Kaufman links e-book trend to bookburning, Nazis

[tomsem]

Folks. With all the logical fallacies, unsupported claims, and outright fabrications in Mr. Kaufman's article, this can only be satire.

Go back, read it again, and then add the following paragraph:

"Just kidding. Had you going there, didn't I? Sincerely, A. Kaufman"

Well, unfortunately, probably not. But it wouldn't take much tweaking to make it actually funny.

[dmaul1114]

I think it's a silly analogy like most.

I have a fondness for paper books for certain favorites--just had my girlfriend by me the 3 volume hardback illustrated version of Lord of the Rings for instance.

But for most I'll only read them once, so an e-book is fine as I'm not going to re-read it and thus don't care about the experience of having a tangible, physical book.

Academic books/articles I may need to read multiple times--I've stuck with paper for those as I need to highlight and annotate quickly and easily so as to avoid having to carefully read the whole thing again in the future. But even those I'll switch when there's a good tablet device out there that I can highlight and annotate as easily as I can with paper--with the added advantage of having all my annotated articles/books on one device in a searchable format.

[whitearrow]

Holy mother of whatever, what a total douchebag. An idiotic, hypocritical douchebag, who REALLY should know better than to compare stuff to Nazis. (You know what's like Nazis? NAZIS.)

I will be over here, peeling myself off the ceiling.

[danbloom]

I am the bloke (http://zippy1300.blogspot.com) in Taiwan -- go figure! -- who passed this crazy rant on to Steve Jordan, who reposted it here. And it's a good discussion. But I should tell everyone here that I first read the ''news'' about this appalling oped piece in NEWSWEEK, in a blog note by Weston Kosova there, staff reporter at Newsweek, who blogged on this Kaufman "scream", also noting the irony, and also noting that Alan probably lacks a sense of irony on all this at the moment. I think Kaufman, a poet and a novelist, 60ish, San Francisoc social activist, just got carried away, and remember, or please note, just to explain this to those here who might not know his bio, Kaufman is the son of Holocaust survivors who grew up in a rather dysfunctional family in NYC and while this does not excuse his crazy rant about ebooks, it does help explain his personality. Forgive him, he did not know what he was doing. He meant well, but it came across very very pathetic and poorly worded. But again, all credit must go to Weston Kosova at Newsweek for being the first to unearth and report on this appalling rant. I just picked it up from Newsweek and passed it on to Steve and others around the bloggysphere.

[danbloom]

Also, had Kaufman written this rant without the allusions and comparisons to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and "Jews" -- if he had edited all that out and just done his rant against the machine, well, it would have read better and some people might have listened to him better. As it is, he got carried away by his own family history and completely hit a foul ball! I am Jewish, and I was deeply offended by Kaufman's piece, even though I am more of a supporter and fan at this point of Mr Paper and not very interested in Mrs. Screen. In fact, I invented and trademarked the Bindle. Google it. Take out the Holocaust crap in Kaufman's piece, and there might be some things to chew on. But he completely blew it. But again, I say, forgive him, he knew not what he was doing. AND: this too shall pass. The digital revolution is here to stay, Alan Kaufman to the contrary.

[ardeegee]

Here's a good article on the article:

http://hypnerdic.wordpress.com/2009/...lised-reading/

[Morrigan]

Here is the funny thing... as the technology devolopes, eBooks can bring back the beauty of the of hand drawn manuscripts that was lost with the printing press, yet make them just as accessable as mass printed books are.

[danbloom]

Yes, Morrigan, all will be well, by and by. Even better.

[Ankh]

Unbelievable.

Kaufman's accusations that Net and electronic readers are killing "the book" are ludicrous. In essence, he has written an emotional piece in defence of the literature. The fact that he has falsely identified who the enemy is wanes in comparison to the fact that majority of MR users share concern for the future of that same literature, share the fear that it is dying art.

So now we have a modern Don Quijote with his nothing short of comical crusade against ebooks and electronic readers. Electronic readers and conversion to digital formats is inevitable not because they have anything to do with the fate of the literature, but for their convenience. There is nothing mystical about ebooks, over and over again it is stated that it is the same thing as a pbook.

Why is then, that I am the rare person who finds this heated defence of ebooks as comical as the Kaufman's attack? The only exception is mr. Jordan, he is wordsmith himself, I can understand that he finds the notion offensive and accusation worthy of refute.

But the rest of the contributors to this topic... Are you guys really ready to enter the "war between pbooks and ebooks", to indirectly prove Kaufman statement that such a war and conflict does exist?

[DaleDe]

There is a memorial for the Nazi Book burning in Berlin, It is below ground level with a clear cover over the top. Perhaps we need to pry the cover up and put an eBook reader on the floor or one of the shelves.

Dale

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by Ankh

In essence, he has written an emotional piece in defence of the literature...

That's not how I read it. It seems to me to be a defense of paper books as some kind of mystical, ensouled entities. In effect, he accuses anyone who likes ebooks of zombifying these mystic entities by transmogrifying them into soulless ebooks, where they tragically reside in a sort of digital purgatory, corrupting the souls of all who read them. Exactly how the Nazis come in, I'm not sure, but he seems to equate ebook publishers with the death camp guards. Or something.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by danbloom

Also, had Kaufman written this rant without the allusions and comparisons to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and "Jews" -- if he had edited all that out and just done his rant against the machine, well, it would have read better and some people might have listened to him better. As it is, he got carried away by his own family history and completely hit a foul ball! I am Jewish, and I was deeply offended by Kaufman's piece, even though I am more of a supporter and fan at this point of Mr Paper and not very interested in Mrs. Screen. In fact, I invented and trademarked the Bindle. Google it. Take out the Holocaust crap in Kaufman's piece, and there might be some things to chew on. But he completely blew it. But again, I say, forgive him, he knew not what he was doing. AND: this too shall pass. The digital revolution is here to stay, Alan Kaufman to the contrary.

Had he done that, no one would have said a word. We're used to people whining that ebooks will destroy paper books. That isn't even news anymore.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by Ankh

Why is then, that I am the rare person who finds this heated defence of ebooks as comical as the Kaufman's attack? The only exception is mr. Jordan, he is wordsmith himself, I can understand that he finds the notion offensive and accusation worthy of refute.

But the rest of the contributors to this topic... Are you guys really ready to enter the "war between pbooks and ebooks", to indirectly prove Kaufman statement that such a war and conflict does exist?

I'm sure that you're a rare person, but as you might've read, I (and others) mostly took offense with his idiotic holocaust comparison, and how insensitive it was to people like his father, who had to suffer through it. Unless he somehow secretly hated the guy, I don't really see why he would want to demean the horridness of that experience by comparing it to something quite so inane as the shift to digital paper.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by danbloom

In fact, I invented and trademarked the Bindle. Google it.

Well, since you aren't old enough to have invented the hobo (or Dennis the Menace) "bag on a stick" I suppose you invented the drug package.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindle

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

I'm sure that you're a rare person, but as you might've read, I (and others) mostly took offense with his idiotic holocaust comparison, and how insensitive it was to people like his father, who had to suffer through it.

I am awful sorry that missed that meaning in yours (and others) post. I understood, up until now, that people are offended to be target of such a comparison.

I do apologize.