Kaufman links e-book trend to bookburning, Nazis

[=X=]

Hmm. If he's so against electronic books why doesn't he print his blog instead of posting it electronically.

Personally I see this guy just trying to get more visibility as the eBook industry heats up.
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[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Patricia

I rather thought that our conversions for our MR library are the direct opposite of book burning.
I'm not reducing the number of paper copies. But I'm adding to the number of ways that a book is available, and making it accessible to people who live far away from libraries, or who have sight problems and need large print etc.

It strikes me that Mr Kaufman has not thought this through.

Excellent point!

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Ankh

And "the book" is unassailable, isn't it?

Literature is unassailable. A "book" is just a bound volume of paper.

Originally Posted by khalleron

Um. Wrong. The reason people argue for dedicated readers is because, at this point in the technology, dedicated (i.e. e-ink) readers are the easiest to read. Backlit LCDs are tiring on the eyes, e-ink isn't.

For some, of course... not for all. But that's a discussion for elsewhere...

Originally Posted by Patricia

I rather thought that our conversions for our MR library are the direct opposite of book burning.
I'm not reducing the number of paper copies. But I'm adding to the number of ways that a book is available, and making it accessible to people who live far away from libraries, or who have sight problems and need large print etc.

It strikes me that Mr Kaufman has not thought this through.

Right on both counts.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by Patricia

It strikes me that Mr Kaufman has not thought this through.

Isn't it obvious that a purpose of the piece which contains phrase "I will fight!" (or words to that effect), targeted towards those who are interested in books is to create a controversy?

"Doctorow's principle", obscurity as The Enemy.

[kindlekitten]

w0w! what a sad sad little man. he obviously thinks that everyone needs his opinion and will do anything to get it out.

hmmmm , anyone know if he sits on the Kansas Board of Education?

[ardeegee]

Well, as a commenter to this article

http://www.usatoday.com/news/educati...-library_N.htm

pointed out, ebooks are just a plot by liberals to take away all books so that they can bring about communism. First, all print books will be destroyed and replaced with electronic versions. Then, the liberals will take away all electricity. Then comes the communism.

(digging through the comments...)

Here it is:

"Steps to communism:

- take away books (what we are beginning to do)

- give every child a Kindle or laptop in increase dependence (what we are now doing)

- newspapers, magazines and all periodicals disappear (what is starting to happen)

- burn books like in the Bradbury classic 'Fahrenheit 451'

- remove energy sources for electronic devices

- pull the plug on Kindles and laptops

- Presto! You have dependent people who can't think or take care of themselves and depend on 'Big Government'.

- Don't laugh, it's coming!"

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Ankh

Isn't it obvious that a purpose of the piece which contains phrase "I will fight!" (or words to that effect), targeted towards those who are interested in books is to create a controversy?

Though, very often, it only serves to make the commenter look bad...

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Slite

Just another anti-progress dork. Added to my internal /ignore list.

Why bother with "internal". He's now on my explicit list, in a file no less, of "authors not to buy new books from EVER".

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Why bother with "internal". He's now on my explicit list, in a file no less, of "authors not to buy new books from EVER".

But people who don't buy his books are like the Bataan Death March!

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

One of the most repulsive, offensive things I've read in a long time.

Yes. Mostly because he's also written on the experience of being in concentration camps: (or perhaps not on that experience directly, but he seems to be a pretty rabid little fellow looking for his "identity" (Never mind that he's actively creating an identity in constantly looking for a new one. I really wish more people would figure that out.)
He's even insinuating we Europeans (Communists? I can't quite tell, but there seems to be some sort of implied threat in his writing..) are out to get American Publishers:

For instance, in a recent article, Barnaull Nourrey, CEO of Hachette Livre, the French book publishing conglomerate that owns a big piece of American book publishing, including Time Warner Books (Random House and its affiliates is owned by Bertelsmann, the German publishing giant—Europeans now control most of American publishing)

