Pascal SiggSep 25, 2023
Jeff Jarvis
The Atlantic is excerpting The Gutenberg Parenthesis: my afterword, in which I recant my contention that the book needed to updated and now conclude, "Let the book be the book." Gift link. 1/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/jeff-jarvis-google-death-books/675389/?gift=lOosoRE4GnUPfUTNHl2Az7x6TA4IHDpVDKbbAN059ko&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
I Was Wrong About the Death of the Book

And Umberto Eco was right.

The Atlantic
Sep 25, 2023 at 1:04pmWeb
Show threadJeff JarvisSep 25, 2023
In there, @[email protected] is the voice of calm salving the panic of Sven Birkerts. Then again, she says: “Seeing books thrust into the service of comfort and sanity and good taste, I started wanting to recover the book’s power to upset and unsettle and even anger readers.” 2/
Show threadJeff JarvisSep 25, 2023
Andrew Piper is in there, too: “We cannot think about our electronic future without contending with its antecedent, the bookish past.” That has been my quest. “Technologies don’t just happen. At least not yet. We are still agents in this story, and we have some choices to make.” 3/
Show threadJeff JarvisSep 25, 2023
And here is Jessica Pressman: "The book has historically symbolized privacy, leisure, individualism, knowledge, and power. This means that the book has been the emblem for the very experiences that must be renegotiated in a digital era: proximity, interiority, authenticity." 4/
Show threadJeff JarvisSep 25, 2023
I love this quote from Umberto Eco: “The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved.” There is my recantation. More from his conversations here: 5
Show threadJeff JarvisSep 25, 2023
I say: :The book is the book. It is a space between covers to be tamed. Its finitude makes demands upon author and editor, who decide what fits, what is worth saying, and what they hope is worth discussing and preserving—though the reader is the one who will ultimately make those decisions, who finishes making the book." 6/
Show threadJeff JarvisSep 25, 2023
Please do read the excerpt -- and the whole damned book. Order through The Atlantic and throw them some love. Or here: gutenbergparenthesis.com. 7/
Show threadBernie GoldbachSep 25, 2023
@jeffjarvis thanks for the Gift Link. The Atlantic piece reminded me to ensure we have (two) copies of (your excellent) tome on our uni library shelves.
Show threadthe roamerSep 25, 2023

@jeffjarvis

Thought-provoking quotes in this thread, thank you for the link. Will free up time to read those contributions.

"The book" is a concept that remains central to our way of engaging with the multitude of voices that make up our culture. Exciting to battle with the conceptual challenges that come from the digital transformation.

#book #reading

Show threadHippasus500 aka jwn2Sep 25, 2023

@jeffjarvis
My sanctuary, my temple is my office where I’m surrounded by my library. I have a reverence for books, so much so, I felt it was sacrilegious to deface them with my own thoughts scribbled in the margins.

With ebooks, I have no reluctance. And my reading is better for it, I believe.

But I still buy hold-in-my-hand, honest-to-god books. It is a symbolic and visceral connection to an author who has moved me.