Books Will Never be Replaced Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Books Will never be ReplacedWhat is it about a book, the physical book, the tangible reincarnation of an reservoir that allows us to believe it will continue to be revered and regarded nonetheless in our age of computerized information? How can we be sure that, upright as the clay tablet gave way to the scroll and bound book, the credence we have placed in paper editions will not be improved upon with the microchip? It may be that for all our attempts to squeeze and lessen information into screens, to encapsulate a world of knowledge into the size of a suitcase, to create a communications device which is always targeted at assignment into the palm of ones hand, there exists a hand-held favorite already which has worked itself inextricably into the human consciousness. The book is too close to our minds, hearts and hands to be replaced. When Ovid, the scurrilous Roman poet, fell out of favor with Caesar and was exiled to one of the utmost and rainy reaches of the empire, he put his faith in a book. He send a volume of his poems from exile back to the city of capital of Italy for publication and the possible vindication of his name. According to his opening lines, he sent it like a son Little book, youre off to town without me, miffedbehind the ears (your ink is hardly dry).Enjoy it. I cant go. Papas not allowed.Ovid insisted that a book could represent him and the sorrows of banishment to the emperor. The clever pun of which Ovid was probably aware was that the Latin word for book (liber) was close to the word for children (liberi). Whether Caesar appreciated the mentality or not, his decree never wavered. Ovid lived the remainder of his life on the murky Sea, never able to return to the city that made him great, leaving besides his book-child to b... ...it would be easier for a mother to forsake her child than for humanity to die with the passion for its paperbound twin-image. Technology has yet to produce the books equal because it has approached the hand-held alikeness with hopes of improving speed, providing variety, expanding capability. But the book is and has always been a retreat of sorts, a stepping back for contemplation rather than a rapacious scramble for information. The book, much human symbol now than a silent reality on a shelf, will remain the quiet and palpable meditation surrounded by the hand, the head, and the heart.Sources citedAbrams, M. H.. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York W & W Norton & Company, 1993.Gwynn, R.S.. Poetry. New York HarperCollins College Publishers, 1993.Slavitt, David. Ovids Poetry of Exile. Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.