they usually assume it's entirely part of the whole corporate marketing complex that is crushing our culture in a vise and no matter how much you talk to them you can't make them see that the free and light-speed distribution of all information and the dismantling of as many as possible of the old barriers to knowledge and education is actually our only way out
(usually cuz their opposition to the culture-vise has become a huge part of their idea of themselves and trashing ebooks for incoherent crimes like "impermanence" is a quick and easy way of redemonstrating just how athwart history they are standing and just how loudly they are yelling stop)
― the "intenterface" (difficult listening hour), Monday, 30 January 2012 16:28 (twelve years ago) link
i'm not even going to read that, franzen is such a tool
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 30 January 2012 16:30 (twelve years ago) link
lol
― markers, Monday, 30 January 2012 18:34 (twelve years ago) link
I'll wait for the print edition.
― Jeff, Monday, 30 January 2012 18:34 (twelve years ago) link
Ebooks will become more and more popular, but I really doubt that print is going anywhere for a long time. It's not quite exactly the same, but think about digital photography v film. digital is a whole area all it's own and prints are still around bc they have value different from digital.
― garbage corn fan (Je55e), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 02:36 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
This is 100% otm. There's no print apocalypse ffs, it's not like buying a Kindle makes people physically incapable of buying and reading books anymore.
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:35 (twelve years ago) link
"The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing – that's reassuring"
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
i still have absolutely no idea what he thinks happens to the text in an ebook but i'll be fucked if i read the article either so
― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:42 (twelve years ago) link
he saw fantasia and thinks the letters waltz around the screen
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
Stunningly, my boss - who was the one I was referring to upthread who gets frazzled when she can't make a PDF of text act like a Word document of text - is a huge Kindle fan. Just noticed this juxtaposition today, actually, b/c at lunch she mentioned that she bought a regular book b/c it had illustrations, and then a few minutes ago I was explaining why some PDFs are fillable and some aren't.
― garbage corn fan (Je55e), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:44 (twelve years ago) link
when she can't make a PDF of text act like a Word document of text
tbf i agree, fuck a pdf
― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
i guess if someone wanted to support that point they could refer to amazon taking back e-books it had sold after finding out they didn't have the right to publish those e-books, like literally disappearing those books off of customers' kindles, but still fuck that guy
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
absolutely, but that's not a fault of the medium
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:48 (twelve years ago) link
i.e. it's not e-ink's fault that some dildo wants to slap drm on everything
well, it would be tricky to accomplish in the alternative medium tbf
― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:49 (twelve years ago) link
"hey gimme that" *grab, run*
swings and roundabouts
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Monday, 30 January 2012 22:50 (twelve years ago) link
If printed books do become obsolete in the next 50 years, Franzen is pleased that at least he won't have to see it. "One of the consolations of dying is that [you think], 'Well, that won't have to be my problem'," he said. "Seriously, the world is changing so quickly that if you had any more than 80 years of change I don't see how you could stand it psychologically."
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Monday, 30 January 2012 23:12 (twelve years ago) link
who needs the ~scary change~ brought about by plumbing when you can fetch your water from the creek
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Monday, 30 January 2012 23:13 (twelve years ago) link
Why doesn't he hire some scribes to write his books? No need for these newfangled printing presses.
― Jeff, Monday, 30 January 2012 23:16 (twelve years ago) link
i also believe that experiencing too many years of rapid human development + change would warp the mind. rip van what-the-fuck-my-eyes-are-now-8d?
― Mordy, Monday, 30 January 2012 23:36 (twelve years ago) link
I once read this Sci-Fi book that said one day we'd being reading books off of little electronic tablets and my mind melted.
― President Keyes, Monday, 30 January 2012 23:59 (twelve years ago) link
maybe that's what franzen's afraid of
― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 00:00 (twelve years ago) link
"Seriously, the world is changing so quickly that if you had any more than 80 years of change I don't see how you could stand it psychologically."comments like that shit me to tears on THE most fundamental level
comments like that shit me to tears on THE most fundamental level
x2
Also, I like "shit me to tears"!
― garbage corn fan (Je55e), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 00:16 (twelve years ago) link
it's common here!
