The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age.

• Author: Kellman, Steven G.

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 preceding ours."

Both claims are accurate. As the end of the 20th century approaches, the velocity of change has accelerated so much that Birkerts can decry "a millenial transformation of society." He bears anguished witness to the displacement of the printed page by the circuit and screen. Though more books are sold today than ever before, they are relegated to the margins of a culture that is defined by electronic media. Birkerts records his encounters with databases, audio books, and interactive...