*I am aware of this essay’s anthropocentric focus, which merits this disclaimer: it is most important to remember and respect the natural history of the book's physical matter after all, the majority of the matter came from something once living - the tree, the cow, the lamb, the plant. As we become conscious of the many hearts, minds, and hands it took for a book's production and dissemination, the community* appears via the book. In this reality, we should consider ourselves more as "users" of the book as opposed to "readers," as the bibliographic scholar Sarah Werner states in her book Studying Early Printed Books. While this alchemical process of turning rags or pulp into connections and imagined environments can be a welcome and beautiful kind of magic, in reality, the book is an object and one with many creators, craftspeople, and handlers (the historical study of the book as object is called bibliography). The book - its paper, its design, its entire history - can disappear as the mechanical process of turning a page becomes a nearly unconscious activity, like breathing or riding a bike. Books can also connect us with the creator, sometimes so deeply that we feel as if we are in direct communication with them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |