Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Will the physical book continue to exist into the future?

Will the codex book be superseded by the digital book?
It's a possibility. I mean papyrus scrolls and manuscripts were superseded by books. And yet we still keep the scrolls and manuscripts as they are important in their own right. They contain our history, our advancements. We still watch movies, but the video tapes are now blue ray disks and they are no longer in black and white, they're in colour. Previously I had said "The absence of physical form here............... It's just another medium. another format. Like the pamphlet, the postcard, the codex...... its yet another medium we can create with. And share with such wide audiences. I don't believe this will overtake the book. Nothing compares to a book. It is the original. It offers its own set of treasures, being tactile, smell, more conveniently read, not requiring electricity to operate....."............ We have had the book for quite a while now. It has merged into our general cultures. But everything changes. The Buddhists believe the only constant thing in life is change. And I think with the speed at which we are accelerating - with our technologies, our cultures, our mere pace..... the book may alter as well. Not that I want it to...... but it is very possible. Even if it does, there will be a store of them at the museums. But I secretly hope that if this does occur, that the underground publishers continue their work of displaying great unique bodies of work that push all the boundaries :)

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