? Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing - that’s reassuring. Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper. A screen always feels like we could delete that, change that, move it around. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it’s just not permanent enough.”
— Jonathan Frazen in defense of the printed book — “Jonathan Franzen: e-books are damaging society.”
Jan. 29 2012
Via telegraph.co.uk
#books #printed books #reading #jonathan franzen #ebooks
148 notes

Notes

  1. notaparagon reblogged this from oliveryeh
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  7. masterbeethoven reblogged this from bunnybundy and added:
    Understandable, but I have seen this argument used way too many times as an excuse for the pretentious fallacy that...
  8. bunnybundy reblogged this from masterbeethoven and added:
    i don’t think Franzen is trying to imply that someone WOULD change the wording of great literature. i think he’s saying...
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