Michael Carr Reading Response

I, for one, worry a bit about an age where text can be modified with nothing but a keystroke. Several media in my life already take advantage of this "on-the-fly" method of releasing new content. For example, Apple usually releases a new software version of my iPod Touch every year, and it might be a marked change from the previous version. Despite the fact that I still have the same physical device, I now have a completely different interface than from when I originally bought the device nearly 4 years ago. On the flip-side of that coin, when I buy a game for my Xbox 360 that is relatively new, the people who develop the game might release a sloppier version than they would have if they knew that the only shot that they had at making a good game was the first time it was published. Instead, a publisher can set a date for the game's release based on the market and the competition and gloss over some of the bug-testing that it normally would have to go through, since it knows that the customers will find the bugs and complain about them as soon as they start becoming hindered by them. Nicholas Carr's books are a benign illustration of what I fear happening to books and other media that are currently "set in stone" once published. I don't want to read a book, only to go back later and find that it has been edited and now my favorite character has become a much more distasteful persona. I want the author to sweat it, I want the editor to be the bad guy. I want to be a lazy reader, but more importantly, I want the art form to stay true to John Updike's "edges," and to transcend fashion and ephemeral, societal pressures, and just stand on their own as good books.