"Yes, in theory, words are words. But literature isn't data. The difference between Shakespeare on a BlackBerry and Shakespeare in the Arden Edition is like the difference between vows taken in a shoe store and vows taken in cathedral."Via Virginia Postel.
3 comments:
I wish someone would talk about issues about Kindle:
- How does it show pictures/images?
- If you get NYT subscription, then do you lose yesterday's paper (once you finished reading)? That is, can you save an issue or even a story (say, an op-ed essay)?
- If you use wireless only at times, then how long does the battery last?
- Any thoughts if Amazon will reduce the cost (like Apple did for iPhone)?
- How does one send notes (annotated) to computer or a website?
- How is the web-browser? Can we read NYT for free using this?
Okay, basic questions, but no one talks about these items
It's a stupid comparison. Shakespeare, for his part, would have hated that we only experience his "words" as dead tree pages and not alive on a stage. I'm no fan of the Kindle, but Franzen shouldn't fetish-ize any technology.
Indeed! If anyone would have appreciated the beauty of vows taken in a shoe store (as opposed to say, a cathedral) it would have been Shakespeare. ;)
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