Ushering in a New Era?

The Penguin Blog posted an interesting little entry about eBooks and electronic publishing. To quote part of the post:

“There is a school of thought that says that Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press – leading to the demise of the illuminated manuscript and the transfer of knowledge by linear type – actually affected the way that people absorbed ideas and information and that Western Rationalism might not have taken hold without the orderly presentation of text. So it is not implausible to imagine that as more and more knowledge and information is transfered via the internet, with popup windows, embedded video, infographic boxes and all the other eye-catching frippery competing for attention, we might witness significant changes in the way we read, and perhaps in the way we actually think.” ~from Nonlinearity by Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher

The rest can be read here: http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2008/02/non-linear.html

If the printed word ushered in an era of Western Rationalism, what might we be ushering in with the advent of electronic words? Any thoughts?

Published by Valya

Valya Dudycz Lupescu has been making magic with food and words for more than 20 years, incorporating folklore from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth. She’s a writer, content developer, instructor, and mother of three teenagers. Valya is the author of MOTHER CHRISTMAS, THE SILENCE OF TREES, and the founding editor of CONCLAVE: A Journal of Character. Along with Stephen H. Segal, she is the co-author of FORKING GOOD: An Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of The Good Place and GEEK PARENTING: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family (Quirk Books), and co-founder of the Wyrd Words storytelling laboratory. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her poetry and prose have been published in anthologies and magazines that include, The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Kenyon Review, Culture, Gargoyle Magazine, Gone Lawn, Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium. You can find her on Twitter @valya and on Mastodon.social @valya

One thought on “Ushering in a New Era?”

  1. Ian Thomas Healy says:

    Modern Irrationalism? After all, any crank with an agenda can publish an eBook nowadays and market it.

    (I say this, checking the latest sales numbers on The Milkman eBook version…)

    Ian

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