Dreaming of e-reading futures

Abstract

With point of departure on an empirical study about the new reading habits of tablet owners, this paper questions their embrace of immateriality and their willingness to abandon the material aspects of print books. Using a method of narrative enquiry, I propose an alternative future in which texts have become completely immaterial in order to push the argument to the limit. It is my intention to construct a fictional discourse that can serve as counterpart to the immaterial dream so prevalent in digital theory and the everyday experience of digital artefact users.

Keywords:

• e-book
• reader
• reading
• science fiction

Additional information

Susana Tosca is an Associate Professor of Digital Æsthetics at the IT University of Copenhagen. She has published widely about digital literature, storytelling in computer games and transmedial worlds theory.