CRK said: And I imagined all the people who have opened this book in that time, and taken it out, and read it.
Your paragraph summed up one of my major concerns with the burgeoning movement toward digital representations of formerly physical objects, in this case books. That book, randomly out of all of the copies printed, has accumulated over the years a unique history that endows it with a gravitas that no other book possesses. I see no way in which that can occur with a digital version. No matter how closely it represents the physical, there's no way that it can accumulate any history. It's a case of enhancing the immediate to the detriment of the potential. (In some ways, a fitting metaphor for the current attitudes of most of the populace.)
I've dropped a box in the mail to you - a book and ...something else. The 'something else' may require Spooky's talents. If neither fit your fancy, feel free to pass them on...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-06 08:22 pm (UTC)Your paragraph summed up one of my major concerns with the burgeoning movement toward digital representations of formerly physical objects, in this case books. That book, randomly out of all of the copies printed, has accumulated over the years a unique history that endows it with a gravitas that no other book possesses. I see no way in which that can occur with a digital version. No matter how closely it represents the physical, there's no way that it can accumulate any history. It's a case of enhancing the immediate to the detriment of the potential. (In some ways, a fitting metaphor for the current attitudes of most of the populace.)
I've dropped a box in the mail to you - a book and ...something else. The 'something else' may require Spooky's talents. If neither fit your fancy, feel free to pass them on...