A literary browser is not an e-reader. It is a tool for annotating, linking alternative translations, comparing citations and a host of other research tasks.
Today my library obtained a copy of a volume from the new collected works of poet X.
X wrote in more than one language, but published little. The tome that I have on loan is massive. His estate has permitted the editors to print everything that is not prose which he left behind. Their object is to aid the scholar. In their zeal, the great tome contains translations. Here we enter the absurd.
Set my tome aside – do not consider the green footprint of the volume or the repeated transfer by vehicle each time borrowed, by freight each time sold.
Let’s consider the Canetti Nachlass due to be available to scholars in 2024. I can only hope that in the 14 years remaining, that Johanna Canetti will have authorized the preparation of a virtual archive. A recent example may be the Arendt archive.
