Literature in the Electronic Age
8 9 2016
Literature in the Electronic Age

Corrado Augias on the state of books in a world full of screens

Corrado Augias certainly needs no introduction and that is especially true for the audience at Festivaletteratura, for whom the journalist has become a sort of godfather. In 1997, in fact, he held the very first event at the very first Festival, where he discussed what the future held in store for literature in the wake of the 'electronic revolution'. Now, nineteen Festivals later, in the midst of the revolution itself, he resumed the thread of that argument together with the public at the Tenda Sordello, the inaugural Accento of this twentieth edition.

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Gunpowder, the printing press, and later on, electricity, the telephone and television: each of these advances, 'verging on witchcraft', have been met with great expectations and even greater questions, just like those posed in the 1980s onwards, with the dawning of the screen generation.

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"Just how we can't yet see the boundaries of our universe, nor can we yet see the latest consequences of electronics", said Augias, quoting Stephen Hawking. We are still in a phase of transition: the tools from Silicon Valley that we use every day have undoubtedly changed the ways we read and write, and they will continue to change them in ways that we still do not know. But to those who identify change with deterioration, Augias reminds us that innovation should be tamed but never feared, and that humankind has an irresistible need for literature. He confides in the audience, telling them that although screens are well suited to technical and utilitarian reading, there is nothing like paper for "affectionate" reading, and he concludes his speech with words taken from Petrarch: "I want my readers, whoever they may be, to only think about me, not about their daughter's wedding, their evening with their lovers, the dangers posed by their enemies nor about the house, power or riches: as long as they are reading, I want them to be with me and me alone."

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