Letter to Sven Birkerts

Dear Mr. Birkerts,

The Gutenberg Elegies, captures your emotion, an overwhelmed bystander of this technologically advancing society, in a unique and affective way. It is true to say that if we were to keep excelling at the rate we are now, a lot of the charm would be stripped out of what used to be exciting to us. Each piece of technology we utilize is just one branch of the flourishing tree of technology. The stepping-stones that helped to get us where we are today are being long forgotten and dropped like a leaf from this tree of technology.

I realized, through the readings, your worries are not only broad, but also concerning in certain aspects of what once made the simple action of reading so appealing. I agree with your argument and concern on this topic. The magic of being at one with a story is completely forgotten when attempting to find a connection with a screen of pixels. "For opacity they substitute transparency, promoting the illusion of access. All that has been said, known, and done will yield to the dance of fingertips on terminal keys. Space becomes hyperspace, and time, hypertime. One gathers the data of otherness, but through a medium which seems to level the feel - the truth - of that otherness (Birkerts 137)." The physicality of finding a comfortable place without technology surrounding oneself, causes a special connection with an already tangible, separate, item than one is uses to chat, check e-mail, and entertain oneself. This causes the experience to be a little more special and different than every other action of one's daily life. The most important part of reading and comprehending is finding that connection. For me, it is extremely important to be able to underline, highlight, imagine where in the book each event occurred to retain the information. Although we have technology such as the Perseus 1.0 capable of holding "the equivalent of 25 volumes of ancient literature by ten authors (1 million Greek words), roughly 4,000 glosses in the on-line classical encyclopedia, and a 35,000-word on-line Greek lexicon (Birkerts 314-135)," we do not have to depend solely on the newest piece of technology to keep us learning.

Although to many, including myself at first, you came off pessimistic and, for lack of a better word, dramatic in the beginning, you were much easier to connect with and understand as his book progressed, “These are, in some ways, pessimistic perspectives. Pessimistic, certainly, if we measure the state of things according to the old humanist assumptions about the sovereignty of the individual. These essays are extrapolations, predictions, warnings. But they are counterbalanced – not refuted, alas – by a number of pieces that were written in a spirit of celebration (Birkerts 6).” I now realize that your intentions are not to accuse, necessarily, everyone who owns a cell phone, computer, iPod, or television; you are simply opening the readers’ eyes to what may be overlooked from time to time, and expressing concern for the future. It was a pleasure reading your book!