Comments on: Connections

By: Something for the Weekend, April 17th, 2009 | The Casual Optimist

Something for the Weekend, April 17th, 2009 | The Casual Optimist — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:42:52 +0000

[...] We like to be part of something — Nick Harkaway on connections: A paper book has a history. Somewhere, at some time, an author wrote it all down, printed it out, gave it to an editor, who also worked over it. The book was typeset – yes, on a computer, these days, but still — and finally pressed and packaged and distributed. There is a chain of physical events which leads from me to you. With old editions, it’s even more direct. With signed ones, it’s a handshake. We like to connect. And digital books feel as if they’re trapped behind glass. The book is in the machine, and we can’t open the cover and touch the pages. [...]

By: Talking ‘Bout A Revolution « shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows

Talking ‘Bout A Revolution « shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:05:31 +0000

[...] 6. Spare a moment to consider the notion of Digital Rights Management – DRM – and its relationship to the newspaper fiasco. Although concerned parimarily with digital music copyright, the ongoing debate about encryption for games and, with the advent of the Kindle and other such devices, the pirateability of digital books and audiobook rights, the underlying problem is the same in both instances: defining notions of ownership for both users and creators in an era where digital copies are readily available. Books in particular have always been subject to the whims of borrowing and lending without falling apart, but might their new digital formats change that? Or are they an exception to the rule? For long stints of time, it’s nicer to read on a page than a screen, but what if screens are improved, or some other technology developed that is just as comfortable to use as paper? Will we still crave tactile connections? [...]

By: Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:33:52 +0000

I love the idea of building new senses - I was captivated by the Wired article a while back about sensing electromagnetic fields - but it seems to me that as our world becomes more replicatable, we're developing a craving for authenticity - for a connection with an event or a person beyond what can be supplied by a digital copy. We want a direct link, on a level we can see with unmediated senses - almost Newtonian senses. Which is why this is both a very nifty notion and a very silly idea...

By: Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:03:57 +0000

I don’t think it was that complex for me – more the way the book framed Trollope’s episodic story – but I liked your post anyway. We are tactile animals.

But as to connections – isn’t it interesting how twitter connects us. I wouldn’t have seen this blog post but for your comment on twitter.

And twitter is not tactile.

We are building new senses.

By: Melissa Dominic

Melissa Dominic — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:47:38 +0000

I can’t help but agree with you on the paper-connection point, which at the same time, I really hate having to agree with.

I’m interested in all the different ways that the internet allows stories and such to be paperlessly published (be it blogs or novels or webcomics or whatever)and I find it a facinating way to connect with people and such through their shared interest in a story and I totally want to be involved in that, BUT, at the same time, I think I really hate sitting at the computer and reading anything that’s too long or too daunting. I don’t even think I could manage something like a Kindle. So, sometimes that thought makes me feel like a total fraud/hypocrite.

But YEAH, there’s really nothing like having the book you’re reading smashed in your bag against your chapstick and uncapped pens and even when I crease the cover and get all mad at myself for doing it, I feel more connected to the book in a way.

In short, you’re on the ball here. Yes!

By: Matt Keefe

Matt Keefe — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:09:59 +0000

Some of it could just be habit though, no?

I don’t necessarily disagree with your suggestion, but people have made similar physical preference claims for both music (they prefer owning LPs) and writing (better when done by hand, with pen and paper), and I can’t say I agree with either, being of a sufficiently young age to have never really acquired either habit.

I pass Ruskin’s collection and the buildings housing it every time I go into town, but I know almost nothing of him now that I come to think of it. I look forward to that other day’s story.