on literacy, language, and LOLs

[sarasrati34]

I've been reading a book of J.R.R. Tolkien's letters, which are suprisingly interesting, even when he is not writing about Lord of the Rings. What is most fascinating, I think, is the differences between communication then and communication now, as well as, when you think about the comparison, what happens to communication in the future.

Comments

[ex_treadlig]

I have some friends here who practically only listen to audio books now. I just don't get the same connection to a book as when I can sit down with it in my hands and read the print. There's something to be said about having a library of books you can call your own. It's almost a record of your knowledge - I think your book collection says a lot about who you are.

Have you seen the Amazon Kindle? A lot of people are raving about it but I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on real books yet. Reading things like the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant and the letters of Howard Hanson, I know what you mean about the lost eloquence of written communication.

I'm also interested to see what happens with these online journals in the future when our generation starts to pass. Since we're not leaving behind volumes of physical journals, what happens to all the thoughts and writings over all these years?

[sarasrati34]

I've thought about that too, recently--I accidentally deleted the blogspot I used to use and with it about three years of entries from before I had this one. I used to keep a physical journal, but I haven't used it in years. I suppose we could print them out or something--but how many people actually do that? And if everything becomes electronic, who would actually bother to read a sheaf of papers?

Yes, I have seen the Kindle. I don't know about it either. If they could make something where you actually turned pages maybe I would consider that. But as it is, I just don't think it cuts it.