Confessions of a selective Luddite

Throughout the years I have owned (and continue to own) multiple computers, iPods, smart phones, tablets, and other electronic devices. When the first iPod came out in 2001, I acquired it right away. Like the Sony Walkman but infinitely better, the iPod allowed me to store my entire music library and listen to whatever I wanted, anywhere I wanted. I've loaded 10,000 songs on an iPod and flown thousands of miles with a variety of music genres at my fingertips.

However, I can count on one hand the number of books I have read on these devices: three Edgar Rice Burroughs books. I have loaded and started other books, but either something in me resents reading a non-paper edition of a book, or I get distracted by email, internet browsing or games and I abandon whatever story or book I am reading. Why are Kindles all the rage, and yet I see no reason to even consider owning one? I've tried iBook editions on an iPad and iPhone, and PDFs on the same devices. They neither inspire nor hold my attention. And yet, I listen to music on my devices. I'll watch movies on my devices. But when I want to read fiction, I turn to an actual book or magazine.

Lately I have reflected upon this selective Luddite attitude. I lean more and more toward publishing Prometheus only online, both as HTML text and as PDF editions of the newsletter; there is cost and time involved in a print newsletter, let alone the greater access by posting something online. I also have started viewing the migration to electronic publishing as a means to read short fiction, hoping to list any libertarian leaning short stories in Prometheus. I vividly remember Edgar Allan Poe's words about short fiction in his critical essay, “The Short Story,” where he wrote about the vitality of short fiction:

We allude to the short prose narrative, requiring from a half-hour to one or two hours in its perusal…Worldly interests intervening during the pauses of perusal, modify, annul, or counteract, in a greater or less degree, the impressions of the book. But simple cessation in reading, would, of itself, be sufficient to destroy the true unity. In the brief tale, however, the author is enabled to carry out the fullness of his intention, be it what it may. During the hour of perusal the soul of the reader is at the writer's control. There are no external or extrinsic influences resulting from weariness or interruption.

One day, perhaps, when paper books are a thing of the past, a memory found only in museums, and all books are read on electronic devices, perhaps the attention span won't be an issue when reading a novel on such a device. But for now, maybe the short story is a perfect fit, at least in my case. I can understand why travelers enjoy eReaders because they are light and store multiple works. War and Peace or Infinite Jest in carry-on? I think not. On the other hand: battery required.

To investigate the new-fangled technology (tongue slighly in cheek, of course), I downloaded a sample Kindle edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Kindle software works on the iPad, so I loaded this into my library and started reading. Alas, the short story was poorly written, so I abandoned it. However, I did read the issue's three essays on books, and found that I was able to finish them without distraction. While I winced at the garbled rendering of the table of contents—whether this was caused by the Kindle software issue or device, I don't know, though I viewed it on multiple devices—I experienced no distracting extrinsic influences. As a means to read short stories, eReaders appear to be a decent solution.

One issue that I have found with short story magazines is that there are so many of them. Even if one attempts to stick with a specific handful of publications, the piles of small magazines over time will grow like kudzu vines, and overwhelm any library. Render the stories into ones and zeroes, able to fit on a single device the same size of an Analog or Asimov's or F&SF, and the space problem is no longer an issue. Recycling? A simple delete button. While avowed eReader users may laugh at my approach to this new medium, I take my books seriously. I like to see them on bookshelves, despite eternally cursing constant lack of shelf space.

Is it wrong to see short fiction differently (that is, not in collections on anthologies)? Even Prometheus might look better as an electronic option. We shall see. It will be interesting to see how the trends develop. Will eBooks replace paperbacks? In five or ten years what will happen to the book market, the magazine market? Postage and printing costs continue to rise, killing many magazines. Advertising revenue collapses. I think many SF magazines will make the move entirely away from paper, but I hope books continue to be made. Life wouldn't be the same without them.

—Anders Monsen