Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

The Guardian book blog has an essay by Sam Jordison entitled “Who’s Paul Auster, Dad?,” which looks at how sometimes writers, popular in their own day, fall out of favor as time goes on. “Of course, it’s natural and proper that the years should be a harsh critic,” writes Jordison. “There’s only so much world and time after all, and only so much we can be expected to read.” And yet, while Jordison’s idea leads to some mildly interesting conjecture about which writers of today may be forgotten about a decade from now, the real question that should be asked has more to do with the fate of books themselves rather than the rising and falling reputations of particular writers. Because while we can all debate which writers may one day disappear, books themselves are also disappearing. Or rather, the book — in the face of MP3s, blogs, Myspace and Youtube — is being gradually degraded and lessened as a dynamic object of great cultural and political relevance. And so, in the face of this, arguing about which writers will be remembered in ten years is like arguing in 1930 who would be the world’s biggest silent film star in 1940. Ten years from now people won’t be reading as many books as they do now, so the writers of today will have long given way to the new formats and entertainment mediums of the future. After all, the CD is dead, the album is dying, television has exploded and new Web interfaces and electronic gadgets like the iPod give consumers multiple ways to explore and experience content. So the question really isn’t, What writer will be popular ten years from now? Rather the question we should be asking is, Will books themselves be widely read in a decade?

The Guardian: Who’s Paul Auster, Dad?