the return of LiteraryCritic, sort of

I used to collect bibliographic lists — Modern Library 100 best novels, for example — and put them up at my site LiteraryCritic.com.  This was back in 2000 or so, back when I and the Web were young. For years it attracted book hunters who clicked from my pages through to Amazon, earning me commissions which, to my amazement, were sometimes as much as $100 a month.

Now it’s just another moldering dead project, and the domain name was even picked up by someone else….who has done nothing with it.

But I digress. I’ve resurrected the pages and put them at tjm.org/literarycritic. I might even update and add on to it.  So, enjoy, and may I recommend Harold Bloom’s magisterial summation of the Western canon as he sees it.  Also, send me any lists you’ve come across, no matter how obscure.  In fact, obscure is good, because when Google crawls my site and finds the names of obscure authors and books, I get good Google rank on these items (because hardly anyone else on the Web mentions them).  Thus I probably make more Amazon commission money on these obscurantists, searching for, say, 19th-century Hungarian authors.

Send me those lists..

The Most Cited Books in 2007

Global information publisher Thomson Reuters recently collected citations from the journal literature it indexed in 2007 — mainly academic / peer-reviewed journals — to books and their authors.  Below is the list of the most-cited works/authors in the humanities and social sciences.  (in the sciences, the journal rather than the book is the main communication vehicle).

For a measure of your canonical literacy, or perhaps your academic orientation, see how many of these authors you’ve read something by.  I’ve been so bold.

From Times Higher Education (UK).

1    Michel Foucault (1926-1984) Philosophy, sociology, criticism”
2    Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) Sociology
3    Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) Philosophy
4    Albert Bandura (1925- ) Psychology
5    Anthony Giddens (1938- ) Sociology
6    Erving Goffman (1922-1982) Sociology
7    Jurgen Habermas (1929- ) Philosophy, sociology”
8    Max Weber (1864-1920) Sociology
9    Judith Butler (1956- ) Philosophy
10    Bruno Latour (1947- ) Sociology, anthropology”
11    Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalysis
12    Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) Philosophy
13    Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Philosophy
14    Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) Philosophy
15    Noam Chomsky (1928- ) Linguistics, philosophy”
16    Ulrich Beck (1944- ) Sociology
17    Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Philosophy
18    David Harvey (1935- ) Geography
19    John Rawls (1921-2002) Philosophy
20    Geert Hofstede (1928- ) Cultural studies
21    Edward W. Said (1935-2003) Criticism
22    Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) Sociology
23    Roland Barthes (1915-1980) Criticism, philosophy”
24    Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) Anthropology
25    Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) Political theory
26    Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) Criticism, philosophy”
27    Henri Tajfel (1919-1982) Social psychology
28    Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Philosophy
29    Barney G. Glaser (1930- ) Sociology
30    George Lakoff (1941- ) Linguistics
31    John Dewey (1859-1952) Philosophy, psychology, education”
32    Benedict Anderson (1936- ) International studies
33    Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) Philosophy
34    Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) Psychoanalysis, philosophy, criticism”
35    Thomas S. Kuhn (1922-1996) History and philosophy of science
36    Karl Marx (1818-1883) Political theory, economics, sociology”
37    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Philosophy

Art is the Science of Freedom

“To make people free is the aim of art, therefore art for me is the science of freedom…I wish to go more and more outside to be among the problems of nature and problems of human beings in their working places.” ~Joseph Beuys.

West Coast Album, 2000

I was digging around for some old photographs, and came across an online album of photos and commentary I did after a 3-week trip up the West Coast in 2000. All organized by location, indexed, with bibliography and template design. First, I can’t believe how much effort I put into it. Second, I remember that this was the time I began shooting photographs again, after a number of years’ hiatus following the theft of my camera. I recall I saw a $10 point-and-shoot at a supermarket, quite incidentally, and threw it in my basket, thinking it might be good for a few shots.

Ok, not that I’m an acclaimed professional photographer now, remembering where I started out; but it was the first time I used the camera as a way to very deliberately examine places, and record them as for a visual record (as opposed to, as an artistic interpretation).  This is almost entirely what I’ve done  with photography ever since, probably at the expense of its artistry.

Below are a few samples.  Click on photos to go to corresponding album page.

Martin Murrillo, mobile cart librarian in Cartegena

great BBC radio piece profiling self-initiated mobile library cart operator Martin Murrillo, in Cartegena, Columbia.

“After earning his living as a Cartegena street vendor selling water, Martin decided to not only to teach himself, but to also teach others – especially street children – to read.

“He swapped the water for books that people can borrow from his wooden library cart for free.

“During the week he goes round schools where he talks to the children about the importance of reading and of the books he likes most.”

