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Benjamin quotes the well-known Latin saying Habent sua fata libelli (books have their fate). For Benjamin, a book has a fate insofar as it is a thing, a possession. It carries material marks that give it a history. An e-book is not a thing, but information; it has an altogether different status of being. Even if we have it at our disposal, it is not a possession. It is something to which we have access. An e-book reduces a book to informational value. The book has no age, place, craft or owner. It lacks the auratic distance from which an individual fate could speak to us. Fate has no place in the digital order. Information has neither a physiognomy nor a fate, and it does not allow for the formation of intense ties. One cannot have, for instance, a personal copy [Handexemplar] of an e-book. A personal copy of a book is given its unmistakeable face, its physiognomy, by the hand of the owner. E-books are faceless and without history. They may be read without the use of the hands. There is a tactile element in the turning of a book’s pages that is constitutive of every relationship. Without bodily touch, no ties can emerge.
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