Jonathan Franzen Hates EBooks

Jonathan Franzen has spoken out against the rise of eBooks at a literary festival in Cartagena, Colombia.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the author of bestselling novels "The Corrections" and "Freedom" argued in a press conference that eBooks can never replace print.

"The technology I like is the American paperback edition of "Freedom." I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it's pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now…

"I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change…

""The Great Gatsby" was last updated in 1924. You don’t need it to be refreshed, do you?"

As The Guardian points out, Franzen's character Walter Berglund in "Freedom" seemed to feel a similar angst at the disruption of modern technology, saying at one point, "All the real things, the authentic things, the honest things, are dying off."

This isn't new territory for Frazen - back in 2007, when the first Kindle appeared on the scene, he told the LA Times that "the difference between Shakespeare on a BlackBerry and Shakespeare in the Arden Edition is like the difference between vows taken in a shoe store and vows taken in a cathedral," adding "Am I fetishizing ink and paper? Sure, and I'm fetishizing truth and integrity too."

Despite his reservations, Franzen's books are all available as eBooks, of course, and The Independent claimed in 2010 that at least 350,000 digital copies of "Freedom" had been sold that year.

Franzen is not the only successful traditional author to speak out against digital publishing. See below for a list of others:

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Comments

[BJKWhite]

08:39 PM on 02/13/2012

There is an artefact value in print books, but when you get right down to it all that truly matters are the words. I don't care how I get them, just that I get them.

[mjclear]

05:22 PM on 02/06/2012

I have an e-reader. I also have piles of books, some of which I have actually finished. When I was young, books were a kind of badge of intellect: I kept the ones out that I thought might impress people the most and make me look smart. Now they just take up space.

But for all that, what could be more fun than losing yourself in a musty old used book store searching for that small gem you have not yet read but have always wanted to.....for a couple of bucks. Love the treasure hunt.

[Margaret Koch]

01:16 PM on 02/05/2012

There will always be fear of the new, and attempts to stop progress. But these are people who should know better. No one is tearing their books from their hands and saying they must buy an e-reader. No one is calling them names for reading dead tree and whale oil/petroleum based books. I'm very disappointed that these fine authors would take an ugly swipe at their readers who are excited about learning new ways of doing things. They are actually insulting their readers. There's room for both kinds of reading. Get over your fears and look to an exciting future for readers and authors.

[architectswife]

11:19 AM on 02/05/2012

This is a ridiculous backwards denial of progress. Not to mention a literary snobbery that has no place in a forward thinking society. "You are not a real reader if you read this particular combination of words on an Ereader." Unbelievable! That's like saying reading your email isn't really communicating. You have to read a paper letter sent through the postal system in order to really communicate with someone.

[William1950]

12:55 AM on 02/05/2012

i have been an avid reader since ... well, a long long time.. nothing better than to discover a book that i can read over and over.. in bed and other places... e-books however are very popular.

[yaminacollins]

12:30 AM on 02/05/2012

I love the classiness of print books. They'll always be around. But I also think that as the decades pass, writers like myself (http://yaminatoday.com) will have few, if any complaints against e-books. It's just a matter of getting used to the format.

[orthobobsuruncle]

04:16 PM on 02/03/2012

I realise no one is ever convinced by other people's opinions, but just remember, ebooks can and already have been censored from a distance and without permission.

[Greg Ranzoni]

04:38 AM on 02/04/2012

that's why you keep them in a network isolated area

[orthobobsuruncle]

05:31 AM on 02/04/2012

To an old lady like me, that's just a new learning curve. And it's one I can avoid by reading paper.

[lora101]

01:37 PM on 02/03/2012

I regret to see one of my favourite writers, Jonathan Franzen, expressing this regressive view. Of course we all prefer to own our most beloved books on paper, but how can it be possible to store all the books you'd like to read in your house if you live in a small flat? Also, there is a wealth of books of secondary interest that could be owned electronically without making any committed book lover feel too criminal. It is up to us to make the choices about what format is adequate to each product. The best possibilities of ebooks are still to come when annotated editions will be embedded into the most complex literary works line by line. It will be like having a string of books within the same text.

