Monday, August 25, 2008

Digital Yeats et al

On display in Dublin, or specifically at the National Library of Ireland is a notebook given by Maud Gone to William Butler Yeats in 1908. Opened only to a particular page, this notebook encased in glass is barely readable if not visible under the prescribed lighting for aged ink treasures. But thanks to advances in digital technology, this notebook is reincarnated. Every word is legible and every page is readable next to the display case.

So says a New York Times issue.

While many would lament over the advent of computers in particular and technology in general citing it as the primary factor why kids have shorter attention span and why people read fewer and fewer books, true literary enthusiasts can only rejoice.

E-books are all over the net. My friend read the entire series of Stephenie Meyers online. Poetry readings are equally available. T. S. Eliot reads “The Wasteland” himself online. Madonna and Andy Garcia recite a Neruda. Ralph Fiennes does the “Ode to the Sea.”

These are but a few of the many reasons a bookworm indulges in the Net. So, woe unto a mother or father or anybody who would rather see technology as a bane. Greater woe should be upon anybody who could not find an opportunity in technology to get into reading.

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