Sherman Alexie … said he refused to allow his novels to be made available in digital form. He called the expensive reading devices ‘elitist’ and declared that when he saw a woman sitting on the plane with a Kindle on his flight to New York, ‘I wanted to hit her. “Why do you consider the Kindle ‘elitist’?”
Says Alexie, “I consider the Kindle elitist because it’s too expensive. I also consider it elitist because, right now, one company is making all the rules. I am also worried about Jeff Bezos’ comments about wanting to change the way we read books. That’s rather imperial. Having grown up poor, I’m also highly aware that there’s always a massive technology gap between rich and poor kids. I haven’t yet heard what Amazon plans to do about this potential technology gap. And that’s a vital question considering that Bezos wants to change the way we read books. How does he plan to change the way that poor kids read books? How does he plan to make sure that poor kids have access to the technology? Poor kids all over the country don’t have access to current textbooks, so will they have access to Kindle?”
In a posting on his website, meanwhile, Alexie notes that he has been innundated with email about his comments and says “While I still have serious qualms about the technology, I have been challenged and emotionally moved enough to take a long-requested meeting with the folks at Amazon and Kindle and listen to their arguments for the machines … I will do my best to enter the meeting with an open mind. And I definitely promise that I will not beat up anybody at Amazon or Kindle.”
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