Kaufman links e-book trend to bookburning, Nazis

[PhishStyx]

My apologies for snipping your other and quite interesting comments, but I really want to focus directly to this point.

Originally Posted by delphidb96

. . . of course, Ayn Rand's, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" - all of which I find so appealing that I keep them there permanently so I can go back and re-read favorite chapters. I've read "Atlas Shrugged" over 20 times since I got a copy in ebook format.

Derek

I've had a hardback copy of Atlas Shrugged for many years now (having bought it cheap in an overstock sale), but I never read it because it's just too huge! Now that I have a couple e-book readers, I'm considering the possibilities of purchasing it again to read on my Kindle literally just because I can carry it with me without having to sacrifice space for my notebooks or other things I need.

[nikkie]

@Alan You seemed to have missed the point of the eBook entirely. It's not "eTwitter", or "eFacebook" for a reason. It's e*book*. My time spent reading eBooks on my iPhone is time that I've specifically chosen not to tweet or email or blog. It's time - hours and hours - spent reading. The fact that it's on my iPhone is really quite irrelevant to any of your complaints. Yes, it's bright. Do you have a problem with the light? Would you begrudge someone a light-bulb to read a book, or a book-light? Yes, I can touch the screen. But I can touch a book page.

If you're afraid of the internet as a whole, what on earth are you doing posting in this forum? If you're not, then where is your complaint? Why can't you divorce the *method* of book-reading from the act and the idea?

Also, your link is broken.

Seriously though. Get off the internet and go live in the woods with no electricity and try reading and writing in the dark of winter with homemade ink and paper and then feel free to come back and tell us how technology is evil. That sounds like a tirade worth reading.

Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to Ringworld.

[lene1949]

I think we (humans) have always loved reading... Reading from the cave walls, the scrolls, the paper books and the electronic books...

The message is the same! It's just the delivery that's different. I have a few books on paper as well as e-books... The content is exactly the same - words!

I agree, that a lot of people (me) spend a lot of time of the internet, and don't have a life... I did have a 'life', but these days reading about history and historical novels, IS my life... Basically, my life (outside work) is reading, and my house is not big enough to keep everything I read in paper format.

[HappyMartin]

This chap needs to broaden his horizons, his circle of friends and his mind. He seriously needs to get out and discover that most of the world has no internet connection, little technology and is too dangerous, poor and hand to mouth to ever be boring and bland.

[lene1949]

I just got extremely afraid! What about our cooking methods... Like microwave or even electric???

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by PKFFW

I realise that.

My point was should a non-Jewish person have compared and ebook reader to being akin to the Holocaust I am sure there would be a huge outcry at the idiocy of the remark. Yet he makes the claim and even tries to give it credibility by stating his ancestry as being Jewish.

Cheers,
PKFFW

I agree with your point and it really bugs me.

Person A: Ancestor was subject to treatments during Holocaust. Person A was born in a time after with no first hand experience.

Person B: Born at same time as Person A yet has no ancestral connection with people subject to treatment during Holocaust.

It is quite acceptable for Person A to make statements in relation to said events (or a relational statement), yet Person B is criticised because he has no connection. Both Person A and B are making statements based upon 3rd hand information, yet it is ok for one, but not the other. Now before people jump up and down I am not Jewish but I have close family (biologically) who were subject to treatments during Nazi Germany's expansion in the 1940's. Does that make it ok for me to make statements about life in concentration camps? According to societal acceptance...YES, but ethically and morally I have no place to make statements with the exception of revealing factual and researched information.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Alan Kaufman

A Statement From Alan Kaufman, author of 'THE ELECTRONIC BOOKBURNING' To MY Mobile Read Critics (http://evergreenreview.com/120/elect...k-burning.html)

STATEMENT.

Thanks for making me laugh. Good start of the day! Nice style btw!

[PhishStyx]

Originally Posted by lene1949

I just got extremely afraid! What about our cooking methods... Like microwave or even electric???

Once our cooking devices developed digital readouts, they sustain us not! Cars with computers no longer take us places. Televisions with HD do not rot our brains as their analog ancestors once did.

Truly the fall of society is complete!

[Sparrow]

Mr. Kaufman is entitled to express his opinion; regardless of it's intrinsic worth.

