Materialities of text

In this post I will focus primarily on a particular feature of literary works -- their physical character, whether audial or visible.

I shall be pointing out why these features are important in a literary point of view and also sketching certain practical means for elucidating these textual features. This last matter -- the central subject of this post -- is also the most difficult. The methodology I shall be discussing requires the scholar to learn to use a new set of scholarly tools.

One final introductory comment. My remarks here apply only to textual works that are instruments of scientific knowledge. The poet's view of text is necessarily very different. To the imagination the materialities of text (oral, written, printed, electronic) are incarnational not vehicular forms. But for the scientist and scholar, the media of expression are primarily conceptual utilities, means rather than ends; to the degree that an expressive form hinders the conceptual goal (whether it be theoretical or practical), to that extent one will seek to evade or supercede it -- perhaps even, in critical times, to develop new intellectual devices. But good poets do not really quarrel with their tools.

As William Morris famously observed, "You can't have art without resistance in the materials".

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts - Jean-Philippe Pastor

Books as efficent machines

The ebook market remains small, but Amazon's electronic reader has renewed interest in book downloads guardian.co.uk

More than four months after Amazon.com released the Kindle, publishers believe that it has helped, if not revolutionised, the tiny market for electronic books.
Amazon.com has received extensive media coverage since unveiling the Kindle last November, when the first run sold out within a few hours. It has declined to give sales figures for the Kindle - at least 2,000, judging from the number of customer reviews - but has said repeatedly that supply is not keeping up with demand, with the device often out of stock.

Publishing officials are reluctant to discuss sales figures, but say that they have seen double digit increases in ebook sales since the Kindle's release, and renewed interest in downloads for the Sony Reader. Sales for the most popular ebooks are in the hundreds, comparable to the number for the Reader, which came out in 2006.

"The Kindle has increased awareness. Publishers have told me that in some cases the Sony numbers were double or triple what they had been," says Michael Smith, head of the International Digital Publishing Forum, which tracks ebook sales.
Selling through Amazon.com for $399 (£199), the Kindle is thinner than most paperbacks and weighs 0.29 kg. It can hold some 200 books, along with newspapers, magazines and an entire dictionary.

The Kindle has been praised for the selection of texts available - more than 100,000 books, blogs and newspapers - and for the speed of delivery, which averages less than a minute. Fans include authors such as Toni Morrison, Michael Lewis and Neil Gaiman.

Publishing is older by centuries than the music and film industries and its form of communication, the paper text, has proved far more durable than the vinyl record, eight-track tape or videocassette. New technologies, from the CD to the DVD, are usually more convenient and more effective than the ones they replace. But no ebook device has approached the practical and aesthetic appeal of the traditional book.

"Books themselves are very efficient machines, and the experience of holding a book is part of the book culture," says Farrar, Straus & Giroux publisher Jonathan Galassi, who called the Kindle "flimsy" and said it reminded him of an Etch-a-Sketch toy.
"Ebooks are a growing niche for now," Smith says, "but I certainly don't see a time when everybody will be reading them. People just love what the traditional book represents to them."
Ebooks are undeniably growing. According to the International Digital Publishing Forum, sales have risen steadily over the past six years, from around $6 million (£3 million) in 2002 to around $33 million (£17 million) in 2007. Those numbers do not include many smaller publishers, or library and educational purchases, making it likely - Smith and others believe - that the market for downloads is at least two or three times larger.
Each advance inevitably leads to speculation about a post-paper world: Would bookstores become obsolete? How would publishers handle online piracy? Would authors, like some musicians, become their own bosses, bypassing the industry altogether?

Ebooks have been around for more than a decade and speculation peaked in 2000-2001, the height of the dot.com boom. Several publishing houses set up ebook divisions, and an annual ebook prize, a $50,000 award co-sponsored by Microsoft, was started. Even Barnes & Noble, Inc. formed its own ebook line, launching the brand with an original work by Dean Koontz.
The electronic future, bookseller Michael Powell of Powell's Books said in 2000, was "coming down the road at lightning speed."

