Current Reading - Books best thread

[imp]

I'm about halfway through reading Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son right now, and it's very good, very entertaining and readable. I think somebody years ago on this thread commented how well it was written given that it's an American author writing with a North Korean's voice.

I was thinking, ooh, that sounds interesting, and then I remembered that I read it, and that it was possibly me who made the comment on here. But who would ever have the time and energy to excavate this thread and check?

Noting down The Chinese Typewriter as a Xmas present for oldest impette - cheers for the recommendation, AG.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Oh hush. This book is fabulous.

For instance, did you know that the Input Method Editor system now used on every Chinese, Japanese and Korean phone and computer was actually first developed for a typewriter built in 1947? Imagine the work that goes into making something that complicated work mechanically as opposed to electronically. Amazing.

One of the most jaw-dropping tours I ever took was around the print-room of the Chinese Times here in Vancouver about forty-years ago. The paper's gone now, but back then it was the biggest Chinese language daily in Canada, and was set in hot type. You might have seen letterpress being hand-set. Typically a medium sized shop might have a few dozen drawers of type. This place had, literally, hundreds possibly thousands. The mind boggles as to how long it would take an apprentice typesetter to familiarise himself with the entire collection.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Following the recent thread on The Night Of over on film, I realised I hadn’t read anything by Richard Price in years. So I downloaded The Whites, his most recent novel. I was a bit apprehensive, as an author he’s not particularly prolific and I wondered whether his mojo had held up over years of writing screenplays. I needn’t have worried. The tight, tight writing of a story that’s surely plotted, was always his trademark. It’s gritty New York (of course) and the tale is basically a policier, about two people on a collision course. That it can’t possibly end well is clear from, maybe, halfway through. I usually find stories that pre-empt their conclusion irritating, but Price does it with such subtlety, and there are so many sub-plots, that never happens. An excellent read

So Hermes and Apollo go into a bar. After sinking five Sleemans each (the bar’s in Toronto) Apollo bets Hermes that animals would be more unhappy than humans, if they had human intelligence. The two pissed Greek gods grant fifteen dogs in a veterinary clinic the power of human reason and stand back to see what happens. That’s Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis, nominated for all kinds of literary prizes in Canada last year. It’s absorbing, occasionally funny, but lacks the unexpected. There’s a fair amount of violence and death (though anthropomorphic this is probably not a story you’d want to read to young kids,) and it’s not hard to figure out which of the dogs will flourish, and which won’t. However it explores interesting questions regarding instinct and reason, and makes for an entertaining read. Though not as deep as many people think it is, it's not a waste of time by any means.

[Anton Gramscescu]

The bar is the Wheat Sheaf! Well known to TFC fans. And agree it's a good book.

So, re: typesetting, there's an entire chapter on this. Chinese "typewriters" of the 1950s onwards were just enormous tray-beds with a couple of thousand characters. But they weren't standardized - each "typist" would set the characters on his or her own based on one of half a dozen strategies or so to minimize movement. So for instance most of them put the characters "Mao" "Ze" and "Dong" quite close together because those characters came up a lot. But depending on what subject matter they tended to work on, they might find it advantageous to put different combinations of characters together in close proximity. So in effect every typist was also a typesetter.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Interesting. That, in a sense, is similar to the Roman alphabet except it could be standardised in font cases and typewriters, based on the high or low usage of particular phonemes.

I'm sure the book covers the invention of movable type in China. But does it have any theories as to why it didn't catch on? The usual reason given is that the machinery was time consuming to use. But, and this is purely my supposition, I'm not sure there was much impetus for it. In 15th century Europe there was widespread popular pressure to be able to read the Word of God, and other writings. I suspect the Imperial powers had no similar desire for the Chinese population.

[Lang Spoon]

Aye, that could well be a thing. Even if the Church in Rome wasn’t too happy about plebs reading the Bible, the proto Protestant movements in places like Prague where the Wycliffe Lollard heresy took root with the Hussite Church, seems to suggest there was some kind of desire in Central Europe anyways for even the poor to understand the Word of God.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Oh for sure. Gutenberg finished his first printing press in 1440. By the end of the century every major city in Europe had them. Venice alone had sixty print shops by 1502. Given communication and the manufacture of type and presses at the time, the rapid spread of the technology is remarkable. Probably faster in relative terms than computerisation has been in recent decades.

The question of why it didn't take off in 11th century China, where both moveable type and paper were invented, is much less clear.

[ursus arctos]

Not to sound like a libertarian, but the absence of a governmental monopoly and strict controls certainly helped.

As did the wide European trade in books that pre-dated Gutenberg.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The absence of a governmental monopoly and strict controls certainly helped.

Initially that's true. Officialdom was taken totally off-guard (Gutenberg's financial backer stole his press and assistant, then took off to Paris to demonstrate it at court. After which he was arrested for witchcraft.) Very quickly printing became viewed as potentially subversive though. As soon as there was a sniff of political unrest, usually the authorities came looking for the guy with the printing press immediately.

As did the wide European trade in books that pre-dated Gutenberg.

That I'm not as sure about. If anything I'd have thought Gutenberg's press would have undermined the existing book trade. Prior to his invention books were hideously expensive. It took five months and 25 sheep to produce a 200 page book. A wealthy nobleman might own, perhaps, 24. Cambridge University library in 1424 consisted of 122 books. The printing press changed that world forever.

