Oh, please. . .

What really stands out about this quote is that the word imagine is in brackets. BRACKETS!! We are people of the printed word and this kind of sloppiness is UNACCEPTABLE. There is no antecedent for 'they' in the third sentence--not that I usually mind. But I do mind the vagueness of "shapes" in regard to book-centered culture. It's as if the book has become some kind of anthropomorphized criminal. The idea that "modern writing" is more "complicated" sounds like the entire idea should be smoking a cigar...