George Steiner has lamented that our age is leaving behind the habits of the book. He blames distraction, the loss of private time, and competing media. Why does the idea afflict me with such sadness? After all, people should be able to do what they want. I will always have my books; it is not likely that libraries will soon disappear. It must be that for me books are not just objects or means to ends – they are the symbol, and incarnation, of the life of the spirit. I fear that reverie and introspection and ideals of discrimination will gradually vanish from the culture. I fear that linguistic sophistication (and density, and difficulty), and with it our access to the real complexity of the inner life, are being pushed to the side by the simplistic and standardized idiocies of the television idiom…. This is a reader’s nightmare. It haunts me whenever I walk through a suburban mall or turn on the television set. I look to my books for reassurance.-- Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies –
Have a great Tuesday!
Great quotation, Cip.
ReplyDeleteHere is another quote from his Elegies that's worth thinking about: "I see the wholesale wiring of America, I see ever more complex and efficient technological systems being interposed between the individual and the harsh constraints of nature. This electronic mesh is already changing absolutely the way we deal with information In fact, it is changing our whole idea of what information is... The medium shapes the message. If it can't be rendered digitally, it can't be much good."
I have come to think of Birkerts as taking up where the wonderful Marshall McLuhan (and perhaps Neil Postman) left off. Not an alarmist, but rather a rational examiner of contemporary issues that few even stop to consider, Birkerts provides a well researched, insightful examination not only of where we are in our message sending and receiving, but of how it affects us as humans.
Oh...and unless I am mistaken, this is your 600th blog? Congratulations on bringing consistently entertaining and thought-provoking material to your readers. Always enjoyable reading. Thank you.
To my great chagrin, I have yet to read an actual Sven Birkerts book but I do plan to. Several articles I have read by Birkerts are just fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments.
You're right about the 600.
You must be quite a meticulous little thing!
Great quote Cipriano! I haven't read a Birkerts book yet either and I have two on my shelf! But you know how it is with us slow readers :)
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