Book quotation
Jun. 16th, 2005 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookzombieI've been reading Jeff Vandermeer's collection of articles, reviews, criticism Why Should I Cut Your Throat?: interesting book, some lovely writing and lots to argue with.
However, what I wanted to share here was a quotation from a writer (who I have to admit I've never heard of) called Michael Cisco. It is in answer to a question from a convention panel: What do you most like about the book as a physical object. His response:
"It is silent. Patient. It waits for me to animate it, and to animate me in turn. This patience and quietness are related, and both in turn related to the book's relationship to time. Real books are created to endure for the benefit of unborn persons, like time capsules. They act as silent witnesses, whose testimony is immediately available."
To be honest, this doesn't really apply any more to physical books than electronic ones but I found it very evocative.
However, what I wanted to share here was a quotation from a writer (who I have to admit I've never heard of) called Michael Cisco. It is in answer to a question from a convention panel: What do you most like about the book as a physical object. His response:
"It is silent. Patient. It waits for me to animate it, and to animate me in turn. This patience and quietness are related, and both in turn related to the book's relationship to time. Real books are created to endure for the benefit of unborn persons, like time capsules. They act as silent witnesses, whose testimony is immediately available."
To be honest, this doesn't really apply any more to physical books than electronic ones but I found it very evocative.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-16 08:08 pm (UTC)And "books" was one of the first tag categories I made up for my LJ too. Heh.