Setting Type

Last Monday, we finally got to set some of our type for our book up in the workshop, and once again, I was surprised at how hard it was to actually get the letters in the right spots without any major mishaps.  I'm one of those people who is constantly checking and overlooking her work to make sure that there's  nothing out of place, so I became really confused when I couldn't even read the words that I had spelled out so far.  Normally, I can read all kinds of words in any kind of direction; backwards, forwards, upside down, even mirrored words make sense to me.  However, It took a long time for me to get used to the words because not only were the letters mirrored, the letters were mirrored without flipping the location of the letters, making it backwards as well (from my perspective).  I can't even imagine how hard it must be to set type for an entire novel without at least a few mistakes sprinkled somewhere in the pages.

I also thought that just getting the letters in the right order was confusing.  Instead of being able to hand write everything or type everything on a computer (where we already have a basic understanding of where all the letters are located), we had to get used to an entire new position for all of the letters we needed, some of which were in really strange positions (You tend to notice these things when your last name starts with a "Z").  All in all, I've gained some healthy respect for anyone who used to set type before the age of computers and spell-check, not only is it confusing, but you also need to make sure that everything is set perfectly, or the pieces will literally fall around you.

We All Make Mistakes

I can bet that there was not one of us who didn't make some type of blunder on the wood carvings or our book bindings. Like I said in my earlier post, I was incredibly OCD in trying to make everything perfect and look flawless, but we all realized that that was just about impossible. It's kind of ironic though that a lot of the aspects of the books that we have looked at have been mistakes or had been added later after the book had been published. We saw an example of this in class when we were shown the famous wood carving against slavery.



The blunders near the face and the unfinished parts of the wood carving showed that this wood carving had not ever been used in publication. At the time, it must have been incredibly frustrating for the wood carvers to see all their hard work go to waste (and we all know how much work this would take!), but what they didn't know was that this wood carving could give it more value in the far future for being different with its mistakes.

The mistakes made in different publications of the same book also can give readers in the future an idea of what books were published first and then corrected for later publications of the book. These mistakes can give an ancient treasure even more value with it's difference. It also become the book's signature sign of uniqueness and distinguish it among other publications of the same book among collectors. Mistakes don't always have to be negative, but it's kind of funny how that mistake can sometimes be that book's trademark.

Color Me Impressed

I know I took illustrations in books for granted before this class. Even if nowadays they are much easier to make, their beginnings, as we have now seen, were much humbler. Instead of a scanner and a computer, illustrations were done using a block of wood and carving tools. Just hearing this you can understand that this is an impressive feat. 

Actually doing the woodcutting myself was a learning experience. First, I pulled the biggest derp move and carved out the actual illustration, instead of carving out the space around it. So instead of a colored icon and white around it, I had a white icon with ink around it. While some may prefer this and do it by choice, this is not at all what I meant to do, and it would've been easier to cut the other way anyways. But, I learned from my mistake and if I ever get the chance to do a woodcut I'll do it right and come across as an expert. Not.

An expert on the background of woodcuts I'm definitely not. However, my knowledge of them is much better than my skill in making them. Above is a crazy impressive woodcut. Look at the details in the shading! My illustration was blocks of ink and blocks of white. Nowhere on it did I even attempt to do any kind of shading. And it is in the actual skill that we, as people that have attempted it ourselves, can really appreciate woodblock illustrations.

Social Change

Today we discussed the impact books can have on society; they have true shaping abilities. We touched on the topic of censorship too.  I was fascinated by the sort of stamp of approval provided by the censor in the book involving Herodotus. As soon as I saw the markings in the preface, I associated it with what I had seen before in Huckleberry Finn. Junior year we read Huck Finn in class and our copies provided by the school were all marked up. In a way, this brought more attention to what was being blotted out! What is your experience with censorship? Did your high school have certain banned books? Where the line should be drawn?

On a semi-related note:
This weekend I went home, and it just so happened to be the weekend of our local “Friends of the Library Book Sale.” This is an annual sale of thousands of used books. Looking back, I could easily say that it has been an influential piece in the development of my love for books. I can recall from years past spending hours there with my family exploring the books.  Being there this Saturday was even more fulfilling. I was able to look at the collections of books with a view shaped by my learning in Cushing. Seeing as these were used books, I noticed details of previous owners and various other features we have discussed in class. I am just certain among all those books were hidden gems waiting to be revealed!

The Power of Illustration

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that the illustrations on the side of books were really neat, and the fact that when you look at it from a different direction, the pages show a totally different picture. I do not know how the illustrator made the pictures on the side of the book so detailed. I wish publishers still did this today. It is interesting to see the correlation between the picture and the content of the book if there is even one at all.

I also found the books with illustration of plants versus the book with the actual specimens interesting. A horticulture book with only illustrations may last longer, but a horticulture book with real specimens are much more interesting. It would be very difficult  to make a book with specimens of plants because some plants are only alive at certain times of the year, and it would take a great amount of time to find the plants.

Hidden Meanings

Looking at all the different ways that images are used to convey meaning and worth last week was mind boggling to say the least. It was interesting to see how an image or the presentation of a book can provide so many glimpses into how the previous owner acted or what was in store beneath an elaborate binding. Just by looking at what was presented on the binding of a book, we were able to figure out that the book with elaborate and fragile designs on the cover held stories by Shakespeare and was thought to be both a cherished item and a great expense to the previous owner.

Not the same book, but similar design and style

I was also really interested by the pictures inside of the books, especially the horticulture books that we looked at. Seeing the two books over the almost the same plants presented in different ways was really cool. On one hand, Fuchs took great pains to have every plant he could get his hands on accurately etched onto a press so that each plant could have it's own large page, showing detail while giving the reader a chance to go exploring and fill in the color of the plants himself. However in the other book, although there were many pages with long-dead plants pressed into the book, there were a lot of blank pages that were still waiting to be filled with a specific plant. This book was past the point of bursting because of all the extra material added in, indicating that the book had started out blank, but had been filled in over time by the owner, whom we can only assume was the one who found each plant and pressed them into the book one by one. Just the thought that looking at the images and material that have been left behind by past owners can give us an idea of who they were and how they acted is a really cool concept!

I guess I've learned that an age-old saying is true: a picture really does say a thousand words

Book Looks

Yesterday, we got to take a look at some different bindings and illustrations.  One on my favorite parts was seeing the hidden illustrations in the gilded edges of a book.  It was an illustration within a gilding within a book.  Inception.  What was neat was seeing how the paintings were so intricate.  Watercolor is really not generally used for intricate work, and all the little people and scenes painted on the books' edges were amazing, and must have taken a good amount of time.

One of my favorite images was the one that portrayed the sea and a tiny little town right next to it.  It was so pretty, and it was similar to the one above.  The binding on the one book about Heaven was also really neat. If it had been done by hand, each copy, I theorize that making a mass amount of books would have been difficult.  However, the front cover said "1998."  We don't usually think of 1998 as being old for a book, but already that book is 14 years old! That surprised me, how quickly time passes, and it's interesting to see how well books in different places hold up over the years.

I also think that the hollowed-out books are really neat.  A lot of people use them as good places to hide guns or flasks, but as I was looking online, some people put their phones in them, their Nooks or random things like keys.  I even saw a person use a book to propose to a girl; he took her favorite book and gifted it to her, then she found a ring in the middle.  Books with surprises in the way that they're made are really awesome, like the book that had the playing cards.  Who knew a book could hold so many different things!