The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age

Sven Birkerts

Macmillan, Nov 14, 2006 - Literary Criticism - 251 pages

A reissue of the book that first examined the future of reading and literature in the electronic age, now with a new introduction and Afterword

In our zeal to embrace the wonders of the electronic age, are we sacrificing our literary culture? Renowned critic Sven Birkerts believes the answer is an alarming yes. In The Gutenberg Elegies, he explores the impact of technology on the experience of reading. Drawing on his own passionate, lifelong love of books, Birkerts examines how literature intimately shapes and nourishes the inner life. What does it mean to "hear" a book on audiotape or decipher its words in electronic form on a laptop screen? Can the world created by Henry James exist in an era defined by the work of Bill Gates? Are books as we know them--volumes printed in ink on paper, with pages to be turned as the reading of each page is completed--dead?

At once a celebration of the complex pleasures of reading and a bold challenge to the information technologies of today and tomorrow, The Gutenberg Elegies is an essential volume for anyone who cares about the past and the future of books.

What people are saying

Review: The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age

User Review  - Justin Brown - Goodreads

Nostalgic look at the modern electronic age from a writer and reader. I enjoyed it and thought it very thought provoking.

Review: The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age

User Review  - Rob - Goodreads

This is so frustrating! I would have given this book at least 4, if not 5 stars, were it not for the strongly Luddite turn Birkerts takes in two or three sections. Also, his simplistic stance that ...

Contents

• Introduction to the 2006 Edition: xi
• The Reading Wars: 3
• The Reading Self: 9
• MahVuhHuhPuh: 11
• The Paper Chase An Autobiographical Fragment: 33
• The Owl Has Flown: 70
• The Woman in the Garden: 77
• Paging the Self Privacies of Reading: 87
• The Shadow Life of Reading: 95
• From the Window of a Train: 109
• The Electronic Millennium: 115
• Into the Electronic Millennium: 117
• Perseus Unbound: 134
• Close Listening: 141
• Hypertext Of Mouse and Man: 151
• Critical Mass Three Meditations: 165
• The Western Gulf: 167
• The Death of Literature: 183
• The Narrowing Ledge: 198
• The Faustian Pact: 210
• Afterword to the 2006 Edition: 231
• Cited Material: 251

About the author

Sven Birkerts is the author of five books of essays and a memoir. Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard and a member of the core faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars, he also edits the journal Agni, based at Boston University. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
• Author: Sven Birkerts
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2006
• ISBN: 0865479577, 9780865479579
• Length: 251 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Books & Reading