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Maybe it just boils down to a control issue. Lots of authors don't like to lose control of how they said what they said. They perceive digital works as being out of their control, in comparison to physical works. And they are right about that, even if one does not share their need for control.
But the thing is, culture is not about control, unless it's dead. (You can pretty much control something that isn't changing.)
Culture is not really culture if it isn't changing all the time. It's like a conversation. When people just say the same thing over & over, the conversation dies. The books will change; the books MUST change. They change, as has been pointed out, when they are translated or even reprinted. Over time, the very meaning of the words in the books change, and they start saying things they didn't used to say. Context changes their social meanings, linguistic drift changes their definitional meanings. Uncle Tom's Cabin, a revolutionary book, came to symbolize reactionary racism. "Colored People" turned from a proud description (NAACP) to an outmoded and politically incorrect term, then resurfaced as "people of color."
Franzen thinks that ebooks represent a lost of control. He's right. He's just suffering from the illusion that he has control in the first place.
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