Trithemius -- week 5 (?)

There were two really interesting ideas that I thought about while reading Trithemius’s article. First, the idea of a scribe’s works being holy work, which seemed like a decidedly old idea. Sure, it is still considered “holy” to share religious ideas in the modern world, but I doubt that many people think it matters how the religious ideas are spread. In the case of Christianity, for example, religion and popular culture have become entwined. There are Christian websites, and Christian comic books, and Christian blogs. All of these are newer forms of technology that are used to convert the masses, who can’t be bothered by reading huge books like the Bible.
Certainly, I am overstepping a little bit by saying this. Although my personal experience is limited, I am sure that most religious groups do not consider these other forms of learning about religion in any way comparable to reading the actual Bible. Most Christians would probably be expected to read the actual Bible later, as they mature in their faith. Comic books and websites are more secular ways of getting people interested in religion, a sort of conversion technique. Yet I also don’t think there are many people today who are going to care if a Bible is hand written, or printed, or downloaded. We may have our individual preferences for aesthetic or practical purposes, but the really important part is understanding the Bible for what it is…not how it is made.

At the same time, some of the ideas in the article seemed rather current to me. Like many bibliophiles, I hate the idea of books disappearing in lieu of newer forms of technology. I don’t want to have to read an entire novel online. Sure, maybe a twenty page article, but not a three hundred page book. There is something so much more organic about holding a book in one’s hand, than having to stare at a glowing computer screen. You can smell a book, and touch the paper, and be impressed or annoyed by the cover art. What is more fun than perusing a book store, or a library, and stumbling across a book you never would have heard of, and discovering you like it? How exactly do you have a comparable experience on a kindle or google books?
Though it seems weird to me that there was a time when people would have said printed books were worthless in comparison to a hand written book, I think that my feelings about books as opposed to eBooks are very similar. I can understand some of Trithemius’s points. For example, the act of copying a book by hand would help that individual to really understand that book, in a way that just reading it may not. And as I wrote before, I can understand how someone might be more attracted to the aesthetic qualities of a hand copied book. Yet at the same time, the printing press helped to spread education, literacy, and ideas in a way that handwritten books never could have. For the first time, books were not priced exorbitantly. As we read in Chartier’s article, man’s whole view of himself in the world changed. Certainly, the merits of the printed book outweigh whatever drawbacks it had. So who knows, maybe someday I will see how much eBooks change the world and realize how much better they are, at least practically speaking, than regular books…

….but I doubt it.