“If we can get them right, books are luminous versions of our ideas, bound by narrative structure so that others can encounter those better, smarter versions of us on the page or screen.
Books make the case for us, for the identity of the individual as an embodiment of thinking in the world. The heart of what even scholars do is the endless task of making that world visible again and again by telling stories, complicated, nuanced, subtle stories that reshape us daily so that new forms of knowledge can shine out.”
Perhaps the debate about tactile books versus electronic books is growing tedious for some people but this essay makes beautifully suggestive arguments for the materiality of text.
In other news, I’m a little late to the game on this one, but I just received a thoroughly Kindle-proof book in the mail: Scorch Atlas by our friend Blake Butler and I’m overcome with excitement about reading it.
