I was listening to Radiohead's "In Rainbows" at work today, and I was surprised why I didn't make this connection to "Rainbows End" sooner (if not just because of the name similarities).
For those of you who don't know, Radiohead released this album last Fall as an mp3 download, and offered consumers the choice of what to pay for it. Paying absolutely nothing was an option, and many fans went this route (although reports have been that Radiohead still made quite a killing).
I've been reading the responses and comments on Rainbows End by other students, and two themes that keep popping up are ownership and access to information. In Vinge's world, access to information is not an issue. Libraries are a thing of the past, and what you want is literally right in front of your eyes. To me, it seems like this kind of accessibility kills the notion of ownership. I really enjoyed the album (and threw down a couple of bucks), but since have purchased the hard CD copy. I can touch that, put the CD in my player, and enjoy the artwork that comes with it.
With the rise of electronic and digital texts, will I feel the same way about books? If authors simply put their texts online for me to read onscreen (or maybe with some sort of contact lens in the future!), will I get the same satisfaction that I do from holding a book that I paid for? If there's no value attached to it, I would feel cheated that no one had to make any finanical sacrifice for it, and thus, the product (or art?) becomes nothing more than a "tap water" commodity. The world in Rainbows End, while seemingly fantastic and accessible, really appalls me in some ways. All the information is right there, and you barely have to lift a finger to get it.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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2 comments:
I completely agree with you, Jon, about wanting to have "tangible" items. There's something that seems temporary about digital forms of music, movies, books, etc. Maybe it's knowing that hard drives crash more than houses burn down (at least mine--1 for 4 vs. 0 for 3) or that it's easier to see that CD on my shelf than online or in my MP3 player. (Why am I never worried about losing a CD but constantly worried that I'll leave my MP3s all over the place? Oh yeah, it's the tiny player.)
I think it's interesting that Radiohead ended up releasing a CD anyway--especially after they had such success. I'm not quite sure what to think of that.
Jon, like Tammye I'm interested in the topic of physicality you raised about texts. It sounds like a common thread in a number of posts that we want to "work" for our entertainment/knowledge, and that the proof of this is to be found in the physical presence of that entertainment (CD, book) or knowledge (book, paper). It also sounds like you think this accessibility devalues the work, am I right on that point? Other blogs have raised the point about "crowdsourcing" (which I think talks to your point about "all the information being right there") so do see the act of filtering the results of a database search as not as valuable as traditional, "hard copy" research?
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