One of the telling details about Murrillo is that his home is so book-crammed he has to sleep on top of books… like, umm, me.

latest New Yorker cover: ripoff of Powells Books?

The October 19 cover of The New Yorker features a painting by Eric Drooker, titled “In the World of Books”.   It’s very similar to the image used on the below sticker for Powells Books, in Portland, OR.   Actually, Powells has been producing posters and other goods with this theme for some years, in keeping with its slogan, “City of Books”.

So, did a)  Eric Drooker lift the graphic idea from Powells?  Or, perhaps b) the idea is obvious enough to be independently arrived at, or c) there is some common source.  Or, perhaps d) Drooker did the posters/stickers for Powells.   I can at least say for b) that I haven’t seen it anywhere else, in years of looking at book and bookstore materials.  For d) I note that Drucker’s and the sticker’s painting styles are very different.  c) common source:  can anyone suggest?

In any case, I think the difference in emphasis, between “City of Books” and “World of Books” is interesting.  The “world” of books, in Drooker’s view, contains nothing but books;  in Powells’ view, by contrast, books are a large presence, equivalent to the skyscrapers of a city, but they are set amid a real environment: trees, streetlamps, a Portland streetcar going by (like the one that goes past Powells’ main store), and a mountain backdrop (Mt. Hood, Oregon).

The Powells view, to me, seems wiser and more humane.  It says, we come together in “cities” to print and sell books. and for cultural conversation.  But it isn’t all of life:  there are other parts to the city, and there is nature beyond the city.  Books are part of this world, are located; they’re not just a fantasy zone, “through the looking glass.”

1932 radio in the shape of books

1932 RCA Victor radio, designed to look like a row of books with bookends. Nice example of a new technology imitating an older one — like early radio and television imitating theater.

What I wonder is, did the makers or the buyers of this radio expect it would deceive anyone?  After all, you don’t have to see it very closely to realize it’s a radio.  Unless, perhaps, you had never seen a portable radio set.  I think the concept was that some portion of buyers would want a radio that would blend in to their parlor, with its books.  Or perhaps a book-less parlor would be dignified by these false books.

Easy-read Bible: divided into six paperbacks

Why are Bibles so unreadable, to perhaps a majority of people?  Possibly it is partly due to the fact that most Bibles contain an abnormal amount of content, much higher page density, smaller type, and unfamiliar paragraph and page layout, compared to virtually any other contemporary book.  I hesitate to second-guess the large and sophisticated Bible-publishing industry;  but as a designer, I have to at least wonder, if Bible readership is the goal, why are readers usually being offered such unwieldy and illegible volumes to read from?

So this suggests an experiment.

The design issues above mostly result from trying to force the entire Bible into a single, portable volume.  But why the determination to do this?  After all, most educated people know that what we call  “the Bible” is a compendium of different writings from different times and contexts.  Nonetheless, when it comes to Bible publishing, there seems to be an overwhelming preference, or call it compulsion, or perhaps economic logic, to pack it all into one volume. Thus the Bible edition — familiar to many of us from Gideon’s Bibles in hotel rooms, or the family bookshelf, etc. — with usually King James Version text, printed 2 columns per page, with each new sentence or “verse” numbered and starting on a new line.

Key design factors, for anyone seeking to increase readibility:

1. choice of translation (if any);
2. lineation: are sentences gathered into paragraph, or each one given a new line?  
   
3. page layout: one column or multiple;
4. number of volumes: one or multiple.

In many years of looking for Bible editions in bookstores used and new, I’ve found that paragraph and single-column layouts are unusual, and multi-volume complete Bibles are quite rare (correct me on that, bibliophiles, if need be!).  More to the point, I’ve simply never found the reading Bible that I want:  a King James Version, paragraph single-column format, in a edition of 4-6 volumes, with readable type size and no show-through on the paper.

So, I decided to make my own.

Historical note: Bible design exerts a fascination over many book designers, quite independent of any religious or even literary interest in the text.  That is because the Bible is widely considered to be the ultimate challenge in book design — and a challenge with centuries of fascinating history behind it. It’s something like the Ur-text of book design: still, the most widely printed book in the world, every year for centuries.

Ok, so, I started with Penguin’s paperback edition of the The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible (2005, edited by David Norton), below.  This edition traces its lineage to the landmark 1873 Cambridge Paragraph Bible, edited by F. H. A. Scrivener.

Like the 1873 edition, it is a King James Version text, printed one column per page, and with prose sentences gathered into paragraphs (rather than each on a new, numbered line).  These two reforms bring the presentation much closer to 19th / 20th Century book-design norm.

