Re: [-empyre-] C. S. Peirce and Code: book

["Friedrich W. Block" <block@brueckner-kuehner.de>]

At 16:07 17.10.05 +1000, Adrian wrote:

> or an anxiety for the book in the late age of print. the book is now a 
> designed object, something expressing delight and wonderment, precisely 
> because it is no longer sufficient to be merely a book (with its 
> protestant black on white of a perfectly *functional* typography). This is 
> the book as a fetish, like a nice pair of shoes...

this is surely true for (printed) 'books after the book': the functions of 
the book have changed as had handwriting in the Gutenberg-galaxy. 
Fetishizing the book as an object is one economic strategy, managing 'pop 
cults' (e.g. "Harry Potter") another one. However, I think that the book is 
still a very handsome divice for storage and reading. I just read an 
article about a new purpose for papyrus: storing information about nuclear 
waste for the next centuries, because the experts feel to unsure with the 
electronical storage of this information.

best

friedrich