Of Eberts and E-books (Part 1 of 2) Roger Ebert, arguably the most famous film critic writing today and at the same time the alleged destroyer of film criticism according to infamous contrarian and all-around party-pooper Armond White, is easily one of the more intelligently outspoken celebrities on Twitter. Very respectfully, I intend no pun in using that adjective: several years ago Ebert contracted thyroid cancer and later suffered complications that would eventually render him unable to speak. He has since taken to blogging and, more recently, to using the aforementioned social networking site, where he says — or rather, writes — with an almost religious zeal most of the things that come to his mind.  Not a day goes by that Ebert doesn’t update his Twitter feed with tweets ranging from links to his latest movie reviews to retweets of interesting and amusing reflections by the people he follows, and as well as throwing witty remarks at Sarah Palin’s numerous non sequiturs, he’s given to riffing on various modern and immensely popular inventions. Not long ago, he expressed his disapproval of 3-D in film. Afterwards, he argued that video games can never be art. Now, he’s picking a fight against e-books. “Digital books are like Near Beer,” he began,  pointing out that e-books just aren’t as good as the “real” thing. He then went on to make a case of the many characteristics of “real” books that are as yet absent in their electronic counterparts, such as the inimitable nostalgia afforded by owning life-furnishing books:  Hey, here’s that digital copy of “Gatsby” I got at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris 40 years ago, still waiting on my shelf! And their built-in capacity for authorial and paternal inscriptions:  Allan Ginsberg himself signed this e-book of “Howl” to me at City Lights in 1963!   Here’s my old e-book “10,000 Jokes, Toasts and Stories,” and written inside “To my boy Roger from Daddy.“  And their ability to keep tangible, flat, and potentially profitable ephemera between their pages:  In his e-book edition of “The Grapes of Wrath,” I found a check my father never cashed.  And their inherent tactility and affinity towards the passage of time and opposable digits: I’ve read my e-book of Shakespeare so many times since graduating college in 1964 that look how lovingly the pages are thumbed.  When I’m reading a long e-book, sometimes I’ll ruffle all those pages with an idle thumb.  And the impact of their covers, which I posted about recently:  I found this e-book on a top shelf of a used e-book store. Its cover somehow reached out to me.  We only met in the first place because she spotted the cover of the e-book I was reading across the aisle on the train.  You can find out a lot about someone just by glancing at the covers of their e-books.   In conclusion and in defense of his apparently Luddite attitude towards e-books, he tweeted:  Tired of my tweets about eBooks? It’s not about the eBooks so much as about the wit, poetry and poignancy of my tweets.  To friends complaining about too many tweets on e-books: A full refund is in the mail.  But while all this analog/old versus digital/new battle was unfolding, guess what yours truly was doing. This:  Downloading books by Don DeLillo, Martin Amis, Thomas Pynchon, and Donald Barthelme on iBooks. Current mood: d^_^b  That happy-camper emoticon depicts someone who is either enjoying good music or giving two thumbs up (a gesture which incidentally was made more popular years ago by Ebert’s thumb and that of his friend and fellow critic, Gene Siskel). Or, in my case, both.

Of Eberts and E-books (Part 1 of 2)

Roger Ebert, arguably the most famous film critic writing today and at the same time the alleged destroyer of film criticism according to infamous contrarian and all-around party-pooper Armond White, is easily one of the more intelligently outspoken celebrities on Twitter. Very respectfully, I intend no pun in using that adjective: several years ago Ebert contracted thyroid cancer and later suffered complications that would eventually render him unable to speak. He has since taken to blogging and, more recently, to using the aforementioned social networking site, where he says — or rather, writes — with an almost religious zeal most of the things that come to his mind.
 
Not a day goes by that Ebert doesn’t update his Twitter feed with tweets ranging from links to his latest movie reviews to retweets of interesting and amusing reflections by the people he follows, and as well as throwing witty remarks at Sarah Palin’s numerous non sequiturs, he’s given to riffing on various modern and immensely popular inventions. Not long ago, he expressed his disapproval of 3-D in film. Afterwards, he argued that video games can never be art. Now, he’s picking a fight against e-books.

“Digital books are like Near Beer,” he began,  pointing out that e-books just aren’t as good as the “real” thing. He then went on to make a case of the many characteristics of “real” books that are as yet absent in their electronic counterparts, such as the inimitable nostalgia afforded by owning life-furnishing books: 

Hey, here’s that digital copy of “Gatsby” I got at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris 40 years ago, still waiting on my shelf!

And their built-in capacity for authorial and paternal inscriptions: 

Allan Ginsberg himself signed this e-book of “Howl” to me at City Lights in 1963!  

Here’s my old e-book “10,000 Jokes, Toasts and Stories,” and written inside “To my boy Roger from Daddy.“ 

And their ability to keep tangible, flat, and potentially profitable ephemera between their pages: 

In his e-book edition of “The Grapes of Wrath,” I found a check my father never cashed. 

And their inherent tactility and affinity towards the passage of time and opposable digits:

I’ve read my e-book of Shakespeare so many times since graduating college in 1964 that look how lovingly the pages are thumbed. 

When I’m reading a long e-book, sometimes I’ll ruffle all those pages with an idle thumb. 

And the impact of their covers, which I posted about recently: 

I found this e-book on a top shelf of a used e-book store. Its cover somehow reached out to me. 

We only met in the first place because she spotted the cover of the e-book I was reading across the aisle on the train. 

You can find out a lot about someone just by glancing at the covers of their e-books.  

In conclusion and in defense of his apparently Luddite attitude towards e-books, he tweeted: 

Tired of my tweets about eBooks? It’s not about the eBooks so much as about the wit, poetry and poignancy of my tweets. 

To friends complaining about too many tweets on e-books: A full refund is in the mail. 

But while all this analog/old versus digital/new battle was unfolding, guess what yours truly was doing. This: 

Downloading books by Don DeLillo, Martin Amis, Thomas Pynchon, and Donald Barthelme on iBooks. Current mood: d^_^b 

That happy-camper emoticon depicts someone who is either enjoying good music or giving two thumbs up (a gesture which incidentally was made more popular years ago by Ebert’s thumb and that of his friend and fellow critic, Gene Siskel). Or, in my case, both.

12 notes

Show

  1. bodywithoutorgans said: I love Ebert, he’s brilliant. I also think his transition to digital media is mostly why my father finally learned to use the internet.
  2. aldrin posted this

Blog comments powered by Disqus












  • Recent Comments





  • Booked Blogs