02 Birkerts, Sven – The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
Main ideas I’ve found:
The text starts giving us differences between the printed literature and the one of electronic systems:
– The order of print is linear/ The electronic order is not.
– Print communication requires the active engagement of the reader’s attention / Electronic communication can be passive.
– (Print) Symblos are turned into their verbal references and these are in turn interpreted / With visual media impression and image take precedence over logic and concept and detailed and linear sequentiality are sacrificed.
– The print engagement is essentially private / (Electronic) Engagement is intrisically public.
– The printed material is static; it is the reader that moves, not the book / Contents, unless they are printed out are felt to be evanescent.
– The pace of reading is variable, determined by the reader’s focus and comprehension/ The pace is rapid, driven by jump-cut increments.
I found it interesting when the author starts talking about the new chindren’s generation of today, that may know no other way than the visual one to learn, and that are made of different stuff than the elders are.
(still working on it)
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Nice work!