Quote:
Originally Posted by Algiedi
First, if one adds multimedia or interactivity to books, then they're not books anymore. They're something else, that we don't yet have a word for (although some "brands" are starting to show up here and there). It therefore won't threaten books, just like video games don't threaten books, or movies don't threaten books. Pears and apples.
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As Prestidigitweeze pointed out, we've been down that road before. The idea isn't really that new. I think the only thing that modern technology would bring to the equation is to make the experience more realistic (both in sound and video). I think that these improvements, along with the new delivery system (as opposed to disks or CDs/DVDs) is what would potentially be more appealing than those older attempts.
These new media
will be somewhat of a threat to books, if things go in the multimedia direction, if for no other reason than companies have limited resources. Secondly, ask yourself this question: How many kids do you know that play video games, rather than read? Reading will only go down further on the proverbial totem pole, if the multimedia e-book idea caught on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Algiedi
Then we have several different things happening there:
* Something that I thought was exclusively French: the idea that books are the pinnacle of Culture (with a capital c);
* The idea that books are the most (if not only) intelligent leisure, all other forms of entertainment or culture are dumber (and therefore less desirable, because intelligence and austere-ness are benchmarks of value);
* That there exists an objectively definable "pure" way of creating or interacting with a book, that would garantee the above qualities, and that any deviation from it would be by definition negative.
Those ideas also seem strange to me.
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I wouldn't go so far as to say that books are the only intelligent leisure activity. But I do think that reading is a more intellectually challenging leisure activity than passively absorbing sounds and images. Reading is also more educational than other forms of entertainment. and is a valuable life skill, to boot.
Don't get me wrong: I probably watch TV and listen to music
far more than I end up reading, but books engage your mind more than those other things do. This may vary somewhat from culture to culture, but in the U.S., at least, being "well-read" is a sign of intelligence that has no equivalent in movie or video game media.