Misc Musings

ARE BOOKS OBSOLETE?
by M.H. Watson, 4/2011

The Obsolete Man, Twilight Zone, 1961

Some people think that books have become obsolete because they are bad for the environment, because film directors can do the thinking for us, or because the Kindle, Nook or iPad is the reader's modern-day Messiah. While some of this may have some reality attached -- and I emphasize "may" -- I personally think this logic does not reflect the whole picture.

While it's true that "traditional" bookmaking cuts down trees and impacts our forest resources, and that the paper production process uses chemicals and, as a result, pollutes air, land and water, there is hope. Book publishers are increasingly using recycled paper, and providing a meaningful, long-lasting second-life for our precious paper resources with offerings to the Book-Gods. Without these more reasonable and responsible books, we all might be swimming in a pile of throw-away paper stacked beyond NYC's Empire State Building.

As for films based on books, it always provides great anticipation to see what a director has done with your favorite novel. Hopefully his interpretation meshes with your own. Have you ever seen your favorite book on the big screen and the main character looks absolutely NOTHING like you imagined, or watch as the director excruciatingly mutilates your favorite scene or, worse, removes it entirely. Movies developed from books may have the same premise--and I emphasize "may"-- but they do not have the same feel. How can they?  In film, we rely on the actor's ability to "show" what his character is thinking, but we are not privy to his inner-workings, his thought process from the inside.

Then there's the modern-metallic-Messiah itself, the Kindle/Nook, the reading machine that allows you to directly order books and have them magically appear onto your screen within moments without ever having to enter a store. The perfect remedy for 21st century attention deficit and time challenged society.  The Nook/Kindle can hold thousands of books, open multiple page at once, and do almost anything but allow you to hear it with your eyes closed (so far).

The Kindle/Nook lines up all your book covers in a nice neat row, all the same sizes and shapes, never a worry about whether they will fit on your shelf or look silly next to one another--do I place them on the shelf according to size or subject. It's as if the Communist Convenience Corporation has teamed up with the Advertising Age to sell us what they think is best for the consumer and then convinces us that we can't live without it! 

How many books do we actually need on our vacation and what's the problem really with carrying a few favorites? Do we really need to carry the entire Library of Congress with us in the car?  Are we not also down-sizing our pleasure when we trade paper for plastic? Kindles, Nooks and iPads may be the newest technology, but aren't books in so many ways more advanced?  Do books break if you drop them on the ground? No! Do books explode when they touch water? No! Do books eventually lose their charge? No! No! No! and No!

I love the fun of actually selecting an old friend off a shelf, or a new one from a store, holding it, touching it, feeling it, flipping through its pages.  Its sometimes old, worn pages might hold a surprise note from a reader long ago, or even a forgotten $20 make-shift bookmark.  Books carry history.  Consider the President's Bible having survived a fire with it's scorched pages as a testament to an horrific event worthy of display in the Smithsonian. On the other hand, imagine the President's molten Kindle displayed under glass next to the first printing of Common Sense. Now that's an image for which I have no words!

The "e-reader" is a mass produced chunk of plastic and metal with a screen in-between you and the author's language. I really don't get it; where's the heart in that? Where is the personal connection, the feel of running your fingers across a line of words imprinted onto a textured page? The thrill of rediscovering your long lost companion, surviving battered and bruised but still intact, that you read every night as a child in bed.  Exchanging my books for a Kindle would be like replacing my Grandmother with a robot.

Books have been with us, in a manner of speaking, for thousands of years. From the first slab of carved textured stone, to animal skins, to papyrus, to post-consumer recycled paper, Books are forever.  They  have no built-in obsolescence, lasting only a few years until the next smaller, faster, sleeker version is introduced. Only a Real Book is irreplaceable, carrying memories on its stained pages that remind us of a precious past with an intimate friend.

I guess I'm just not willing to abandon the human element. If it's a matter of paper versus plasma, then I must select my old friends. I know you will never be obsolete.  (May 2010)



BIOETHICAL EXPLORATION #1
by M.H. Watson, 4/2012