[Kim Seong-kon] Standing between paper and electronic books

Korea Herald

18-03-2025

No one would deny that books are one of the great inventions of human civilization. From books, we learn about other people and other cultures, and we can indirectly experience a world we have never seen. By reading books, we can obtain invaluable information and knowledge, experience epiphanies and profound realizations. Books also broaden the horizon of our minds and quench our thirst for the unknown. In that sense, 'A book is a gift you can open again and again,' as Garrison Keillor put it.
Sages have acknowledged the importance of books. Carl Sagan once wrote, 'One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.'
Indeed, by reading books, we can make a journey into the past as well as the future. George R. R. Martin said, 'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.' It is true that books enable us to live others' lives metaphorically and greatly expand the scope of our perspectives.
The great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, too, praised the book, saying 'Of all man's instruments, the most wondrous, no doubt, is the book. The other instruments are extensions of his body.' He came up with examples: 'The microscope, the telescope, are extensions of his sight; the telephone is the extension of his voice; then we have the plow and the sword, extensions of the arm.' He concluded, 'But the book is something else altogether: the book is an extension of memory and imagination.'
Borges lived in the era of printed books, not e-books. If he still lived today, Borges would no doubt be dazzled by the electronic media and the flood of information provided by computers, tablets and mobile phones, all of which have successfully replaced paper books. However, I suspect he would admire these electronic devices that have replaced paper books in our time.
Borges was a true postmodern pioneer who could foresee amazing changes in the future. Even before television was popularized, not to mention computers, he already foresaw the age of virtual reality, in which fiction and fact, fantasy and reality, or truth and fake news, are intricately intertwined.
If he lived today, Borges would state that computers, tablets and mobile phones are different types of books, and thus, they, too, are undoubtedly an extension of our memory and imagination. He would also say that even though the essence of books may never change, the vessels that contain books can alter and vary, depending on different eras.
Indeed, a book does not necessarily have to be printed on paper only. In fact, the form of a book may vary, according to the times. Initially, books began with cave engravings, then with papyrus made with sheepskins. When Gutenberg invented printing types, paper books appeared and have flourished until today.
Therefore, we need to overcome the old-fashioned, narrow mindset that is stuck in the Gutenberg era, breaking the nutshell of our notion of books. We should be open-minded to cope with rapid and radical changes taking place in our times due to advanced electronic technology.
In the eyes of the younger generation, electronic devices have already replaced paper books. Therefore, the older generation's lamentation that today's young people do not read books because of mobile phones is, in fact, far from the truth. Looking at their smartphones, young people are, in fact, reading books. It would be wrong, therefore, if we thought that only paper books are real books; electronic devices are books, too.
Even electronic books have a variety of types, such as e-books, audiobooks or visual books. There are also webtoons and animations, which can also be called 'books,' available on computer screens or mobile phones. The tools for writing, too, will continue to change. In the past, the pen replaced the calligraphy brush. Now, the computer keyboard has replaced the pen. These days, our voice is beginning to replace the keyboard, thanks to voice recognition technology.
Of course, paper books will not vanish overnight. Instead, they will exist side by side with electronic books for a while. The reason is that even though our minds are accustomed to electronics, our bodies are still analog. Eventually, however, paper books will disappear, just like the older generation itself will, and electronic books will replace paper books, just as the younger generation does the older generation. The process may be slow, and yet surely it will happen. Meanwhile, they will coexist peacefully, and we should pursue harmony between the two.
Reflecting on paper books in this electronic era, we realize that the transition of books resembles that of the human generations. Standing between the two, we realize the unchangeable law of nature called, 'transition.' We become sad and nostalgic toward what is vanishing, and at the same time, we become excited and hopeful about the new.
Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. The views expressed here are the writer's own. -- Ed.