nerdylikearockstar:

thelifeguardlibrarian:

libraryjournal:

booksinthekitchen:

fsgbooks:

“Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper. A screen always feels like we could delete that, change that, move it around. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it’s just not permanent enough.”

-Jonathan Franzen in his first-ever press conference.

This is literally how a 90-year-old person talks about computers.

“But it’ll just disappear! How do I know it’s still there when I turn the page? Get my grandson on the phone—he knows about these things.”

Grandpa Franzen strikes again.

It is a really kooky line of thinking.  

Reblogging for the totally accurate comments.

Because, you know, I needed one more reason to dislike Franzen, fucking wanker that he is.

Franzen seems to feel that the form of things is more important than the function of them. For a literature-crazed person like me, though, I’m going to take good books in any form that I can get them in, and if I have a choice, I’m going with the one that’s most convenient for me, right then. Because I care that I’m reading something awesome, not that I’m reading something that was Printed On Paper With Ink.

Can’t help but wonder, too, how he feels like audio books. Saying things is so impermanent! We could just say it differently every time. Better stick to paper and ink and never, ever consider anything else. After all, what would we do if something changes?!