[TheBaffler]

08:12 AM on 02/03/2012

Writers are the best readers. eBook readers aren't readers, they're consumers of disposable electronic detritus, just as those who listen to music via MP3s aren't serious music lovers.

[ChelleAgain]

08:14 PM on 02/03/2012

And all the writers who use ereaders?

[TheBaffler]

08:56 PM on 02/03/2012

Which good writers use ereaders? Not all writers are equal, not all readers are equal, not all means of reading are equal.

[justwhendoesitend]

03:01 AM on 02/04/2012

You sound like an intellectual snob. You are entitled to your opinion and others can disagree and since the sales of ereaders are doing pretty well. I would say a lot of people disagree with you. But you can like both, nothing says you can not. I love to be able to take all my music library with me. BTW the digital music retains it's quality and can be played by a wide range of electronic devices, anywhere and can be easily shared/acquired.

You just keep listening to your records.

I am sure if you were a caveman you would not see the use of fire as well.

[moflard]

04:45 AM on 02/03/2012

I love my books they look great, they feel wonderful and yes the smell of paper's good too. My library is so overflowing that I seriously had to think about whether the floor could take the weight when I moved home BUT I also love my Kindle. Living in the mountains of Northern Spain finding books isn't exactly easy - I can't just nip down to the shops or even the local library to get a new one (especially when, as now, we're snowed in) . I can however hook up to Amazon and download one quite easily, so I'm afraid I'm sticking with that for the nonce.

And is it just me or does anybody else find it quite ironic that two authors who are famous, at least in part, for their S.F. output have a problem with electronic books?

[Olderandwiser55]

07:27 PM on 02/03/2012

Exactly so on the SF writers.

And do they think everyone has a huge house just for storing books and either goes nowhere or has plenty of money for shipping books? I lived in Chile with the same problem. Yes, I lugged countless books during several trips but we read them all. In Chile, there were few books in English and they were pricey when available.

[DaveRhodeIsland]

08:50 PM on 02/02/2012

Enough of these books printed on paper - I long for the days of quill and ink, nay, papyrus, or better still, carvings in stone!!

[moflard]

04:47 AM on 02/03/2012

Too true! How can you possibly enjoy the Epic of Gilgamesh if it's not imprinted into clay tablet - the way it was meant to be read.

[DaveRhodeIsland]

08:48 PM on 02/02/2012

Luddites, all!

[Sherri Howard]

06:50 PM on 02/02/2012

Call me a bloodless nerd.
I love my Kindle and I have been able to read comfortably for the first time in years. Reading is something I look forward to again and I have been able to read more since Christmas than I have in years.
I love books, I love the feel of a new book and I love seeing them on my shelf. Unlike newspapers I believe we will always have books in print.
I don't see why I can't have the best of both worlds-

[Brice Lewis]

04:09 PM on 02/02/2012

Bradbury has a point. There is a tactile, visceral quality to a book that is sadly lacking in a reader. But Franzen, if you feel so strongly about this, then how come all your books are available on the Kindle? If you're profiting from ebooks, cash the check and shut up.

[Olderandwiser55]

08:03 PM on 02/03/2012

Bradbury has Fahrenheit 451 on kindle now. Even though he doesn't like all those "internets", he likes the checks. I just think it's odd that he's so techno-phobic.

[ChelleAgain]

08:20 PM on 02/03/2012

You know how I own most of my Bradbury? Audio books.

Some readers, many of them Bradbury's age, no longer have the option of print, and they need to enjoy books in a different format. These discussions always forget about them.

I use my Kindle because I'm greedy for books, and live in an area where I can't get them immediately in another way. I also read a lot of indies, and many are only available in eBooks. It always amuses me when people act like folks with readers are not as serious about reading or books, when the reason I use my Kindle constantly is because I AM serious, and I do read a lot -- and an ereader keeps up and keeps track.

[blacksmithn]

12:54 PM on 02/02/2012

Yes, yes. Anyone who uses an eBook should be clapped in irons and beaten with a buggy whip. Their Nooks and Kindles should be burned in a whale oil bonfire. Then we can all ride home in our Stanley steamers.

[Olderandwiser55]

08:04 PM on 02/03/2012

Hahaha.....you said it best