Why Read Literature in the Digital Age?

Paul Socken, editor of The Edge of the Precipice: Why Read Literature in the Digital Age?, was recently featured on Critical Margins. The following is an excerpt from his discussion with Hope Leman. 

Anyone who cares about literature and the act of reading should read the collection of essays, The Edge of the Precipice: Why Read Literature in the Digital Age?. The book’s contributions run the gamut from distress to sangfroid about the future of reading, culture and the development of the individual intellect in the age of the Internet. Paul Socken is the editor of this collection, and I asked him some questions about the book’s impact on the future of reading.

Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Paul. First of all, would you please tell us the origins of the phrase, “The Edge of the Precipice” and why you chose it as part of the title of your book?

“The edge of the precipice” is a phrase taken from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald in which he invites the reader to join him at “the edge of the precipice” where he will read him a story.

Why the edge of the precipice? Presumably, as I suggest in my introduction, because the literary exercise is at once exhilarating, full of adventure and the possibility of viewing new perspectives and vistas, but also dangerous in that one may see the world and life differently and be challenged in one’s fundamental thoughts and beliefs. I think the phrase powerfully sums up the excitement and opportunity that literature affords.

How did you go about choosing your contributors?

I knew some people personally who I knew would be interested and would write beautifully on the topic. For others, I consulted what was then a new publication from Oxford on the history of publishing. I found extraordinary essays there and invited some of the contributors to join this project. My goal was to assemble a group of people with different kinds of experience from all over the world — academics, editors, writers, philosophers, archivists and librarians – who would provide a broad range of opinion. I asked them for personal essays based on their experience, not an academic treatise, about the importance of reading in the 21st century’s digital age.

(…)

The book seems to sometimes to equate “literature” with “pre-1950 novel almost certainly written by a white male.” Am I mischaracterizing things there? Poetry does make appearances in the book, but most of the poets quoted or referred to are male.

You point out that there is little discussion of poetry and that much of the literature mentioned is the pre-1950s novel. That’s true. I didn’t have any preconceived notions once I chose my contributors and established the general parameters. Perhaps I should have asked them to think about poetry or contemporary works, but I didn’t.

Whom do you see as the ideal reader of this book? Do you hope that technologists will be one of its main audiences? Would you want Jeff Bezos to read it? People with the authority to allocate money to humanities departments (e.g., university administrators)?

I hope the book will find readers well beyond the academy. I conceived of this as a book for the general public. I wanted to start a discussion about the role of literature in a society that is clearly concerned about jobs and advocating for immediate, concrete, results-oriented education. My conviction throughout my career was that I was providing my students, by teaching them language and literature, important tools to assist them as educated citizens and that would be ultimately useful to them in whatever work they would undertake.

Click here for the full interview

To learn more about The Edge of the Precipice, or to order online, click here.
For media inquiries, contact MQUP publicist Jacqui Davis.