Picked this book up in London - an english translation of a conversation between Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere. I am savoring each page of it because it is so rich with insight, with history and with the kind of reflection that only wisdom and experience can bring.
In the preface, French writer Jean Philippe De Tonnac writes about books and cathedrals - citing the work of Victor Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,
"The book will kill the building....When you compare [architecture] to the idea, which...needs only a sheet of paper, some ink and a pen, is it surprising that the human intellect should have deserted architecture for the printing press."
De Tonnac goes on to write:
"Well the great cathedrals - those bibles in stone - did not vanish, but the avalanche of manuscripts and then printed text that appeared at the end of the Middle Ages did render them less important. As culture changed, architecture lost its emblematic role. So it is with the book. There is no need to suppose that the electronic book will replace the printed version. Has film killed painting? Television cinema? However, there is no doubt that the book is in the throes of a technological revolution that is changing our relationship to is profoundly."
And so the stage is set for a wonderful conversation between these two men. Some of the topics in this far reaching discussion deal with the impermanence of most new technology platforms compared to the printed page. New technology changes and become obsolete at a faster and faster pace. Unless one has the resources to keep all of them nearby - information can become inaccessible.
In my own lifetime I have seen phonographs and type-writers and brownie cameras be replaced by reel to reel tape, word-processors and sx70's. Then computers, digital cameras and ipads. The storage and playback of each of these permutations is also different. Don't we all have floppy discs somewhere that we can no longer access? Reels of super 8 film, hard drives, jump drives, cassette decks....the list goes on.
Interesting to me that it was panned by several reviewers. I find it rewarding - and worth picking up and putting down over and over again. More information about the book here.
