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Article: The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age.
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- March 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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by Sven Birkerts / Faber and Faber, 1994, pp. 232, $22.95
Reviewed by STEVEN G. KELLMAN Literary Scene Editor, USA Today, and Professor of Comparative Literature, The University of Texas at San Antonio
In 1913, when airplanes, automobiles, movies, and skyscrapers still were novelties, French poet Charles Peguy could declare: "The world has changed less since the time of Jesus Christ than it has in the last 30 years." Today, Sven Birkerts-a middleaged American who can remember life without CD-ROM, e-mail, faxes, personal computers, and VCRs-insists: "The way that people experience the world has altered more in the last fifty years than in the many centuries ...