Iván Thays
Foto: Iván Thays
Una reseña en NYT sobre el panel de escritores ?El escritor en la era digital?, organizado por The London Review of Books, dice con toda justicia que el grupo se dividía en dos bandos: aquellos que sabían usar internet y los gagdets de moda (John Lanchester era el cabeza de serie, con su reciente iPad) y aquellos que apenas entraban a internet para revisar su correo (el crítico James Wood era la cabeza de ese grupo). El tercero en discordia, ni a un lado ni a otro, era el gran Colm Toibin, defensor del email y el chat pero enemigo conjurado de los celulares. Lo importante para mí, dijo, es que los aparatos no suenen.
Pregunto: ¿No es muy significativo que un crítico obsesionado con el Realismo como Wood sea un troglodita cibernético? ¿Habrá una relación entre la literatura realista y la falta de interés por los gadgets?
Así resume el blog Paper Cuts del New York Time el encuentro:
And what of the future of writing and reading? Toibin said that while the changes in our reading culture are ?vast in that more people are reading,? and more people are writing and publishing their own work, the changes are ?not vast, in that the impulse? to write and read has always existed. There was talk of young readers? attention spans, and their ability (or inability) to digest longer, ?difficult? texts. But who is ?left behind? among readers, Wood said, as the Age of the Internet becomes the Age of Who Knows What, will have less to do with technology and much more to do with class and culture ? and, he implied, parenting.
If children are taught to prize reading, then what does it matter if they read on a computer or e-reader versus good old-fashioned paper? I am not too worried about my friend?s daughter, for instance, who at age 10 is already writing her own book-review Web site. And I am not too worried about my nephew, who just turned 3 years old, because my sister-in-law has insisted that on his birthday and on holidays I send not toys or clothes, but books. The kid has a bigger home library than I ever did, because he?s inherited my old books and has a crazy aunt to restock his shelves a couple of times a year. (His favorites these days: ?Horton Hears a Who,? ?Oh Say Can You Say Di-no-saur? and ?Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.?) Ten years from now, my nephew may be toting an iPad or a Kindle in his backpack, but I know he will be reading. (And perhaps his back will be better off in the long run, too.)
Al final, sin embargo, tanto los pro-gadget como los anti-gadget llegaron a un acuerdo. Elemental pero cierto como una montaña. Mientras haya ganas de leer y ganas de escribir, como en el principio de la literatura, siempre, seguirá habiendo escritores y lectores en papel 150 gr. o iPad. Así que los apocalípticos y migrañosos que ven con pánico el futuro del libro pueden ir retirándose a sus guaridas. No se acabará el mundo sino, al contrario, se ampliarán las opciones. Aprendan.
