“Alice” fans and critics (see my last post) likely fall into opposing iPad and Kindle/Sony camps. The former will view Alice as a new and improved kind of reading: “Great! It’s just like browsing the Internet.” The latter — i.e. those who actually enjoy extended reading — will view it with horror: “Whoa! This is just one more patch of digital quicksand.”
In the spirit of deteriorating attention spans and debilitated Muses, and because it’s way easier than writing a novel, I give you a haiku:
fall day darkening:
the locust digital swarm
eats my absent mind
Just by the way, here’s a reasoned argument for why paper books will persist.
I like this take on digital reading:
“Did instant coffee replace coffee?”
Good parallel. Though I’d suggest it threatens to become more sinister than that, to the point we may have to ask: “When did an assortment of scratch-and-sniff patches come to take the place of fine women- and perfume-scented women? By God.” 🙂 Of course I have the flu, and such feverish imaginings may pass. I hope so.