22 abr 2010

The page has its own prosody, by which i mean the material support of the text: margins, paper, typeface. It isn't the same to read the same book on different texture paper.

I don't want to fetishize this, arguing that if you don't read an original edition of something you aren't reading it correctly. What I am saying is that if makes a difference to me. A type face has a voice the same way a reader of an audio-book has a voice.

I actually wish I weren't so sensitive to this. It must be nice to not see the book you're reading, to have that experience of unmediated reading.

2 comentarios:

Tom King dijo...

I agree. What do you think of Kindle and the like then?

Jonathan dijo...

I haven't tried the kindle or anything similar. I'm sure I would love it from the point of view of instant gratification, but hate it from the point of view of the loss of the tactile experience.