Albert Mohler: Rest in Print, Britannica: An Elegy for an Encyclopedia
And then they were no more. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. announced Tuesday that it would no longer offer its venerable reference set in a printed edition. Western Civilization just took another hard blow to the chin.
“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” said Jorge Cruz, president of the Chicago-based company. He went on to celebrate the new digital age. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continually updated, it’s much more expansive, and it has multimedia.” the rest image by Nathan Borror
I admit to believing that this is a loss, even if inevitable. I also believe that the experience of reading the Bible on an iPhone is radically different from the experience of reading the Bible in printed form, feeling the texture of the book as our eyes take in the inspired text. The digital age brings wonders, but subtle dangers as well. Multimedia publishing can offer riches, but maybe some things are better received without digital sound and fury.
posted by Pat Dague @ 9:54 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
The red comment reminds me of something George F. Will wrote several years ago. He much preferred writing with a fountain pen on paper to typing so he could feel the shape of the words as they appeared on the page. It was a profoundly different experience from writing with a type writer.
How does the song go? "Something's lost and something's gained in living every day."
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