Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer (Penguin Modern)

by Wendell Berry

'Do I wish to keep up with the times? No. My wish simply is to live my life as fully as I can'

The great American poet, novelist and environmental activist argues for a life lived slowly.

Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

• ISBN10: 0241337569
• ISBN13: 9780241337561
• Publish Date: 22 February 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 64
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kevin Costain]

Written in the late 1980s, I was very excited to read an old, crotchety Luddite perspective from a man who held fast against the onslaught of the coming revolution. We know what happened with computers, Berry does not. All at once that seems amusing and a bit like cheating. Also, born August 5, 1934, Berry is still with us. I don wonder if he still puts pencil to paper, even at 85.

Some of Berry’s arguments may have been persuasive, but today hold little power. I love this line: “I would hate to think that my work as a writer could not be done without a direct dependence on strip-mined coal.” Berry’s strong disdain for energy companies seem to paint his view of anything technology related.

It doesn’t stop at the earth-destroying use of energy though. Berry offers the idea that computers take hi away from the fundamental connection between his body and the work: “I do say that in using computers writers are flirting with a radical separation of mind and body, the elimination of the work of the body from the work of the mind” - really not a bad argument and one wonders what our world might look like if rejected the march of technology for these ideals.

Also, he uses the word palimpsest twice. Twice. That’s a weathered manuscript or parchment just so you know.