After finishing The Book I have an entirely new respect for the object that is a book and how it came to be what it is today. I had always assumed that the Gutenberg press was the first method for producing printed books, when in reality it was just the first big innovation for efficient printing. I imagined a series of upgrades to the system that streamlined the process without really changing it. After hundreds of years, somebody invented the computer and printing and all books were produced digitally from then on.
This couldn’t be farther from the truth. There were numerous innovations made that completely changed the look and function of printing presses time and time again. Even today, with digital printing a viable and cheap option, many publisher’s still rely on offset printing because of the greater quality prints that can be produced.
All of the innovations were directed by market forces. In the 19th and 20th centuries, books were becoming affordable commodities and reading had turned into a popular leisure activity as well as a necessity for scholarly pursuit. It was necessary, then, to develop methods to facilitate a faster turnover--to meet demand for daily news and much-desired popular books--and sell, sell, sell.
One of the most interesting points of The Book was the discussion in the last chapter about the future of books. Will they continue to sell? In what format will they continue to sell? How will the industry change as books change? These are hotly contested debates in the literary world right now. Change is a scary thing. Change means the status quo will be thrown out in favor of something previously unknown.
Just like compositors, press men, paper makers, engravers and other old print-related professions that have gone by the wayside, printing professionals are worried about their jobs. This is understandable. Jobs will disappear, I believe. Such is the nature of technology. In a world run by corporations that place the greatest value on biggest bang for the book, automation is where the future is.
I think that books will also change. Of course there will always be a few people who collect and read traditional print books (just as there are those music fans who insist on listening to vinyl records), but this niche market will dwindle as advancements in book technology grow and spread in availability. Right now the new innovation in book technology is e-books. I don’t think that this is the final stage of progress though--for example, music technology has moved from records to tapes to 8-tracks to CDs to mp3s. Just as it would have been impossible for record users to predict the existence of mp3s, it is impossible for us to predict what books of the future will be like (though it can be fun to speculate). We will always have books, of that I am sure. Books have such a pervasive power and draw that they will remain popular for at least some part of population.
I think that the best way to handle all of this change is simply to embrace it. Yes, the book industry will change. But, by embracing the changes and upcoming innovations, we can use them to our benefit rather than our detriment. Those interested in getting into the book business can look to jobs such as content moderators, page designers, graphic designers, coding, marketing, editing, and more. By embracing the changes instead of balking in the face of them we can get ahead of the industry and ensure that books continue to be widely available, heartily encouraged time investments.
Hi Allana, thanks for the great post. Change certainly can be scary, and for many of us the traditional hardbound book will always represent the "book." But for the next generations of digital natives such traditional artifacts will, I imagine, seem rather quaint, if not outdated and archaic. There will always be certain kinds of printed books, like art books, or artistically designed book, but also I think there will be a constant series of radical innovations which will utterly transform the imaginative experience which we previously have associated with book reading. And there probably will not be the kind of deep reading we experience today. Interesting to consider how the technology of the book will continue to develop. dw
ReplyDeleteHey Allana,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you: The Book about the book introduced me to whole new way of thinking about the history, development, and significance of written texts. I was completely unaware of how painstaking printing was at the outset (for instance, in the Gutenberg era), how complex the process was, and how intricate it still remains, even with all the technology and automation that has been incorporated into the act of putting ink onto pages. It was also surprising how the demand for books drove the development and success of the printing industry. I guess it seems kind of funny today, when reading is considered a strange and rare hobby, and children would so much rather play games online or on handheld devices than crack open an adventure novel or educational book. This does make me think about how fast it has all changed, though: I was one of those kids who loved to read (and still do today) but my instinctive reaction to people of my age who read regularly for pleasure is “Wow! Really?” I don’t necessarily have as much in common anymore with the little girl who always had her nose in a book or this hypothetical college reader—and much of that is because I have allowed my priorities and use of time to change along with the flow of digital advancement.
I do think we need to embrace change, as there is really no way to halt its progress. I could hardly keep from laughing as I read in The Book about the reactions different people of different eras had to new technology of printing and the distribution of print—much of it is strikingly similar to the fears we voice today about the future of print and what we will lose from our past. Certainly, good things may be lost, and better things may be gained; but who can predict the future to know what those will be? We can embrace the change, but we should individually hold on to the values that we consider important that are increasingly disregarded by the rest of society—for me, this is writing snail mail to my grandma and other friends in college, reading a good book or two on vacation, underlining important information in textbooks, and refusing to throw away my allegiance to the printed word.