Sven Birkets originally struck me as a snobbish, elitist, obnoxious jerk. His writing and the answers that he gave to members of an online forum that he was partaking in were the main reasons that I made such intensely negative assumptions about him, which I try my best not to do regularly.
But after rereading Birkets and discussing his ideas in my FYS, I realized that the man had a point. The future that Birkets fears is turning into reality faster than anyone can even imagine and his fears are quickly turning into my own.
Birkets’ critiques are many and most are well supported, but one of his strongest critiques is one which would definitely apply to my classmates and, unfortunately, to myself. Birkets writes,
“A change is upon us - nothing could be clearer. The printed word is a part of a vestigial order that we are moving away from - by choice and by societal compulsion.”
With these few sentences from “Into the Electronic Millennium”, I realized that Birkets and his elitist attitude did have a point. Personally, I love books. I love reading both classics and contemporary works; F. Scott Fitzgerald is my absolute favorite. Reading books allows you to enter a world that no virtual world, computer game, or really good movie can create. Reading allows you to expand your imagination and use an author’s art form to create your own inside your head.
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| Will this still exist in the future? |
One of my favorite things about books is physically holding a book and reading it. But today, in the world of Kindels, iPads and the plethora of books available online, that experience is lost. Birkets explains this difference when he participated in an online forum:
“...[P]aper books dead-end you on the page and drive you back into yourself, while electronic writing sends you into the strange sorcery of the circuit.”
I suppose that I had never really thought about electronic writing as a “sorcery”. But, after much consideration, I find myself in agreement with Birkets’ words. The difference in reading experiences between the printed word and electronic word do not even begin to compare. I think that one loses something when reading literature online and that the experience of physically holding and reading a book is something that cannot be rivaled.
What I think Birkets would most harshly criticize is the fact that nowadays, especially in high schools and universities, most young people will not read a book unless it is assigned to them in class, if at all. What has happened to reading for pleasure?
I know that, personally, I made a lengthy list of books, classics mostly, that I was set out to reading over my winter break a few months ago. How many did I get through? Zero. Between being on the Internet, watching movies with my boyfriend, or watching TV with my friends, I found myself three and a half weeks later with no more literary knowledge than I had had when I first went on break. I was disappointed in myself.
As I stated at the beginning of this post, I still believe that Sven Birkets is somewhat of a jerk. With that being said, I think that in the electronically-based world that we are currently living in, the only way to get your critiques of a technology that everyone utilizes is to stand out, even if that means making people hate you.
Birkerts is correct. He's an elitist, but hardly a "jerk," unless we define the term to mean someone who tells us a truth we'd rather not hear.
ReplyDeleteDo yourself a favor: during the summer, turn off the doo-dads one hour per day and read a good book. You'll never regret it. Lie to others about your guilty pleasure.
PS: avoid language-erosion and the Essid Pet-Peeve of misspelling an author's name. You have "Birkerts" incorrect at least one time here.