David Brooks, my favorite NY Times columnist, hits it again in his latest: The Medium is the Medium. I strongly suggest reading this piece. In this column, he talks about how the internet is good for disseminating information and keeping you informed, while books are a superior vehicle for developing an individual mind, much because of the fact that the internet shuns hierarchy, while books force a reader to defer to the wisdom of an author.
The Internet helps you become well informed — knowledgeable about current events, the latest controversies and important trends. The Internet also helps you become hip — to learn about what’s going on, as Epstein writes, “in those lively waters outside the boring mainstream.”
But the literary world is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering significant things of lasting import. To learn these sorts of things, you have to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse yourself in a great writer’s world. You have to respect the authority of the teacher.
I agree for the most part.
The only area in which I disagree is in the case of minority voices that don’t have a foothold in publishing. This site, for example, helps me because I (and hopefully other readers) get to hear the voices of Asian America and minority America, voices that have a tiny foothold in American publishing. We come here because it’s the second best thing to having representation in books, and it enables us to have good conversations about current events, books, and culture.
This site, as far as I know, will be here for a long time, but in the future, it would also be good to be able to defer to more Asian American writers and teachers. Let’s keep our eye on the long term goal.
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Ashamedly not being a big reader I have to admit, yes the author and the quoted author is right. Internet is more conversational and books are immersive. Regarding AA authors. Can you name any interesting ones? Like i said not being a huge reader, the only one that comes to my mind is Gene Yang – American Born Chinese writer. I thought that book was great ( okay, it was a comic book) but its nice to be immersed by AA culture where the author talks about things in a fresh funny way ( identity politics) and not the usual straightlaced manner. Granted AA’s may have a huge complex of issues, hence all the AA blogs, but I think the younger audience will read stuff that is actually entertaining and interesting , because whining is not empowering. Youtube does a good job of using comedy to get across issues that frustrate and until AA writers show the same verve, the internet will win, over books and even comic books.
Thanks, ABC! I really should put something on the top of this blog that lists interesting Asian American authors. Maybe I’ll put it with the award winners.
Here are some good recent books (some of these have reviews on this site; some don’t):
1. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (This too is a graphic novel. I thought this book was great.)
2. Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun
3. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
4. Waylaid by Ed Lin
When the ancient Egyptians first started writing script on papyrus (where the word “paper” originates), old schoolers were complaining that it was a kind of dumbing down. But it was revolutionary.
The author of that amazing book, Jared Diamond, wrote “writing was first invented as a means to facilitate enslavement”. It was used to record, for example, the distribution of grain. It was a tool for administering empire. Only the elite class possessed the skill and knowledge of writing.
In medieval Europe, the all powerful Church held a monopoly on literacy and the bible was to be interpreted only by the priesthood. Then the Protestant Reformation occurred which coincided with the development of the printing press. Bibles were widely printed in vernacular, instead of official Latin, and distributed to the masses. The masses started interpreting the word for themselves. This was a revolution.
The internet is having a similar effect on the traditional publishing. It is empowering the average person to create their own content and bypass the gatekeepers. It is often alternative media divorced from the mainstream. The publishing industry wont accept your work? No problem. Harness the web to publicize your work. Create a web site that contains your writing. Use new technology to publish your own book. The internet decentralizes the power of publishing and distributes it such that it is accessible even to the little guy. The other power thing about the internet is that you are not just passively absorbing words of another but it is interactive. You can leave comments, feedback….in other words there is dialogue.