In the week’s context “Read an eBooK” (2nd-8th
March 2014), Fotis Dousos shares his thoughts on digital reading with you.
A while back I started to write, with a certain
self-sarcastic mood, a small text with the provocative title “Frotteurism”.
Amongst the other things written on it:
“We like to touch, to caress, and to fondle books,
like common frotteurs. Should someone deprive us of the natural, unmediated
contact with the object of our desire, we are left feeling miserable,
inconsolable and deeply wronged. All these cries, which fling all around, detached,
for the upcoming extinction of the book as a physical object (and it being
replaced by its digital successor) are triggered by people like us.
So far so good, and a book, as a fetish object, is a
blessing. However, there is a big “BUT”, in fact, not just one “BUT”, but a lot
of them. For some time now, a big public conversation has taken place about the
gains, but also the dangers of the arrival of eBooks and the repercussions of
an upcoming extinction of the book as a physical object. Dozens of arguments
may develop from both sides, and they will all have a dose of truth. However,
all arguments may lose part of their significance if we focus our interest on
the act of reading (is it really an “act”?)
The famous literary critic, Harold Bloom, writes in
one of his books (How to Read and Why- no it is not an eBook): “Reading well is
one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you, because it is, at least
in my experience, the most healing of pleasures”.
Amongst those who love reading, a few of us would
disagree with this nice and key wording. The act of reading, had, has, and will
continue to have a deeply therapeutic value. It is a remedy which contributes
on an existential level.
It concerns everybody and it spreads to many areas of
the human experience. Let us read then. Especially now that, in a large degree,
it is also free!
Meet Fotis…
Fotis Dousos was born in Serres in 1980. He has
studied theater at the School
of Drama
In 2009, along with Alexis Raptis and Fenia Mayou, he
founded the drama team Hippo, which specializes in the area of
children’s theatre and educational drama. His book, Chimera: Short Stories and
Tall tales, for the young and older readers, has been released by Saita
Publications.
You may download it here.
(The picture which accompanies the article came from this
address)
Translation: Metaxia Tzimouli
Editing: Tina Moschovi
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