VIEW: BRING ON THE FUTURE
Not even magic is future-proof. British author J K Rowling’s decision to let her massively popular seven-book series be sold as e-books has imparted additional momentum to the growth of the digital publishing industry. And it further erodes the diminishing ranks of those who continue to hold out against the inevitable shift. That some do is regrettable but not particularly surprising. The advent of any new technology renders the old one defunct. And when a global industry worth unimaginable sums of money is built on that old technology, a great deal of pain- and therefore resistance – is inevitable. But none of that can change the facts: the future of publishing is digital and that is as it should be.
It’s important to remember that the shift from physical formats to digital in the entertainment industry started only in the past decade. That it has become irreversible in such a short period says something about is. In the music industry, chain stores that had prospered for decades have shut down all over the US, unable to compete with digital downloads. And the movie industry may well be going the same way with the latest quarterly reports showing DVD sales dropping and a corresponding growth for NetFix, the premier online movie streaming service. The book industry is not immune to this dynamic.
It isn’t hard to see why. In their purest form, books, like music and movies, are data. And the advantages of liberating that data from a physical medium are immense. Production costs go down, supply constraints are removed entirely. Knowledge is democratized, for with the proper infrastructure, e-books have the potential to be far more accessible to a far greater number of people than physical books. A far greater number of authors can make their presence felt, for the digital format enables low-cost self-publishing in a way the existing industry does not. So, bring on the future.
COUNTER VIEW: NO MAGIC IN DIGITAL
That J K Rowling – a member of the small tribe of high-profile authors standing up for books as we know them by refusing to authorize digital versions of her best-selling Harry Potter series – has succumbed to the electronic onslaught is a pity. While e-books might be the latest fad, the writer who entranced the world with tales of magic of a boy wizard should have been more appreciative of the magic of paperbacks and hard bounds. For, a book has a special aura and cannot be reduced to mere data. It is a treasured material possession and, in many cases, a collector’s item. The feel and sensuality of a book can hardly be replaced by the cold, detached screen of an e-book reader.
A book is much more than a medium for literary content. A reader not just reads a book but forms a relationship with it. Also, books are reservoirs of stories whereas e-books are just platforms for information. The inherent tactile nature of a book helps readers associate better with the content. Reading the Bhagvad Geeta of the Bible in book form is an experience that cannot be replicated by their e-book versions. When books are digitized they no longer remain books but become interactive multimedia tools. It takes away from the sanctity of the book itself. This is precisely what the digital version of the Harry Potter books will do. ‘Pottermore’, we website that will host the e-books will be a mishmash of computer games, social networking and online store.
Just as the experience of watching a movie in a theatre cannot be reproduced by DVDs and movie websites, e-books cannot capture the joys of reading a book. Scrolling through an e-book is not the same as flipping through the pages of a book. The former, made interactive the multimedia inputs, diminishes the key ingredient that makes reading such a pleasure – imagination.
Prabhat Banarjee
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