In the past week or so, there have been plenty of responses to Jonathan Franzen’s anti e-book rant, which is linked here. There are links to a few good ones in the following:
Tom Chivers of the Telegraph has some sympathy for Franzen’s position, since he’s not the world’s biggest e-book fan himself, but he doesn’t understand why Jonathan Franzen needs to come up with arguments, some of them quite far-fetched, to support what is obviously a personal preference.
At Discover Magazine, science writer Carl Zimmer says that e-books make literature accessible to people who might otherwise not have the chance to read it and points out that constant revising and editing of an already published book is not a phenomenon of the e-book era.
At the Huffington Post, Andrew Schaffer parodies Franzen’s original statement in the form of a statement by a 16th century ancestor against the printing press.
Vincent Zandri also finds Franzen’s position quite old-fashioned, though he doesn’t go back all the way to the 16th century but only to the 1950s. He also wonders whether Jonathan Franzen’s issues with e-books and technology in general stem from the fact that he is easily distractable.
At National Public Radio, Jonathan Segura says that he is sick of the e-book versus print debate, because it shouldn’t be an either/or question.
At Paperback Writer, Lynn Viehl also believes that e-book or print book shouldn’t be an either/or question. She also says that it is the story that should be important, not the format or delivery vehicle.
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