SUNSET ON THE BOOK

CBC Ideas June 28 2011

The world of letters is being rocked by new technology. The rapid rise of the e-reader could be the biggest change in books since Gutenberg invented movable type. Readers, writers, booksellers, and publishers are all grappling with its implications and asking a fundamental question: is a book really a book when it exists only as a digital file? CBC producer Sean Prpick goes between the covers of the question. Have we approached the threshold of CLOSING THE BOOK. Is this the sunset of the book? For countless millions of people around the globe since the invention of Gutenburg the book has been represented by the mass printing and hard cover publication. Taking a look back in the annals of history the printed page has a long legacy

The Chinese invention of paper and woodblock printing, at some point before the first dated book in 868 (the Diamond Sutra) produced the world's first print culture.

Eisenstein has described how the printing press allowed rapid propagation of ideas, resulting in knowledge and cultural movements that were far harder to destroy.

Numerous eras throughout history have been defined through the use of print culture. The American Revolution was a major historical conflict fought after print culture brought the rise of literacy. Furthermore, print culture's ability to shape and guide society was a critical component before, during, and after the Revolution

Many different printed documents influenced the beginning of the revolution. The Magna Carta was originally a scribal document of 1215, recording an oral transaction restricting the power of English kings and defining rights of subjects. It was revitalized by being printed in the 16th century and widely read by the increasingly literate English and colonial population thereafter. The Magna Carta was used as a basis for the development of English liberties by Sir Edward Coke and became a basis for writing the Declaration of Independence.

Today, print has matured to a state where the majority of modern society has come to have certain expectations regarding the printed book:

• The knowledge contained by printed books is believed to be accurate.
• The cited author of a printed book does indeed exist and is actually the person who wrote it.
• Every copy of a printed book is identical (at least in the important aspects) to every other copy, no matter how far apart the locations are in which they are sold.

As David J. Gunkel states in his article "What's the Matter with Books?", society is currently in the late age of the text; the moment of transition from print to electronic culture where it is too late for printed books and yet too early for electronic texts. Jay David Bolter, author of Writing Space, also discusses our culture in what he calls "the late age of print." The current debate going on in the literary world is whether or not the computer will replace the printed book as the repository and definition of human knowledge. There is still a very large audience committed to printed texts, who are not interested in moving to a digital representation of the repository for human knowledge. Much of the early paper used for print is highly acidic, and will ultimately destroy itself.

There are more online publications, journals, newspapers, magazines, and businesses than ever before. In effect, the individual becomes separated from the rest of society.

The advances of technology in print culture can be separated into three shifts:

• spoken language to the written word,
• the written word to Printing press,
• the printing press to the computer/internet.

The written word has made history recordable and accurate. Most importantly, it spread print throughout society.

Symbols, logos and printed images are forms of printed media that do not rely on text. They are ubiquitous in modern urban life.

The Closing of the book is potentially imminent and yet we will lose much if we excommunicate the printed book to museums of culture as communication tool of antiquity.

Perhaps it is anachronistic to grasp the literary form that is losing ground in our libraries both civic and personal and there is a place for the published word.

In the printed word of the Scriptures there is movement away from the hard copy to the cyber resource. Time will tell in which direction that we will continue to embark.

Recently THE BOOK OF ELI, The story revolves around Eli, a nomad in a post-apocalyptic world, who is told by a voice to deliver his copy of a mysterious book to a safe location on the West Coast of

the United States. The history of the post-war world is explained along the way as is the importance of Eli's task. The book he is charged to deliver is the last copy of the Holy Bible.

Our task is take a look at the printed word in the face of Toronto Library closings as

as tantamount to disaster. Three cheers for Margaret Attwood. http://www.margaretatwood.ca/

According to councillor Doug Ford, “Good luck to Margaret Atwood. I don’t even know her. She could walk right by me, I wouldn’t have a clue who she is,” said Mr. Ford, responding to the celebrated author’s remarks on Twitter opposing the proposed library cuts.”

Pose the thought why does the published word in the form of the hard copy book continue to be relevant in our society.

“There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic, nor politic, nor popular, but they must do it because conscience tells them it is right. “