Wow, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first chapter of Jessica Pressman’s book Bookishness. I loved the words and all the wonderful pictures added for our viewing pleasure. It really helped to paint the picture of what bookishness truly is, a phenomenon of people fetishizing the look, feel, and idea of a book in the digital age, where we don’t need them anymore. Although the need might be gone, the want is still apparent. I loved how Pressman italicized these two words: Need and want. We dont need books anymore in our day-to-day lives, and this drastic change is what led to our even stronger want, desire, and fetishization for them.
It reminds me of why I love collecting CDs. I absolutely do not need my collection of CDs; I don’t even have a CD player in my car, and I can listen to all the same things on my iPhone, but it’s the physicality and the fetish of it. It feels more human to put in a CD or read a physical book.
These acts of going out of our way to use physical items such as books and CDs instead of relying on the digital feels nostalgic, and almost like a coping mechanism for how quickly our world became so digital. Pressman words it the best by saying, “Bookishness signals a culture in transition but also provides a solution to a dilemma of the contemporary literary age: how to maintain a commitment to the nearness, attachment, and affiliation that the book traditionally represented now that the use value of the book has so radically altered.” This quote is so verdant and robust with great language, such as the words; transition and radically altered. It honestly blew my mind reading this. That bookishness, in a way, acts as a response to a culture in transition, and this is so because the changes to the book have been so radically altered. Less than twenty years ago, books were the only means to read stories and novels. The first Amazon Kindle didn’t come out until 2007. Computers didn’t become necessary for school and home life until the 90’s and early 2000s. This all proves how shocking and quick our transition from physical to digital truly was, and we’re all still in shock and attempting to adjust. Bookishness is also, in a way, a fight and push back against the digital, our response to the attempted deletion of our beloved physical items. In all, I resonate with the term bookishness, and I will continue to be bookish as a way to push back against a fully digital age.
Trinity, you make a compelling point that as things shift to being digitized and, in most cases, easier to access; there is a switch in the culture towards the fetishization of older era’s physical objects or representations of them. It’s interesting that plenty of people’s responses to the new are to look back and appreciate the old. As you point out by using Dr. Pressman’s words, the digital age paired with bookisness teaches us how to and how we interact with items and maintain a relationship with them as times change. I’m glad to hear your enthusiasm in embracing bookishness, and encourage you to keep on going!
I’m glad to see you notice this point: ‘ Bookishness is also, in a way, a fight and push back against the digital, our response to the attempted deletion of our beloved physical items.” There are many ways to respond and rebel, and a love of books is one of them!