Excerpts from a Jessica Helfand essay, written in the style of Fay Weldon's ""Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen:
"Dear Fiona:
You are turning two in a few weeks and I think that it's high time you understood a thing or two about graphic design. After all, you are part of Generation ABC and what are ABCs, after all, but typography?
... A lot of people say print is dead... Print isn't dead, sweetheart. It's just sleeping.
So as you begin to learn your ABCs, remember that your mind is like a giant alarm clock that wakes those letters up so that they spell something, so that they mean something.
... Remember that your ABCs are what helps you read, and reading is what opens up your mind so that you can learn about anything you want... And even though we read them printed on paper and you will very likely read them emblazoned on a screen... It doesn't matter, because no matter what the typography does (or doesn't do), and no matter what print is (or isn't), words are just ideas waiting to be read. And reading will never die. Reading is your ticket to the world.""
A Letter to Fiona on First Reading The End of Print
from Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture
by Jessica Helfand (2000)