As the printed word falls into the digital abyss, what is to become of the legacies revolutionary writers prepare to leave? Andrei Codrescu is a celebrated poet and prolific author who lends his distinctive voice to NPR commentaries. He dives into his memoir Bibliodeath: My Archives (With Life in Footnotes) on Think at noon and 9 p.m.
Codrescu's interpretation of technology can be dark. But he has a record of tragic reverence for new gadgets and forms of expression. "The treadmill and the iPod give you back your life as memories with a soundtrack," Cordrescu wrote for NPR in 2009. For a minute Codrescu, mourns the loss of his memories when his iPod dies. But his wife is beside him, and he borrows hers, stunned by her secret world "like Dante in an obscure forest."
There aren't different languages for modern things and relics in Codrescu's world. Both exist, aware of each other. The poet now lives in the Ozarks and chooses to wall out the Internet's influence. He explains what he's drawing away from in the first video of a series for the Getty:
http://youtu.be/CDDXDB-80-U
You can hear the full podcast of this show on our Think page.
Listen to Think from noon to 2 p.m. and 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, on KERA 90.1. You can stream the show at kera.org.