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 01:04 (twelve years ago) link
rip van what-the-fuck-my-eyes-are-now-8d?lool
― stet, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 09:03 (twelve years ago) link
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 30 January 2012 16:30 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
lol i was congratulating myself for managing not to read a franzenthing, now i just need to get to the higher level of not reading people talk about the franzenthing
eventually i will get to the level where i don't even hear about the franzenthing
― junior dada (thomp), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 09:52 (twelve years ago) link
I have not read the Franzen thing, but I still think e-books are stupid.
― The New Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 11:02 (twelve years ago) link
some of them are, certainly.
― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
I dunno to me they're just books and books are pretty cool.
I guess to anyone who has downloaded books in the past (lol book piracy) or read stuff that's shifted to be more online, book reader devices are just kind of a necessary convenience we've been waiting to come along
― mh, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 14:10 (twelve years ago) link
Like, reading books on a Palm device circa 2000ish? That kind of sucked, but hey, mobile library. Reading while sitting at a computer kind of sucks, laptops are a fair sight better, and anything like an iPad or kindle/nook are pretty sweet
― mh, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 14:11 (twelve years ago) link
Book fetishism is a mystery to me, I have come to realise. I like books, they work well for what they do. I like e-readers, they work well too. Books do furnish a room, unlike e-readers, but lots of people here already own more books than they can deal with. I don't have any desire to own rare first editions or the like.
― ledge, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 14:18 (twelve years ago) link
I feel like I'm predisposed to think words on a glowy screen are somehow more alluring now and I've had better luck finishing books on my iPad than in print, lately. It's making me sad.
― mh, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 14:19 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.digitopoly.org/2012/01/31/publishers-and-chickens/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+digitopoly+%28Digitopoly%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
― iatee, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 19:27 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/01/31/146140663/no-more-e-books-vs-print-books-arguments-ok?sc=fb&cc=fp
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 19:51 (twelve years ago) link
Books represent ideas and freedom of expression. There's something unsettling knowing that someday this freedom will be completely dependent on having an electricity source
― teaky frigger (darraghmac), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
when we don't have electricity anymore we'll be worrying about more than the ability to read 'the corrections'
― iatee, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
I love the idea that a serious argument against e-readers is that if electricity goes away, we'll still be able to read books. I'm sure our transition to an electricity-free culture will be gentle and with endless free time for hand-copying Moby Dick and, oh wait, I mean like the road warrior guys won't be tossing them all onto the fire to keep warm while your eviscerated nerd corpse rots on the cold ground.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 20:09 (twelve years ago) link
xpost
I feel like I'm predisposed to think words on a glowy screen are somehow more alluring now and I've had better luck finishing books on my iPad than in print, lately.
See, I'm just the opposite, I'm sympathetic to e-stuff in general, and I've downloaded lots of books to my iPad, but I just can't manage to get around to looking at them. The books I actually read are the ones that travel in my backpack or sit by my bed.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 20:13 (twelve years ago) link
my ipad is by my bed and I look at it for news first thing in the morning before I turn on the light!
― mh, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 20:32 (twelve years ago) link
I definitely read more on an ebook reader. Last week I read two books in two days (one sitting each), because it was easy as hell to just sit there with the ipad on my leg and flick through the pages. Holding open a book with my thumb for 3–4 hours gives me the shits. That's just a personal thing btw, I don't expect everyone to feel the same way.
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:04 (twelve years ago) link
Interesting thumb/bowel connection you have there.
― Jeff, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:15 (twelve years ago) link
It really sounds like you spend all day on the toilet with your ipad.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:27 (twelve years ago) link
better than a pile of magazines amirite
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:27 (twelve years ago) link
not really, because when you run out of toilet paper the ipad is a horrible substitute
― mh, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
that's where apps come in
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 22:33 (twelve years ago) link
http://gizmodo.com/5880871/maurice-sendak-fck-ebooks <-- it's reactionary week in paper land
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 08:14 (twelve years ago) link
I couldn't watch the video at work, so what I noticed most was the commenters' saying they had no idea who Sendack was.
― garbage corn fan (Je55e), Wednesday, 1 February 2012 19:41 (twelve years ago) link
In a way I can see why he's saying that, who would want a stupid poky grey slab in place of one of his colourful shiny lovingly detailed books? But it's horses for courses and not all books are so dependent on their specific medium.
― ledge, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 20:23 (twelve years ago) link
yeah but he doesn't really care about books he cares about colours and pictures, i don't think anyone is arguing that kindle is for add toddlers tbf
― flags post o fu (darraghmac), Wednesday, 1 February 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago) link