Few are so bold any more. Even after tripling their reported sales, ebooks comprise less than 1 percent of the $35 billion publishing business, a figure that is unlikely to change. The ebook divisions have been shut down, the ebook award no longer exists. Barnes & Noble has abandoned the ebook field.
"The market is very narrowly confined, to New York and Seattle and to a few people who travel and read a lot," says Frank Daniels III, chief operating officer for Ingram Digital, a leading e-distributor.
"The Kindle is certainly an important next step, but I don't think it signifies the end of the evolution," Smith says. "It's all incremental, one step that takes place down the line, like in the audiobook industry."
Ebooks have made their greatest progress with their first audience: publishers. For years, publishers resisted the product they were supposed to be pushing. In a 2001 interview, the head of the Association of American Publishers, Patricia Schroeder, rolled her eyes when asked about ebook devices: "I just look at these things and they're fine, but I just think ... "
In a recent interview, Schroeder spoke favorably of ebooks, but said she still had not read one.
Public sightings of ebooks remain rare compared to MP3 players or iPhones, but ebook readers have caught on in the industry. The Hachette Book Group USA, Simon & Schuster and Random House, Inc. are among those using Sony Readers to review manuscripts and executives are far more likely to say they've read an ebook.

"It's not a conversation I'm having with people outside the industry, but I think people will increasingly use ebooks. They'll be a niche, like audiobooks. I think that's the best comparison," says Jonathan Karp, publisher of the Hachette imprint, Twelve.
"I actually read in bed with the Sony e-reader, and I love it. It's lighter than a regular book, and easier to turn the pages than with a manuscript. I don't have to lug books back and forth. I'm saving paper. It's wonderful."


Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts -

How to get Audiobooks

Perhaps you are one of the many people in the world who love listening to audio books.

They can be found just about anywhere—the World Wide Web, book stores, rental services and department stores, among other places; and now nearly any book imaginable is available on both compact disc and audio cassette. Perhaps, also, you are flat broke. Maybe the holiday season has left you banknote impaired—yet you just cannot manage to free yourself from a desire to finally relax and enjoy listening to a favorite book. Fortunately, that is not an impossible dream, regardless of the circumstances. And it is a dream that can be realized without spending a single penny!

There are many ways to get your hands on free audio books. An obvious example would be your local library. While this bit of advice may not be true of all libraries, it can be said that many branches are now catching on to the trend. Of course, there are always those whose local libraries are a bit too “old-fashioned” but on the other end of the spectrum, many libraries are now offering free audio book downloads.If, however your local library seems to be of the antique brand, then there are many options for those with internet access. A Los Angeles based service, Jiggerbug, offers free trials of their audio book rental service. They provide an extensive catalogue of audio book titles; and if you like the audio in their collection, then feel free to burn them onto CD for your own personal use (meaning do not get caught selling multiple copies of Brokeback Mountain from your car’s trunk). Copyright laws don’t take kindly to being broken; the consequences of doing so can be heinous.

Also worthy of mention is Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/ ), a website consisting of free computer generated audio that are available for download. Although their selection does not include many contemporary reads, it is a good source for classic literature if you don't mind listening to a computerized voice.And finally, there’s always the do-it-yourself method: record your own audio books! This is especially a great idea for parents of young children. With free software Microsoft Speech SDK and Text Aloud MP3, you have only to decide on a book that you believe your child or children will most enjoy. Also, you shouldn’t worry if you don’t have the voice of James Earl Jones—the kids don’t care. It wouldn’t be a bad thing, though, would it?While these suggestions may be considered obvious to some, it is often the obvious things that are overlooked.

Regardless of your methods, though, it’s hard to go wrong when you’re getting stuff for free!Terrell Jacobs - An Audio Book EnthusiastAudio Book Search Search over 25,000 audio book titles across the internetAudio Books - Free Trial Membership for new customers -


Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts -