In Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, set in a totalitarian U.S., everyone carries “apparati” (the equivalent of smart phones) and plugs in to “fuckability” ratings, shopping, and GlobalTeen messages.
The hero, Lenny, still reads books. Other characters’ attention is too fragmented.
“I thought about that terrible calumny of the new generation: that books smell. And yet, in preparation for the eventual arrival of Eunice Park, I decided to be safe and sprayed some Pine-Sol Wild Flower Blast int he vicinity of my tomes, fanning the atomized juices with my hands in the direction of their spines.”
I hoped Shteyngart’s future wasn’t here yet, but of course it is.
Some addicts can barely tear themselves away from texting and surfing the net even when they’re on bicycles.
Now here’s something more to break their concentration. Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Knopf, Random House, and others are beginning to publish “enhanced books,” e-books and apps with videos, audio, and internet links.
I have some news for the publishers. These are not books. It’s something called the internet.
We were distressed last week by an article in The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 20), “Blowing up the Book,” about the nascent business of “enhanced books.”
Nothing but cooking wine in the cupboard and nothing stronger than Cold-Eze in the medicine cabinet, so I simply had to deal with it. (Later I had a malt cup.)
It’s one more method of breaking down concentration, denigrating the value of the book, and reducing literacy.
And why are they doing it?
According to a consumer survey by Bowker in 2008, Americans spend 3.9 hours per week reading books, as opposed to 15 hours online and 12.1 hours watching TV.
I guess that explains the publishers’ motive.
Traitors!
They don’t want to be left behind financially, as they were with e-books.
So they’re putting themselves out of business instead by pandering to the internet crowd.
If you’re reading Thomas Hauser’s Muhammad Ali: His Live and Times, the author’s words are not enough. No, there are also video clips and audio clips.
There is even an “enhanced” version of Joan Didion’s Blue Nights, with videos of Didion discussing the death of her daughter. Now that is the end of culture.
Ron Charles, the Washington Post book editor and a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, was way ahead of us on this. In 2010, he made a hilarious video, “Get Ready for Book Apps.”
