Muszkiewicz Reader

I think one of the perspectives little addressed in this terrific thread is that of the impact disappearing books might have on the writer—-not the librarian, bookseller, or reader—but the creative class for whom leaving behind, in their stead, on bookshelves or libraries of in the collections of their families, a discrete object that is their creation, [is] a testament to the occcasion of their having created something out of nothing. This creation of an artifact might, I would propose, have played an enormous part in our cultural production over the centuries. To know that there, in a little dimensional space somewhere are one’s singular compositions— bound and protected (to some extent) and real—has power. If the book disappears to a degree that allows us to say, “hey, hasn’t the book disappeared?—how will culturual production change? Will knowing your work is in code in some nondimensional space, dark and immaterial unless accessed by a curious soul, be enough to replace that other enticement?