Studying historical books becomes more convenient as technological innovations occur.  Since March 20 2012, ”

With the advent and proliferation of eBooks, it seems the printed book is a dying breed. Much like the printing press before it, digitally printed books will more than likely be phased out. Or will they? According to the Wall Street Journal, eBooks have not seen the continuing increase in popularity that most people would have predicted. Which begs the question, what is it about printed books that we seem unable to let go? Is it a human trait? Or is it a nostalgia?

Thursday’s class at the workshop had me think about the art of writing.  Watching the printing press in action and learning about the immense amount of effort required to create a four line poem, I felt as if writing used to have more qualities than the words themselves.  The printing press made writing more personal than printed writing today because of the effort required and the ability to express oneself with subtle altercations.  From painting to cleaning the scrolls, the printing press requires a considerable amount of diligence and passion for writing.

In terms of studying historical books, it is blatantly obvious that nothing beats a hands-on experience, where one is viewing the actual books and physically touching them. Seeing such works up close is the only way to truly appreciate all of their intricate details and get a sense of every aspect about them. however, this is not to say that there is no value in viewing pictures of such materials. On the contrary, pictures of historical books allow for a convenient viewing of them which, in some cases, is the only way to see them. Simply put, not everybody has immediate access to such materials, since they are often kept in museums or private collections. So, pictures allow for people who other wise wouldn’t be able to see such materials to study them.

Truly Foucault’s dream has come true: “I seem to call for a form of culture in which fiction would not be limited by the figure of the author. It would be pure romanticism, however, to imagine a culture in which the fictive would operate in an absolutely free state, in which fiction would be put at the disposal of everyone…” Foucault, What is an Author?

According to Foucault, we are living in a world of pure romanticism.In the Internet Age everyone is in control of the fictive, as both reader and creator. There are many sites which allow and encourage members (anyone with internet access) to create whatever they may. Some, like tumblr, offer limited copyrights to the writers. As we learned Thursday, we can also apply for our own copyright. It is a wonderful world where people can exercise their artistic faculties freely. For an example, take a look at this Lafayette alum’s blog, which he started while in college. There is also a guest article by a current student. Read Sam Strong Storming the Ivory Tower.

Tuesday’s class was a great example of historic and rare books. I really enjoyed seeing the books in person and learning their individual backgrounds. Since we have been reading about it outside of class, it was great to actually get to see examples of what we are reading. Also, I really enjoyed learning that each book ever printed really does have its own specific background. Each of the books we learned about was so unique that I could not stop and think about how and where all these books been. I almost wish I could track down all of the locations and people who owned all these great and rare books.

Rare books offer information at hand — no buttons to push

After reading the prompt, I became really interested in learning how people track down rare or historic books. I came across an article on a women who finds rare books for people who love to read historic books on a specific subject. What I found out was extremely interesting. The women actually tracks down these books through the internet. I found it extremely interesting that someone who makes a livelihood entirely through selling hard copies of books actually buys them over the internet. It makes me think about how the internet has really enhanced the sale of hard copy books as well as hinder the sell of books through e-books.

As I thought about the concept of tracking down rare books a little more closely, I realized this is a great example of how hard copies of books are so important to the book market. Electronic books allow for there to be as many copies of book we want there to be at any given time. However with published hard copies of books, there will only be a certain amount of books from the time period the book was first published making the economic worth of the book sky rocket with time. However, electronic books will never really be worth an individual value because they come on devices that hold many other books and information, therefore they lose the same individuality that written and bound books have because they have no unique characteristics setting them apart.

After spending some time in the print making studio, I learned a whole new version of the idea of “hands on”. For as long as I can remember, I have thought of reading a hard copy of a book as being hands on. Then on yesterday, I realized the real hands on approach is actually the making of the book. Although the machine we saw yesterday is not used anymore to print, I was still overly impressed with the amount of work it took just to make a six line paragraph. Just the preparation alone took up an enormous amount of time. I think this version of print really gives a correct name to sometihng being “hands on”.

I have to say, I was impressed with the roller printing. On one hand, it seemed really tedious to have to set all the type and make it fit where you wanted it to be. On the other hand, in regards to digital printing, I felt that the actual process of getting the words onto a page was very simple. Just roll the sheet over and then the page is done. To make multiple copies would require more physical effort, but still not to the point where doing so would feel wasted. What surprised me the most was the fact that even if it is less advanced than modern printers, there were still even simpler methods of printing which required more work. If typesetting was the most difficult part of the roller, then what would the process be like if it were something that did not use electricity, if printing had to be even more manual? To take that further, to imagine entire books to be printed from even just the roller seemed tedious, how much more so on something more difficult to use?