Kaufman's restless quest for Jewish identity has taken him from the frontlines of the Israeli-Arab conflict to the Dachau Concentration Camp; from the streets of New York to the San Francisco underground. The Bronx-born son of a Holocaust survivor as well as an Israeli army veteran, Kaufman reports from the visceral core of the modern Jewish experience.
Kaufman has taught in the graduate and undergraduate schools of the Academy of Art University and in writing workshops in San Francisco. His work has appeared in Salon, The Los Angeles Times, Partisan Review, Tel Aviv Review, San Francisco Examiner, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Kaufman himself has been widely anthologized, most recently in "Nothing Makes You Free: Writings From Descendants of Holocaust Survivors (TimeBeing Books)" (WW Norton) and Blood To Remember:American Poets On The Holocaust.
Kaufman is a member of PEN American Center and is listed in the Europa Biographical Reference Series.

Personally, I hope the Anti-Defamation League goes after him, as the sentence preceding the one Steve quoted is even more distasteful:

All physical books must go up the chimney stack. Such was the methodology of the SS who forced their prisoners to run naked races round and round the barracks yard in the Polish winter, a race that no one was meant to win.

Really, everyone should buy this guy's books. They're bound to be at least as sensitive to holocaust survivers' sensibilities as this statement is.

[rmclachlan]

One of the dangers of e-books is their ephemeral nature compared to the real world equivalent. Buy a paper book today, put it on a shelf and forget about it - it will still be readable in 50 years time. This is not necessarily true of the e-book version - different formats, different readers, who is to say that a format today can survive even 10 years especially with DRM - perhaps an over reliance on technology is akin to book burning for the next generation. E-books have their place but I for one would be horrified if they completely replaced the paper form.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by rmclachlan

One of the dangers of e-books is their ephemeral nature compared to the real world equivalent. Buy a paper book today, put it on a shelf and forget about it - it will still be readable in 50 years time. This is not necessarily true of the e-book version - different formats, different readers, who is to say that a format today can survive even 10 years especially with DRM - perhaps an over reliance on technology is akin to book burning for the next generation. E-books have their place but I for one would be horrified if they completely replaced the paper form.

I don't think that anyone believes that will happen for the forseeable future

[acidzebra]

Originally Posted by rmclachlan

One of the dangers of e-books is their ephemeral nature compared to the real world equivalent. Buy a paper book today, put it on a shelf and forget about it - it will still be readable in 50 years time. This is not necessarily true of the e-book version - different formats, different readers, who is to say that a format today can survive even 10 years especially with DRM - perhaps an over reliance on technology is akin to book burning for the next generation. E-books have their place but I for one would be horrified if they completely replaced the paper form.

Yes, porting digital data to a different format is completely impossible now and forever. All the data of 2 years ago is all gone. And all paper books still exist.

/straw man

[rmclachlan]

Originally Posted by acidzebra

Yes, porting digital data to a different format is completely impossible now and forever. All the data of 2 years ago is all gone. And all paper books still exist.

/straw man

A lot of data from the 1980s effectively no longer exists becuse it was stored on media no longer usable, or where there is no equivalent today. If you think this is not a problem then you are very complacent. We are not talking about in two years but perhaps ten years or more. A major problem with proprierty formats and all digital technology. I have 5" floppies but not hardware to read them, sure not impossible but not easy to access. Also you do not need to port or reformat a paper book.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by rmclachlan

A lot of data from the 1980s effectively no longer exists becuse it was stored on media no longer usable, or where there is no equivalent today. If you think this is not a problem then you are very complacent. We are not talking about in two years but perhaps ten years or more. A major problem with proprierty formats and all digital technology. I have 5" floppies but not hardware to read them, sure not impossible but not easy to access. Also you do not need to port or reformat a book.

Right. A problem which was recognized at least by the early 2000s, and one that was addressed when ISO 32000 was created. Pretty much all book formats from lit onwards are just wrappers around html, so no problem there either.
Yes, people don't always learn from mistakes, but that does not mean they never do. Anyway, constructing a machine reader for your 5" floppies should be fairly trivial if you have a bit of money. More likely the disks will be demagnetized by now, though.