AustLit

'Objects made of paper and ink, your time is up. If you were animals, you'd be put down in acts of mercy. If you were characters in a film, you'd be described as 'washed up', 'has beens', grizzled, overweight, self-indulgent and far from pretty: much like Orson Welles' character in Touch of Evil, his 'future all used up'. The last newspaper, it has been predicted, will stagger of the presses in 2043, and many observers consider that a generous assessment. There is a gloating website - the Newspaper Death Watch - counting the newspaper corpses and willing on the death of the species. And if the newspaper is not long for this mediasphere, then the book must also be under threat. Why should the plant-matter codex survive, when its successor - environmentally friendly, convenient, opening to a vast digital immaterial library - is already here?' (p. 125)