The BookThe book as object, as content, as idea, as interface. What is the book in a digital age? Is it a physical object containing pages encased in covers? Is it a portable device that gives us access to entire libraries? The codex, the book as bound paper sheets, emerged around 150 CE. It was preceded by clay tablets and papyrus scrolls. Are those books? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Amaranth Borsuk considers the history of the book, the future of the book, and the idea of the book. Tracing the interrelationship of form and content in the book's development, she bridges book history, book arts, and electronic literature to expand our definition of an object we thought we knew intimately. Contrary to the many reports of its death (which has been blamed at various times on newspapers, television, and e-readers), the book is alive. Despite nostalgic paeans to the codex and its printed pages, Borsuk reminds us, the term “book” commonly refers to both medium and content. And the medium has proved to be malleable. Rather than pinning our notion of the book to a single form, Borsuk argues, we should remember its long history of transformation. Considering the book as object, content, idea, and interface, she shows that the physical form of the book has always been the site of experimentation and play. Rather than creating a false dichotomy between print and digital media, we should appreciate their continuities. |
Contents
1 | |
2 THE BOOK AS CONTENT | 61 |
3 THE BOOK AS IDEA | 111 |
4 THE BOOK AS INTERFACE | 197 |
CHRONOLOGY | 259 |
GLOSSARY | 265 |
NOTES | 279 |
297 | |
FURTHER READING AND WRITING | 309 |
317 | |
ABOUT AUTHOR | 328 |
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accessed July 17 affordances allowed appears Archive artists attention become began binding Blake book’s bound called century characters clay codex collection contemporary continue copies cover create culture developed devices draw e-readers early experience facilitate figure folded Google Greek Gutenberg hand History hold ideas illuminated illustrations important initiative interactive interface Internet kind known language Latin leaves letters Library machine manuscript material means object offers Oxford papyrus parchment period physical play poems portable possible Press printers produced Project publishers readers reading recording refers Roman scanning scholars scribes scroll serve shape sheet side space structure suggests surface tablets term tion turn University University Press volume writing written York