From "People of the Book""My work has to do with objects, not people. I like matter, fiber, the nature of the varied stuffs that go to make a book. I know the flesh and fabrics of pages, the bright earths and lethal toxins of ancient pigments. Wheat paste -- I can bore the pants off anyone about wheat paste. . . . Of course, a book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand. The gold beaters, the stone grinders, the scribes, the binders, those are the people I feel most comfortable with. Sometimes, in the quiet, these people speak to me. They let me see what their intentions were, and it helps me do my work."
I received a link about this book from a friend who had seen a review on the Washington Post.
As the article mentioned:
Why is it, in this day of rampant technological change, that readers continue to be fascinated by stories of dusty manuscripts moldering on rickety shelves? Think of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, in which a monk investigates charges of heresy by prowling through documents in a medieval library. Or The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, in which four Princeton students find puzzles aplenty in a 15th-century manuscript. Or even those big blockbuster bestsellers -- Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (ancient arcana of numerous varieties) and James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy (ancient Peruvian manuscript).
Why? Why he asks? Well, the answer is quite simple.
It's a Book Thang.
-T
Why? Why he asks? Well, the answer is quite simple.
It's a Book Thang.
-T
4 comments:
It certainly is "a book thang"! I recall several late night IM conversations and more than one excited phone call about "yak snot" (an adhesive used in book binding). In fact I had to read the whole post again before I realised that excerpt from the book was not something you had written yourself. *heh* Actually, I saw this book listed on Amazon.com and sighed longingly, so you're not the only one. ;)
I would actually have to disagree. At least in the examples you name, it's more a Story Thang than a Book Thang.
Not that I object to bookbinding, playing with glue and paper and leather, or any other sort of make new stuff pursuit, having been obsessed (possessed?) by a few such compulsions myself....
Some friend, I tell ya.
I have to say, I knew from the first few lines of the review that you'd be interested in the book, but when I read the excerpt you quoted, I knew that you would have to read it.
Did I mention that my copy's arriving Monday....?
There is a mystique to books and manuscripts that no digital medium will ever manage to accrue.
I think it has to do with their value not only as repositories of information, but also as objects in and of themselves.
I doubt anyone is ever going to get excited about collecting digital files of books for their reader the way that some of us get a thrill ever time we find an unexpected treasure in a used bookstore.
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