“Today we are beginning to notice that the new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression.”
Marshall McLuhan
Books, as we know them, are becoming obsolete for the new generations. In a world where you don't need to buy the newspaper because you already have all the information in a web site, or where gossip magazines have to deal with web sites that can post news hours after they happen while magazines need days to be published, you can find complete books in pdf on the net.
If it is legal or not, that's another subject (if one of us become a writer, I don't think he or she would like to see his or her play free-published on the net, although maybe that's the future: to write works on the net and, like Itunes does with the music, you'd have to pay for it if you wanted to read it). Nevertheless, there is a problem: it's not really confortable to read 200 pages in a screen; yes, you could print them but that's already an expense. There are people, like Autumn, that prefer (and I'm sure she'll always prefer) to read a book before read an screen: a book offers her, besides comfort and tradition (she is a really traditional person although she doesn't look like one) the smell of its pages.
But not only news and works already edited live on the internet: the appearance of personal spaces where authors can write since their own point of view (subjectivism) everything they want (there's no a genre, or a topic: you don't need to have a lebel; you can publish about everything you want) has been one of the main events. Web sites and, mainly blogs (and chats & forums) allow the interactivity between people all over the world. You use the words to create a place that belongs to you and also belongs to many people. That's the BIG difference with traditional literature: it offer you the possibility of finding hobbies/interests and finding them in a same place and, also, read comments about the same topic or write down your ideas.
If it is legal or not, that's another subject (if one of us become a writer, I don't think he or she would like to see his or her play free-published on the net, although maybe that's the future: to write works on the net and, like Itunes does with the music, you'd have to pay for it if you wanted to read it). Nevertheless, there is a problem: it's not really confortable to read 200 pages in a screen; yes, you could print them but that's already an expense. There are people, like Autumn, that prefer (and I'm sure she'll always prefer) to read a book before read an screen: a book offers her, besides comfort and tradition (she is a really traditional person although she doesn't look like one) the smell of its pages.
But not only news and works already edited live on the internet: the appearance of personal spaces where authors can write since their own point of view (subjectivism) everything they want (there's no a genre, or a topic: you don't need to have a lebel; you can publish about everything you want) has been one of the main events. Web sites and, mainly blogs (and chats & forums) allow the interactivity between people all over the world. You use the words to create a place that belongs to you and also belongs to many people. That's the BIG difference with traditional literature: it offer you the possibility of finding hobbies/interests and finding them in a same place and, also, read comments about the same topic or write down your ideas.
“If our language, our programs, our creations are not strongly present in the new media, the young generation of our country will be economically and culturally marginalized.”
Jacques ChiracWinter
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