Key Pages:

13 Things 2009

13 Things 2008


Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

Search Brown

 

 

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]

"Yellowing Paper, Stiffening Glue and the Sudden Demise of the Library" by Verlyn Klinkenborg

This is an interesting editorial published in the the New York Times concerning the ephemerality of book material. The author talks about the temporality of the book as a reference for the passage of time. It is interesting to consider that the content of a book is constant (or at least carefully regulated) while the physical nature is subject to degradation over time, and differs from copy to copy. The content is impacted soley by the author, while the materiality is affected by an intimate relation with its surrounding environment. The relation of the reader to the material book can also document the temporality of the reader, as when Klinkenborg revisits the notations made in his school copy of "Mansfield Park." The material nature of that individual book manifests a distinct image of Klinkenborg from decades past. One should therefore note that the relationship between reader and book appears to be enacted in both directions and is not merely a process of sentient being affecting inanimate object.


related pages:

back to the book