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The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. Sven Birkerts (Faber and Faber, 50 Cross St., Winchester, Mass. 01890), 231 pages, $22.95
While acknowledging that the art of reading is on the verge of extinction and dwelling in every chapter on its imminent death throes, Birkerts, nevertheless, believes that reading, a subjective pastime, is so necessary to survival that a passion for the subject might return.
The author is not talking about "reading," as in "what are you reading?" a continuing haphazard activity, but rather as in "deep reading," getting involved in a book and sticking with it through life and death.
Birkerts warns of a new devil who "no longer moves about on cloven hooves, reeking of brimstone." The new Satan is technology, which is so possessive and all-consuming it flattens out the recipient/user and strips...