Interesting Quotes from the Readings:

Feb. 2, 2016:

Michael Twyman, “What Is Printing?” The British Library Guide to Printing. London: British Library, 1998.

“The extraordinary social, artistic, and intellectual impact printing has had derives to a large degree from its technical appropriateness and adaptability. The ideas that lie at the heart of printing have simply been modified over the years in response to major technological shifts from hand to machine and then electronic production” (37).

• Some say that the need for physical books is dying in favour of ebooks, however it is only the form in which we produce it and read it that has changed, but the act of reading will always stay the same

Paul C. Gutjar and Megan L. Benton, “Reading the Invisible,” Illuminating Letters: Typography and Literary Interpretation. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2001. I-II, 15.

“Users’ tactics often sidestep creators’ intentions, and sometimes they subvert them. Readers may perceive meanings that neither author nor publisher intended, or they may fail or refuse to conform to expected understandings. This subversive slipperiness is of course partly rooted in the nature of language, but it is also inherent in aspects of a text’s materiality, including its typography” (66-67).

• How a book is read is ultimately determined by the reader’s social, political, religious, etc. views, and while the author writes the book, they have no control over how it will be read

Feb. 22, 2016:

David Scott Kastan, “From Playhouse to Printing House; or, Making a Good Impression,” Shakespeare and the Book. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001.

“His corpus is reconstructed by sets of motivations and practices that leave their marks upon the text, distorting it even as they preserve and set it forth. This is not to return to the notion of an ideal text independent of the processes of its materialization; it is to recognize that the text, like the past, is never available in unmediated form” (355).

• Manuscripts, old and new, can now both be digitized to be preserved forever. Have we come closer to achieving that perfect unmediated form with our advancements in technology?

Mar. 17, 2016:

Meredith McGill, “Circulating Media: Charles Dickens, Reprinting, and Dislocation of American Culture,” American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834-1853. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003.

“Is it not a horrible thing that scoundrel-booksellers should grow rich here from publishing books, the authors of which do not reap one farthing from their issue, by scores of thousands?” (444-45).

• This is like piracy on the internet today. It is a grey issue. Lack of copyright helped Dickens gain fame in America, but his works were pirated.

Mar. 28, 2016

Franco Moretti, “Style, Inc. Reflections on Seven Thousand Titles (British Novels 1740 – 1850),” Distant Reading. London and New York: Verso, 2013.

“And then, as the number of new novels kept increasing, each of them inevitably a much smaller ‘window’ of visibility on the market, and it became vital for a title to catch quickly and effectively the eye of the public” (529).

• Today, it is said that the internet has decreased our ability to read one text for an extended amount of time. However, concerns about attention span can already said to be relevant since the 18th century.

 

During my time researching at UBC’s Rare Books and Specials Collections, there were often times in which I ran into trouble figuring out what it was that I wanted to write my book blog on. This is a brief log of the days spent both perusing featured books and researching for my book blog.

Feb. 9:

• The notes on the side are footnotes explaining the bible to commoners > bothered Catholics because it made religious texts more accessible to middle and lower class and allowed different interpretations.
  There were also experiments printing with red on incunable leaves.
• Book of Hours was gorgeous

Feb. 11:

• Items called up: Ali Baba, and the forty thieves, embellished with engravings… Wonderful History of Three Kittens… Jacob Grimm, Household Stories
• Children’s books might be interesting because of the illustrations. Although many of the books were cute/interesting, nothing really caught my eye. They were mostly short.

Feb. 25:

• It might be interesting to search up the origin of the inscriptions/notes left inside of the books, or why certain works were put together to make a collection when doing the book blog
• The marble cover pages look very retro, like something out of the 70’s or 80’s. Surprised to know that they are from the 18th century. They make the book look kind of cheap, I much rather have leather or cloth covers.

Mar. 3:

• Item called up: The History of Whittington and His Cat (1800) PZ6 1800Z W457
• Tried searching up works that featured cats by using the keyword “cat”, this folklore came up the most (multiple variations on the tale)
• Some had more pics than others or simpler descriptions > seems to be a tale for various ages
• Never heard of this folklore before, thought it might be interesting to do in my book blog, but on second thought, no
• Something else that came up in the search… A Description of Above Three Hundred Animals (1795)… this seems interesting, eureka!!! PZ6 1795 D483

Mar. 10:

• Maps that look like they were coloured with highlighter… coloured at the time of production using watercolour

Mar. 15:

• Called up A Description of Above Three Hundred Animals again
• What are copper plates?
• contains mythical monsters > manticora, dragons, unicorns … why??
• peacock is the only one with full page … description says tastes like turkey (hahahaha)

Mar. 22:

• Limited Editions Club/Folio Society > “Collector Club” … printed in small amounts ~1500 copies
• Kelmscott > printed to hark back to medieval manuscripts > printed in even smaller amounts than Collector Club
• Parables of Our Lord … gorgeous cover
• Wilde’s signature !!! Oh my gosh!!

Mar. 24:

• Research done about Thomas Boreman> pioneer for children’s picture books > extensive use of visuals… dedicated book to children because thought to inspire curiosity and introduce habit of reading
• Bewick (read 300 Animals as a boy) > “a wretched composition” but inspired him to illustrate
• 300 Animals > steadily selling, successful > by end of 19th cent > 38 editions

Apr.5:

• Realized there was a supplement to 300 Animals when searching up Boreman in RBSC catalogue > A Description of a Great Variety of Animals and Vegetation (1761) QH45 D47 1761
• Not part of same collection > in William C. Gibson History of Medicine and Science Collection, not Arkley
• Interesting… not part of children’s lit, but science
• Concentrates on birds, plants, insects > less mammals
• Pictures are larger, better illustrations
• Includes research and argument on “Jack in the Lantern” > light comes from insect and not fire vapour (?)