CCBC-Net Archives
nonfiction
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Maia Cheli-Colando <maia_at_littlefolktales.org>
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:47:17 -0800
Abandoning nonfiction, abandoning BOOKS, is such a bad idea on so many fronts.
(1) You lose all of the quality of the book beyond the words, or maybe screenshots of the photos. All of the tangibility of the book is gone. How can anyone who loves books think this doesn't matter? It's like saying that art doesn't matter. I am a photographer, and I do web design, and so I put a lot of my work on the web. But those web-versions are only vague reflections of a full print. It's a useful medium, but gods forbid it should replace physical art.
(2) Our eyes get tired looking at the screen. My kids love the computer for watching videos and for content such as Facebook, but my daughter hates to actually read on the net, because it hurts her eyes. My daughter is an obsessive reader, but would she be one if there were no actual books? Probably not. So now, are reader-readers (those who consume and love many books) going to only retain the fiction interest, and lose everything they could gain from nonfiction?
I mean, think of it -- at the same time everyone is putting out alerts about kids being over media-saturated and having a hard time concentrating, and needing adults to regulate the amount of their logged-in hours, we are going to take away their books and tell them that if they want to learn about anything, they have to log in? Hello?
(3) If nonfiction is relegated to the screen, it will lose the consistency, the ownership, the presence (both physical and emotional), and the joy of real books. Is this really what we want to do? Do we want to make nonfiction -- the process of learning about life around us -- hard work? I've been a database designer for fifteen years now, and there are so many strengths to a database for cross-correlating information, asking questions with simple answers, and aggregating simple results. But working within a database, in that hop from info moment to info moment, is nothing like being immersed in the story of nonfiction, where an author and artist have created a teaching moment.
I mean, aren't the best nonfiction books like spending an afternoon with a fantastic teacher, who leads you step by step along the way, and your mind leaps and grows over the course of the journey you are taking together? Don't you feel an incredible affection for a great teacher, and surrender yourself differently because you trust what they have to share? Over the course of a book you can build this relationship. But not in a database. Maybe some of the best blog writers can come close. But it is not the same, simply because of the technology, as being inside the mind of a book.
Maia
-- Maia Cheli-Colando Arcata, Humboldt Bay, California -- blogging at http://www.littlefolktales.org/wordpress -- -- or drop in on Facebook! --
Content-Description: "AVG certification"
No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.435 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2663 - Release Date: 02/02/10 07: 35:00
-- --
Received on Tue 02 Feb 2010 09:47:17 AM CST
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:47:17 -0800
Abandoning nonfiction, abandoning BOOKS, is such a bad idea on so many fronts.
(1) You lose all of the quality of the book beyond the words, or maybe screenshots of the photos. All of the tangibility of the book is gone. How can anyone who loves books think this doesn't matter? It's like saying that art doesn't matter. I am a photographer, and I do web design, and so I put a lot of my work on the web. But those web-versions are only vague reflections of a full print. It's a useful medium, but gods forbid it should replace physical art.
(2) Our eyes get tired looking at the screen. My kids love the computer for watching videos and for content such as Facebook, but my daughter hates to actually read on the net, because it hurts her eyes. My daughter is an obsessive reader, but would she be one if there were no actual books? Probably not. So now, are reader-readers (those who consume and love many books) going to only retain the fiction interest, and lose everything they could gain from nonfiction?
I mean, think of it -- at the same time everyone is putting out alerts about kids being over media-saturated and having a hard time concentrating, and needing adults to regulate the amount of their logged-in hours, we are going to take away their books and tell them that if they want to learn about anything, they have to log in? Hello?
(3) If nonfiction is relegated to the screen, it will lose the consistency, the ownership, the presence (both physical and emotional), and the joy of real books. Is this really what we want to do? Do we want to make nonfiction -- the process of learning about life around us -- hard work? I've been a database designer for fifteen years now, and there are so many strengths to a database for cross-correlating information, asking questions with simple answers, and aggregating simple results. But working within a database, in that hop from info moment to info moment, is nothing like being immersed in the story of nonfiction, where an author and artist have created a teaching moment.
I mean, aren't the best nonfiction books like spending an afternoon with a fantastic teacher, who leads you step by step along the way, and your mind leaps and grows over the course of the journey you are taking together? Don't you feel an incredible affection for a great teacher, and surrender yourself differently because you trust what they have to share? Over the course of a book you can build this relationship. But not in a database. Maybe some of the best blog writers can come close. But it is not the same, simply because of the technology, as being inside the mind of a book.
Maia
-- Maia Cheli-Colando Arcata, Humboldt Bay, California -- blogging at http://www.littlefolktales.org/wordpress -- -- or drop in on Facebook! --
Content-Description: "AVG certification"
No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.435 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2663 - Release Date: 02/02/10 07: 35:00
-- --
Received on Tue 02 Feb 2010 09:47:17 AM CST
