SOURCE: "The Message Is the Medium: A Reply to Sven Birkerts and The Gutenberg Elegies," in The Chicago Review, Vol. 41, No. 4, 1995, pp. 116-30.

In the following review, Stephenson challenges Birkerts's thesis in The Gutenberg Elegies, addressing the impact of electronic media on the literary arts.

"Where am I when I am involved in a book?"

             —Sven Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies

"You're in cyberspace."

  —Kevin Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, responding to Birkerts in the Harper's Magazine Forum.

I have before my eyes a page, and on the page, typewritten in a serif font, is a poem. It is an ode written in 1819 by John Keats. I read the first words aloud to myself, slowly, pronouncing each syllable as though it were a musical note or a percussive beat: "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, / Thou foster-child of silence and slow time." As I continue down the page...