Then, I literally cut the book into sections, cutting through the spine with an X-acto knife.  This produced separate book segments for front matter, back matter, and six other sections. Then I applied new wrappers (i.e. wraparound paper covers) made of 120-lb cardstock, which I pre-scored to produce flat spines of appropriate width.   The front matter and back matter, I recombined into one booklet.

The end result:  a King James Version Bible, in readable, paragraph, single-column layout; divided into six easy-to-handle paperbacks.

The division into volumes was my determination, but for simplicity’s sake it keeps books in the same order as the Cambridge/Penguin source volume.  The volumes are:

1. The Pentateuch;
2. Former Prophets, Chronicles;
3. Wisdom Writings;
4. Latter Prophets;
5. Apocrypha;
6. New Testament.

At last, a Bible edition that feels much like a contemporary paperback novel (or set of novels).  I happen to think there is an untapped market for an edition like this, for people like me;  but again, it’s hard to believe that Zondervan and other other big Bible publishers have not already considered it carefully.  If not, have your people call my people. I’ll be enjoying my beautifully readable edition.

Secrets in the facade of Univ. Washington’s library

The rich iconography in the facade of University of Washington’s main Suzzallo Library has been well-noted by commentators.  For example, in the Wikipedia entry for the library, or in the architecture guide by Norman J. Johnston published in Princeton Architectural Press’ “Campus Guides” series.

The guides I’ve seen all mention the 24 sculptures of famous cultural figures, set on the outside faces of the building’s buttresses.  Several also note the three figures set over the main entrance, by the same sculptor as the buttress figures, representing Thought, Inspiration, and Mastery.  However, the 24 figures are far up, hardly visible from the ground;  and the three big figures are not visibly labeled  (that may be why Johnston gets them mixed up in his commentary).

Strangely, I can’t find mention of the inscriptions which are easily the most visible to any person actually entering the library:  the brasswork directly over the six doors, representing six famous figures in printing and publishing: Tao Feng, Gutenberg, Caxton, Aldus, Estienne, and Elsevier.

If this brasswork is as old as the building (1926), it’s actually quite remarkable that the Chinese “father of printing” was given the first place in this pantheon.  It’s strange, however, that the screen presents his years as “954-881″, i.e. B.C., about 1900 years earlier than the real Tao Feng (aka Feng Dao), whose years are the reverse, 881-954.  The Chinese are ancient, yes, but not always that ancient.  (and once again, I feel like I’m the only guy who ever studies these plaques).

Above the fourth door, centermost of the “in” doors, the inscription reads “Aldus”, for the famous Venetian printing and publisher Aldus Manutius.  I wonder if this placement had any part in the naming of Seattle-based Aldus Corporation, whose creation of Pagemaker software started the “desktop publishing” revolution.

Speculation aside, I think the position of these six printer/publisher names, directly above the doors, is poetically apt.  Further above is Thought, and Inspiration;  and far above that, the pantheon of Moses, Dante, Adam Smith, etc.;  but usually the main pathway to Learning is by books and printing, represented by these printing/publishing figures which make up almost literally part of the door into the library.  Intentional or not, the positioning of this group expresses a fundamental truth about learning.

more photographs of Suzzallo library.

Social Networks for fun and profit: the “river system” model

So you’re determined to make use of this online social network phenomenon, which is apparently now how jobs are filled, companies are started, the social “A” list determined, and so on. Good. What to do? Well, a main part of it is to make your online activities visible to the right people, in the right way. To think about this, I propose an analogy of a river system.

What? Ok, so in general, a person using social networks has some set of activities and communications which she wishes to convey to certain audiences, possibly to the world. But not all of your audiences want to get all of your news.

Perhaps this is stating the obvious. But half the people I talk to, if social networks come up, profess total incomprehension, and often dismay, fear, and paranoia. So this is for you.

My key, if not earth-shattering, idea, is that various audiences want progressively more filtered versions of your personal newsfeed. But there is probably a core stream, such as your personal or professional blog, that is occasional and newsworthy enough for everyone to tolerate.  Think of that core stream as the headwaters of your river — clear, pure wisdom, up in the mountains.

Now the river flows along, and other tributaries enter into it, and the river gets wider.  This is like your news stream being joined by new data, such as postings about your new photographs, or notices from your book-collecting service about your new acquisitions (I’m cutting back, I promise!), etc.  Well, various audiences downstream are OK with drinking from the bigger river, because well, the river is bigger and they want more of your water.

What do you think?  Is your social networking like this, or is everything in one flood, or do you have multiple rivers?

Here’s the diagram illustrating the model.  Click on the image to see a full-size version.