The Corrosions: Franzen on E(vil)-Books

[VincentZandri]

The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/2012/02/corrosions-franzen-on-evil-books.html#.TzHPg_ldC1c


"Franzen, trying to conjure up a plot against the E-Book."




Ok, I never post twice in one week since I have so much writing to do. But I came upon the article in the Guardian about Jonathan Franzen shitting all over e-Books, calling them corrosive to our moral values or some such high-brow, professorial, MFA (and I have one) inspired, totally out of [expletive] touch with reality commentary. Can you imagine how positively rooted in the past this guy is?

Hey Jonathan: it's not how we read the book, it's the book itself that counts. The story. Words on a page. Doesn't matter if the page is a cave wall or papyrus or paper or some digital screen. It's a [expletive] book. A book written by a writer who had a story to tell.

Maybe I shouldn't be so shocked with JF's ignorance. After all, how many people never accepted the automobile into their lives? Or the radio? The Beatles? The television? The home computer that Mr. F writes his rather, well, snoozy novels on? Perhaps he should simply get out of the e-Book market if that's the way he feels. Currently, his e-Books are selling better than his paper. It would be up to him.

Franzen claims he doesn't connect at all to the Internet when he writes and that writers who do so are hurting themselves. Thanks for that. I'll remember to shut mine off. But you know what? The Internet comes in awfully handy when my work requires a bit of quick research. You just have to maintain a little discipline and not be tempted to check your email or look at porn for that matter.

Anyway, old JF (who is about my age) has made himself out to be a real wholesome, old fashioned guy with great hair and awesome values. God, what a swell guy. With his serious convictions against the modern technology devil, he comes off sounding like my grandmother or worse, Joe McCarthy. Ok, I'll catch [crap] for that. But I say it because millions upon millions of e-Readers have been sold in the recent months and years. And for the first time in ages, people are really reading, both children and the elderly who could not read the fine print in traditional paper books. Reading is cool again, saving trees is cool, and lots of people would rather turn on their Kindle Fire than watch another rerun of Friends.

Also, a whole lot of writers are experiencing a golden age of readers who are discovering their work and loving it. If not for the e-reader, a lot of writers would not be making ends meet. I used to be one of them. I wonder if JF owns a cell phone? I wonder if he has cable television? I know he has a computer and the Internet, or else he wouldn't be tempted to turn it off when he writes. Maybe it's not the Internet or e-Books that he needs to do without. Maybe he needs some Ritalin or whatever to cure ADHD. Maybe that's the root of his problem. But then, he probably wouldn't trust the drug. Because mark my word, Ritalin, along with e-Books will cause the downfall of man.

[Adam Pepper]

If he wants respect and credibility, how about donating 100% of his e-book royalties (ill-gotten gains that they are) to a local library.  It's not my money....but just a thought...

[MichelleR]

Should we hold our breaths?

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

[VincentZandri]

Exactly...

[sbaum4853]

He's such a goober. I think with him, there is a genuine eccentricity that he gets to indulge because of his notoriety. Love his books, though. Favorite living author for me.

[D a l y a]

His books are impressive and enjoyable.

I think perhaps this "hating ebooks" is a thing he's doing to get publicity.  I can see him releasing his next book himself through KDP and saying he was just pulling everyone's leg all those years.  Step 3: profit.

[LisaGraceBooks]

He puts out one book every ten years? Who cares? Some literary types? Let him say what he wants to say. He doesn't know the industry; he gets huge amounts of money for his books; and he lives in an insulated reality. Hope he keeps up his output for his readers.

[Herc- The Reluctant Geek]

Someone should point out to all the technophobes that paper is technology, ink is technology, binding glue is technology. These things do not spring forth from the natural world.

They are all of them, manufactured.

Digital media is not the creation of a Dark Lord, intent on enslaving the world. It's just a way of reading that is kind of new, that's all..

  

[Italiahaircolor]

To me it seems as thought Franzen has a baseless argument ... or arguing for sake of arguing.  I'll gladly take his eBook sales if doesn't want them  .

[EthanRussellErway]

I don't know, maybe the man is right.  Last night my kindle fire became sentient and kept trying to convince me to pluck out all my eyebrows and burn down my neighbors house.  It was really weird.