[ursus arctos]

On the first point, that is of course true, but I read your query as focusing on the initial, very rapid, diffusion of the technology and the contrast with China. My point is only valid for the first few decades.

On the second, yes, you are again right, but there was a trade, a recognised demand, and a network of dealers and "clients". That meant that a press like the Aldine in Venice (the one I'm most familiar with), that they weren't so much looking to "create" a market as to exploit one that already existed. Again, that changed pretty quickly, but that isn't my focus. I'm not aware of any of that existing in 12th c China (though it may have).

[Amor de Cosmos]

Gotcha.

I don't know of anything comparable in China either aside from the trade and transference of scrolls re: the book trade. Which weren't of course printed, except for the addition of ownership seals, which could add substantially to their value.

[ursus arctos]

It’s a fascinating subject,

The volume and reach of the Venetian trade network was also an essential element of how things worked out, as was Venice’s cosmopolitan population (which recognised the value of a broad range of texts)

[Levin]

I can't remember where I read it now but there was something that claimed that movable type was invented a number of times in China but never caught on for a number of reasons. These reasons included;

1. Ink. Gutenburg developed something not at all like traditional ink for his press, all the Chinese precursors used the same ink as writing which didn't print well.
2. Metal type. Chinese inventions used wood and bamboo which wore down faster and couldn't be recreated as easily.
3. Paper. Something about types of paper available.
4. Type. Setting latin text involves lots of characters but they are all the same. So you need less than 100 different 'originals' to cast from (and also something about casting technology)

I wish I could remember the source as some of my recollections look pretty flimsy there. And I'm sure there would have been Asian metal casters.

All this reminds me that I should reread Counterpunch by Fred Smeijers.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Ink could certainly have been problematic. One of the "four treasures" of Chinese painting it was generally made from pine soot mixed with ground jade and glue. Always hardened into a stick, and activated with a wet brush. Gutenberg's OTOH ink was oil based. The Chinese did have oil-based paints though (as seen in lacquer work) so you'd have to assume it wouldn't have taken long to come up with a viable printing ink.

Cai Lun invented paper in 105 AD, by the 7th century it was in use all over Eastern Asia from Korea to Vietnam. I doubt that it would have been problem for a prospective printer.

The earliest metal relief type is from Korea. Though it certainly wasn't easily moveable as weighed several pounds. Korea did later produce the first document with moveable type however. The Jikji in 1377, so the concept was certainly established in Asia from an early date:

[Anton Gramscescu]

The book doesn't deal with the origin of print actually. It's the one major weakness.

[Amor de Cosmos]

It would have been a heckuva lot longer if it had though.

[imp]

Just read 'Berlin 1936' by Oliver Hilmes. It wasn't what I was expecting - which was an analysis of how the Nazis used the Olympics as a blatant propaganda tool. It was much, much better. The author takes the day-by-day diary approach, starting out with the weather report, and then follows various individuals through the two weeks of the games. A fantastically entertaining, anecdotally led book. Of course it still comes across that the Nazis exploited the Olympics and their all too willing idiot functionaries to show the world a front of fake normality, but the reader should know that already, and so the picture built up is much more subtle, but way more evocative. It doesn't feel right to say you 'enjoyed' a book about the Nazis, but in this case I have to make an exception.

[WOM]

Wait...is that even available in English yet?

[Sam]

There's one way of answering that question: has Gramsci read it?

[imp]

Read it in German. I'm sure a translation is in the works - it's too good not to.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Translation's due out in February. Apparently I will have to read it then or risk losing face.

[Sits]

I'm constantly taken aback at the volume (pardon the weak pun) of books many of you read. At present, apart from on longer breaks I am in one of those phases where I read for a few minutes before bed, then fall asleep with book in hand. So books are spread over a substantial period and I don't do justice to the more complex/challenging.

Which is perhaps a reason it's taken me some time to get into The Essex Serpent (see unthread). However a chapter overnight while unable to sleep has got me in gear. It's triggered a fascination about a rarely discussed corner of England I've never visited but may have some ancestry. (The Blackwater Estuary north of the Thames' mouth).

[Satchmo Distel]

Susan Faludi, In the Darkroom, about her Romanian-Jewish-American dad who has a sex change late in life: goes into the history of Rumanian collaboration in the Holocaust, Nazi rhetoric on the feminization of male Jews, feminist debates about MTF trans, photography, and much more.

[Anton Gramscescu]

So i read Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz, which is supposed to be the hot thing in Scifi this season. It has some intriguing ideas about how the arrival of sentient robots will affect legal codes and how pharma will develop, and it's interesting from that point of view. And as a Canadian I am amused by the fact that much of it is set at the University of Saskatchewan (and that the main character takes her name from an Arrogant Worms tune I used to play my kid all the time). But the prose is mundane, the dialogue often stilted and page 56 contains maybe the worst sex-scene sentence in the entire history of literature:

"She could taste a nuanced ethical understanding of the patent system all over his body".

Now on the new volume of the Oxford history of the US The Republic for Which it Stands which covers Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. It is good; am not sure it is as good as What Hath God Wrought: America 1815-1848.

Next up in my pile, by pure chance: Never Let me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

[imp]

Just started SPQR by Mary Beard. Off to Rome for the first time ever (outside of being stuck at the airport) at the start of November, so it seems like a good time to read it. Already addicted half way through chapter one. When it comes to the Romans I'm always awe-struck by the idea of all the things (like running water) they could already do 2000 years ago. I'm fascinated by the thought of daily life in a city of 1 million people that far back in human history.