After all, the very first book printed on a press with moveable type, the Guttenberg Bible, was beautifully enhanced with illuminations – painted decorations to the text – and rubrications – handwritten titles, chapter headings, and instructions. Though the Bible was printed on a press, the typesetters left room for artists to hand paint these enhancements. These rare books are not prized now just because of their scarcity and historical worth, but also because they are one-of-a-kind pieces of art.
The negative attitudes toward works that utilize multimedia elements probably stem from the fact that each of us grew up with them. All of your favorite childhood books – Winnie the Pooh, Where’s Waldo, Where the Wild Things Are – are illustrated. Even more interactive are the original "e-books" with buttons that play a sound when you come to a certain part of the story. But, of course, when we grow up we see all this as “kid’s stuff.” As serious adults, we’re supposed to read books that consist solely of words with white spaces in between.
Seriously though, how often do you open a really heavy autobiography or history book and flip right to the glossy pages in the middle that have the pictures? Perhaps it’s snobbery that dictates books should exclusively be a boring, printed word endeavor. It’s a bit ironic, when you think about it. I mean, aren’t books supposed to open minds?
Some hope for multimedia writers is here with the ascendancy of the iPad and its tablet computer cousins. E-books, broken free from their Etch-A-Sketch Nook prisons, have all kinds of possibilities for creative minds to enhance the text, whether it’s pop-up movies, morphing text and illustrations, or new formats that have yet to be imagined. I realize it’s a little hypocritical for me to write this screed in such an archaic style.
So, here’s a picture ---->
NPR had a segment on digital books the other day as a librarian talked about different apps for children...
ReplyDelete