[VincentZandri]

Ah ha...this the Kindle "fire."

[Victoria J]

Eh. 

[B. Justin Shier]

"Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I'm handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing – that's reassuring."

You known, in large part, I agree with Franzen. I will never forget the 1984 incident, and I worry about a future world in which embedded metadata monitors everything we read...but I would burn every piece of papyrus we have left in exchange for a single digital backup copy of the Library of Alexandria. I guess my feelings on this matter are complex.

B.

[Asher MacDonald]

You known, in large part, I agree with Franzen. I will never forget the 1984 incident, and I worry about a future world in which embedded metadata monitors everything we read...but I would burn every piece of papyrus we have left in exchange for a single digital backup copy of the Library of Alexandria. I guess my feelings on this matter are complex.

B.

Until there is unbreakable DRM, we can always save the ebook file. The continuing miniaturization of computers and storage space is going to give us thumb drives that can store tetragigs. We will be able to store hundreds of thousands of books on a tiny drive we can carry on a keychain.

[LisaGraceBooks]

I don't know, maybe the man is right.  Last night my kindle fire became sentient and kept trying to convince me to pluck out all my eyebrows and burn down my neighbors house.  It was really weird.

It didn't say anything about the beard? That is weird.

[VincentZandri]

We'll always have both...paper and e-book...they share the same podium. However, e-readers will be the dominant form in which we read...but to dismiss it as corrosive to our moral foundations is crazy...
V

[jackz4000]

He's just grandstanding for some media attention and he gets it. He's put out one book in 10 years, just trying to drum up some biz and please his publisher and bookstores at the same time.  Vincent, if you started railing about the evil ebooks you'd get more media attention too.

[tkkenyon]

Franzen is a dumb ... bunny.

I don't like his writing, personally.

He's confusing the medium with the message, and in the case of literature, the medium is not the message. Let us not forget that he was the one who dissed Oprah for her "middlebrow" tastes in literature. He's just a dork.

TK Kenyon

[Jon Olson]

He's such a goober. I think with him, there is a genuine eccentricity that he gets to indulge because of his notoriety. Love his books, though. Favorite living author for me.

Yeah. He's better in his books than he is in life. Just can't let well enough alone. I do think it's funny that he's hammering on eBooks when every one of his titles, save, maybe Strong Motion, are available for Kindle.

[SylviaLucas]

The acclaimed and bestselling novelist ... was talking at the Hay festival in Cartagena, Colombia.

I bet that's where Joan Wilder was going when she went to Cartagena in "Romancing the Stone"!

But, on a more relevant note,

For serious readers, Franzen said, "a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience".

I can appreciate how he feels about paper books. A lot of people feel that way, and most people, when given the opportunity to express themselves and sell their books, will. So I have a hard time blaming him for yammering on the way so many people yammer on.

But to claim that "serious readers" need that sense of permanence that comes from seeing ink on paper  - and that apparently it's always been the experience of ("all" implied) "serious" readers (!?) -is more than a little presumptuous.  (If you read on a device, you're not a "serious" reader? Come on.)

[MichelleR]

I bet that's where Joan Wilder was going when she went to Cartagena in "Romancing the Stone"!

Jhon Wiyldair?? Ze Jhon Wiyldair?

[CoraBuhlert]

I kept wondering about the "Hay festival in Cartagena" bit as well.

The Hay festival is held in Hay-on-Wye, a "book village" in Wales in the UK, hence the name. So while there may well be a literary festival in Cartagena, it's not the Hay festival. Even worse is that the original article is from a British paper that should know what the Hay festival is.

Unless it's one of those cultural spin-offs, e.g. the Art Basel in Miami or the Louvre in Dubai.

[B. Justin Shier]

I kept wondering about the "Hay festival in Cartagena" bit as well.

The Hay festival is held in Hay-on-Wye, a "book village" in Wales in the UK, hence the name. So while there may well be a literary festival in Cartagena, it's not the Hay festival. Even worse is that the original article is from a British paper that should know what the Hay festival is.

Unless it's one of those cultural spin-offs, e.g. the Art Basel in Miami or the Louvre in Dubai.

http://www.hayfestivalsworldwide.org/

B.

[Attebery]

Franzen always makes me think of that song "Stiiiiiill  d o u c h e y  after all these years"