Resisting the Kindle

Sven Birkerts with some understandable, but in my opinion completely groundless, concerns over how a potential move from print to electronic media can decontextualise documents. Firstly I am highly doubtful print will ever 'die out' - rather, electronic mediums will take the place of our 'disposable' print, such as newspapers, pulp fiction and airport novels. The printed work will become a fetish object - your 100 favourite books on the shelf. We make use of what we have and whatever is most useful is what we make use of. Secondly, context is not a given simply because something is in print, and the structures we use to catalogue and contain print could be just as easily be applied to the electronic form, if such structures were still deemed necessary. Having rapid access to fragmented information is simply an offshoot, both positive and negative, of the electronic form. The physicality of the printed medium is allocated too much cultural cache - print is vital, it has an importance all to itself, but is not a benchmark by which other emerging forms should be measured.

via if:Book