But I think a bigger threat to society is the current plague of rent-a-mouth 'commentators' who infest our media with inconsidered rants and mindless witterings.
We have a copious supply of these people in the U.K., and they are far more sinister than ebooks will ever be imho.

[ardeegee]

You know, traditionally, a way to address a screed like that would be to write a similar parody piece taking the ideas to their absurd extremes. But in this case, the original piece beat us to it. It is as if A Modest Proposal was an advice column.

[gollu]

First of all, I think it's quite admirable that after few pages of negative responses, Mr Kaufman expresses some opinion and explains his stand. Then we've got another 40 or something negative responses some being mild and some being quite offensive.
I understand what Alan is trying to say. There are more and more people living in virtual reality and noone yet knows what the consequences will be. We are becoming more and more "connected" and "automated" and ... So one may include the move from pbook to electronic reading as a part of that trend.
That's the point where I cannot agree. As has already been mentioned - digital copies make access to books easier and readers are prone to read even more. Non-readers will not be affected by the form of books, since they don't read books.
But the whole trend of digitalizing one's life frightens me too. As far as I remember, the average "mobileread" member is past his/her 30s and will be less affected by that, but I being somewhat younger can surely say - young people growing nowadays will have very little to do with the "old" culture. Would I compare it to WW2 atrocities? I don't think so. Am I sleeping sound at night, knowing what's happening arround me? Definitely not.

[FlorenceArt]

(sorry, I didn't read the whole thread so maybe I'm only repeating what others already said )

I'm afraid that although there are some interesting questions in this article, Mr Kaufman's answers are of the variety that dictatorships thrive on. I wonder if he is aware that his conspiracy theories and rants against capitalism sound very close to Nazi theories.

This quote probably sheds some light on his reasons:

Perhaps I am crazy. Perhaps this is only a private complaint. For writing does not come easily to me. My books have been hardwon. What made it all seem worthwhile was the book, the physical item, a kind of sacred and appropriate temple for the text contained within. Had I been told from youth that my literary destination would be some 7 inch plastic gizmo containing my texts shuffling alongside thousands of other “texts” I would have spit in the face of such a profession and become instead a hit man or a rabbi.

I find this very weird, but at least it sounds heartfelt. Which is no excuse for bandying about references to the Nazis. We're talking about a regime that killed millions of people here, not about some Halloween monster to scare children. Let's keep a sense of decency here, shall we?

[Katti's Cat]

Don't care that he doesn't like eBooks - some people just hate change.

His comparison is disgusting and we really shouldn't give him the time of the day. People like him will never get what everyone has tried to explain because they refuse to look or listen. I for one will stay away from this thread. I even regret to have open it in the first place. Very glad though that we all seem to be on the same page.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I find this very weird, but at least it sounds heartfelt. Which is no excuse for bandying about references to the Nazis. We're talking about a regime that killed millions of people here, not about some Halloween monster to scare children. Let's keep a sense of decency here, shall we?

It sounds to me that because he doesn't like to be one in a thousand...

Had I been told from youth that my literary destination would be some 7 inch plastic gizmo containing my texts shuffling alongside thousands of other “texts”

I wonder if he'd agree if I bought a pbook and put it together on a shelf with thousands of other printed texts... Which is exactly what I do on my ereader, except in electronic form...

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by gollu

There are more and more people living in virtual reality and noone yet knows what the consequences will be. We are becoming more and more "connected" and "automated"

I personally feel the "consequences" (as I see them right now) is we will eventually lead to a less educated society. Before people jump on me, hear me out. When I and people older than me were at school there was a big emphasis on learning to write, spell, perform mathematical calculations without aid of a calculator, read/reference text books etc. What I have seen since (and some of this is first hand working in the education system) is there is no longer the importance placed on the basics we once learnt; there is now a push to teach kids in school as young a 6 how to word process, surf the internet etc. How are kids going to learn to spell if from day one in school they use word processors with spell checkers, how are kids going to learn to do basic arithmetic when they are handed calculators all the time.

So the way I see it all going, because of the advancements in technology there is no longer the requirement for people to know, there is now the requirement for people to use the tool in front of them and retrieve the answer. Don't believe me, go to your local supermarket and look at the number of people on checkouts having trouble counting currency. Unless the register displays the change to be given....they have no hope of calculating it themselves.

That said, not all technology is bad. Ereaders don't reduce your reading, same as the ipod doesn't stop appreciation for music, they are just different mediums.