Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

It was the London Book Fair this week, and one of the seminars was entitled, “Digitise or Die? What is the future of the Author“. The seminar synopsis states:

“New technology is finally outstripping the revolution caused by the printing press. What is the future of the book? How do publishers take advantage of the new technology and protect the author’s interests at the same time? Are publishers dragging their heels in the face of the inevitable? How should writers respond to it? What are the new opportunities for writers in the electronic revolution? And how does all this affect the reader?”

One of the panel was Margaret Atwood, the well known author, who was also invited as a guest on Radio 4’s Start the Week this Monday, which perhaps gives you a flavour of what might have been said at the seminar. Apparently, with “digital reading“, you don’t absorb, “what you see on the screen in the same way you read it on the page“. The evidence for this neurological statement, she never gives, but listening to the interview it does sound like a group of ‘digital immigrants’ reminiscing about what it was like in the ‘old country’.

Now, perhaps book authors, and certainly book publishers, have something to protect as far as the media they use to distribute their work. But perhaps when she refers to the “Introducing the Book” comedy sketch found on YouTube in the interview, she does not see the irony of having empathy with the medieval scribe. After all, it saw the death of the scroll.

Listen to the interview below:

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