Monday, December 26, 2011

Introducing the Anonymite

In my book v. Kindle post below, an anonymous reader left a comment suggesting I am not a "real" reader because real readers read BOOKS. Pre-Gutenberg, no real readers existed, apparently.

Well, "real" commenters leave their damn names instead of hiding behind "anonymous" ha ha.

The comment, however, does remind me that the book is a technology. People read before books and they will read after books, and the issue is not which mode is more "real" but more convenient for the particular reader making the choice. Indeed, Kerouac typed his draft of On the Road not on pages, in the manner of a book, but on endless teletype paper in the manner of a scroll, because it was more convenient to write spontaneously when he didn't have to stop to reload sheets of paper.

I think I'll coin a new word, in the fashion of Luddites. Anonymites are those readers who refuse to accept new technologies for reading. (But are the "real" anonymites reading clay tablets or scrolls or ... ?)

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