Bewildering Stories discusses...
Print Books or E-Books?
with Don Webb
A query comes from someone who is evidently a reader of Bewildering Stories. Since the sender is not a veteran contributor, we shall maintain anonymity as a courtesy. The message is brief and written in ESL; nonetheless, it raises questions of general interest.
Sorry for disturbing your time. Did you prefer book or ebook? If book, what is your feeling about the physical book? Do you like limited edition books, and why? Hope you please answer me.
First, let’s broaden the questions. We can come back to my particular interest at the end. What special advantages do print books and e-books have? Why would we have both print and digital formats rather than only one or the other?
E-books — or any works in digital format — have created the concept of the dynamic text, but that’s a topic for another time. Suffice it to say that they have made communications quite inexpensive, because they occupy only virtual space. Since e-books can be read on a laptop or even handheld devices, they are very handy for travelers. They also permit anyone to acquire a personal library of any size without having to build bookshelves. And if an e-book is obtained through an ordinary download, it can be easily shared with friends who have compatible hard- and software.
Well and good for the readers, but what about the authors? How do they benefit if their works can be distributed across the Internet or by thumb drive with no intervening labor in the form of printing, bookbinding and storage? Electronic technology has radically changed the nature and economics of publishing, and we are waiting to see what the future holds.
The advantages of digital literature such as e-books do not necessarily outweigh those of print. One may well prefer a printed book as an art object in itself or, even as an ordinary book, it may be suitable as a gift. A printed book also has the advantage of sheer comfort. True, one can read an e-book on a cellphone while relaxing in an easy chair, but is the screen really large enough? And does balancing a laptop on one’s lap really count as comfort?
A physical book is easier to read because print brings the reader into physical contact with the text. One can mark one’s place on the page with a thumb or one’s place in the book with a bookmark. And one can easily pencil notes in the margins. Of course, something similar can be done on a computer, but the operations are remote and more complex.
Now, which is better for literary research: e-books or print? Leaving aside abstruse projects such as tracing the history of manuscripts or print editions, an e-book is far and away preferable to a print book. That is, as long as the digital edition has the all-important search function. If it doesn’t, the student or professor can transpose the text to a word processor file; a chore that will be time-consuming but ultimately very worthwhile.
Now, about limited editions: Why would anyone print a book in a limited edition? Because it may have a special, limited audience. Or the book may be expected to have few buyers. Or the purpose may be to create value in rarity. Or perhaps the print production is simply too expensive to maintain.
Bewildering Stories contains a work that could appear in print only as a limited edition: the translation of Cyrano de Bergerac’s L’Autre Monde (The Other World). A print edition would constitute a “coffee table” book, and it would be prohibitively expensive to produce. Not only is it a “critical edition” with intermittent explanations that must be set off typographically from the main text, it contains a profusion of hypertext notes that could be accommodated only in sidebars on a printed page. Why not as footnotes? Nobody reads footnotes except very experienced students who read footnotes first, out of context, in order to sort out the ones they can safely ignore. They wouldn’t find any.
Who are the intended audiences of The Other World? It is of general interest as a major work in the history of modern — i.e. post-Renaissance — science fiction. It is also of special interest to students of French literature, because almost four centuries of language evolution have made the original a curiosity even in France, although it is still intelligible. The general public — including advanced high-school students — can enjoy the translation into today’s English.
An e-book version of The Other World would be somewhat less time-consuming to produce than one in print. I’d like to see it, of course, but practical questions remain. Can an e-book format replicate the versatility in Bewildering Stories’ web pages without too much cross-platform manual labor? Unless or until that’s possible, the Internet — which is neither print nor e-book — will remain the translation’s only home.
Copyright © 2023 by Don Webb
