Because the process of bookmaking was so labor-intensive, owning a book was an example of your wealth and prestige, if you could afford one of these expensive luxuries. Books are directly tied to knowledge, and thus if you owned and were able to read a book, you were considered to be an educated person. Since this ability was not very common in the early days of printing, education was valued above anything because it meant that you had “made it” – you were wealthy enough to purchase, and had the time, to learn to read and actually read a book. It would make sense that this notion of becoming learned would carry into today’s world; that education, and having a higher education degree, seems like the most desirable thing in the world. Even though we now know that people without college degrees can be more successful than people who have a multitude of college degrees, we still strive for academic success even though it’s been proven to not necessarily be a direct indicator of success. This notion, that academic prosperity will ensure a good future, seems to stem directly from the times when owning a book meant that you were at the peak of your success.

For my documentary, I watched the making of a medieval book. It amazed me just how difficult it was to make each individual letter, or “punch”, and how someone could have a job just becoming a professional letter-maker. The skill and patience it took to make each individual letter was extraordinary. The mold was extremely exquisite, each individual part fitting together like the modern machinery of today. The act of actually getting the print onto paper is a process similar to one I have seen before, where ink is applied directly on the letters and then the paper pressed on top of that. Despite being from the Renaissance, the placing of letters was almost identical to the process we saw being done in the EPI. It was extraordinary to see such advanced technology – the ink rollers – coupled with a medieval technology. This documentary really made me appreciate the work that went into making a book, and made me realize how little regard we have for our books today.

The definition in this video is substandard but I was already in the mindset of watching an educational video so I was pleased that it was at least in color.  The definition also slightly aided in the feeling of an aura with regards to the old techniques of writing.  I feel like if i was watching this in HD it would look more like someone using tools they just took from a showcase in a museum. With 1970s definition, the actor looked like he may have owned these items personally especially because of his ability to use them with precision.

The viewing of the artist book collection we have here at Lafayette was a lot more impressive than what I first thought it was going to be. When we first walked into the room, it looked like there were hundreds of colorful children’s books lying on the tables. At closer look however, it was apparently that the books were not mere printings of colorful pictures, but were hand-done pieces made by authors that took time and patience to make it such a beautiful work of art. The Hemingway piece stood out to me beautifully. The watercolor was so exquisite and the portrayal of the story was so vivid that it seemed as if the story was coming to life before our very eyes. As a huge Hemingway fan, it was exciting to see such a beautiful piece displayed for him.

The picture books today were awesome. It reminded me of that scene in Harry Potter when they told the story with the animations. Here is a link for your viewing enjoyment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2a2tS-BSNs

It is interesting to look at the era before the printing press. These hand written books are so incredible unique and valuable because they come from a this time period. I wonder what would have happened had books only been published through the printing press. We would have lost these pieces of work that are literally impossible to duplicate.

After all of the what if questions, I began to think of one of my favorite books, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Brave New World is a novel focused mainly on a society with advanced and new technology. The novel illustrates the complexity that technology brings to a society and how at the end of the day all of the new technology is to much for some people to handle. I think this is a really great what if question for the future. What if our technology becomes to advanced for us to handle at some point?

The concept of our technology being to much for us to handle can, also, be connected to the economic side of technology. We continue to invent new pieces of technology without debate, because to our society technology is a good thing. It makes life easier and brings us information we would otherwise never know, yet we never stop to think that maybe we are not always ready for new technology. We have some of the most sophisticated and advanced technology in the entire world, yet some of our laws date back to the time of Constitution. Maybe it is time to start allowing the law to catch up with technology rather than continuing to create new technology that has to ability to manipulate the meaning of our laws and take advantage of our economy.

I was thinking about Tuesday’s class and I realized I was a little disappointed by the look of books today. All of the books we saw in class were so gorgeous especially the one with the gold and even the mass printed ones were still so nice looking. Today, I get my books on my electronic reader where I get to see the cover page in black and white. I do not even get to see binding of the book. Its just so interesting to see how I am actually missing out on an such an important aspect of reading by not seeing the bindings.

After watching the woman print on the printing press, I now understand how much of an art printing is.  If a computer printer existed back in the 18th century, there would be no art involved.  But that would allow us to develop even better technology faster.

When we were talking about key words in Benjamin’s essay, we mentioned the word “aura”. Professor Phillips brought up the point that there was an aura to the room when we were looking at the rare books.  I definitely felt that.  It was not an ordinary experience to see those books and it felt like I learned more about them and wanted to learn more about them because of the feeling that there was in the room.