

E-Books and the End of Literature - mosescorn
http://blog.parsely.com/post/26347602343/e-books-and-the-end-of-literature-or-how-i-learned-to

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tzs
Interesting. I've occasionally speculated that ebooks may put an end to new
literature, but for a different reason--they make it very very easy for old
literature to compete with new.

With physical books, older titles go out of print. Some become classics and do
stay in print, but for the most part available books skew toward relatively
recent books.

With ebooks, the older titles can stay available (especially if, as I think is
likely, we eventually end up with an intellectual property system where we pay
some kind of general IP tax and in exchange are allowed to freely copy and
distribute copyrighted works).

In such an environment, where the best books from every year remain easily
available in perpetuity (because nearly every book from every year remains
available), the bar each year for a new author's work to command my attention
gets higher and higher.

After a hundred years or so with ebooks, I could easily imagine us reaching a
point where you almost have to be the next Shakespeare to get any interest in
your work.

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mosescorn
I'm not sure it's a bad thing that the competitiveness of literary production
will increase.

I think you're 100% right in regards to Shakespeare, but I don't think that
has anything to do with e-books. Although many of Shakespeare's contemporaries
are studied in academia, Middleton, etc. are rarely read by or performed for
the public. The decay rate of net 'great literature' is a natural process. I
do wonder though whether e-books will speed it up.

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thrill
Someone will write a free app that introduces random data into the reading
metrics.

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mosescorn
someone needs to get on that asap

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tjr
Interesting. I had not previously considered the possible privacy intrusion
into the actual process of reading (how much time is spent on what page, which
pages are not read at all, etc.).

