MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Will e-books spell the end of great writing?

taglines · 12-07-2009, 09:28 PM

I think the question the original article asked was more along the lines of: "will great writers and great storytellers continue to write very good books and tell very good stories in the future of this Digital Age, especially if a child in.... say the year 2050..... grows up entirely e-reading school e-textbooks and school-assigned e-novels and short story e-collections (Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Animal Farm, and books by Sterling, Gibson, Doctorow, Jordan, etc)....grows up doing all his or her reading from day one on screens since everything will be on screens then, 50 years from now or so, and will that boy or girl growing up reading on e-readers grow up to become an adult who becomes a great writer and storyteller?

And I think the answer has to be....YES! Of course. Writers learn to write by doing a lot of reading when they are young, that is how the rhythms of language and the magic of words gets locked into their young brains, and they go on to become great stylists and wordsmiths, and it won't matter if they do their early reading, from elementary school to high school and college, on screens. The gift of language and storytelling will live on, and take on new forms, sure, but great writing and great storytelling will live on, even after paper books lose their appeal.

12-07-2009, 09:28 PM	#23
taglines Banned Posts: 96 Karma: 334 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: nook	I think the question the original article asked was more along the lines of: "will great writers and great storytellers continue to write very good books and tell very good stories in the future of this Digital Age, especially if a child in.... say the year 2050..... grows up entirely e-reading school e-textbooks and school-assigned e-novels and short story e-collections (Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Animal Farm, and books by Sterling, Gibson, Doctorow, Jordan, etc)....grows up doing all his or her reading from day one on screens since everything will be on screens then, 50 years from now or so, and will that boy or girl growing up reading on e-readers grow up to become an adult who becomes a great writer and storyteller? And I think the answer has to be....YES! Of course. Writers learn to write by doing a lot of reading when they are young, that is how the rhythms of language and the magic of words gets locked into their young brains, and they go on to become great stylists and wordsmiths, and it won't matter if they do their early reading, from elementary school to high school and college, on screens. The gift of language and storytelling will live on, and take on new forms, sure, but great writing and great storytelling will live on, even after paper books lose their appeal.