Printed books are about to undergo the same transition that hit painting when photography became popular and widely available in the late 19th century.
At the advent of photography, painting lost a lot of what had made it a viable career, and also seemed to be outdone by the verisimilitude of photography's perfect simulacrums of people in the form of portraits. If some normal person can guarantee you a perfect and lifelike portrait, why do you need an artist?
This sent painting into the identity crisis we call Modernism, and all of its sub-movements, and the denial of picture, image, and eventually object. Which can be seen as a narrative of painting trying to find the place where only it could exist and have value. Eventually we reach Danto's
Well I think McSweeneys Quarterly Concern is the first (wonderful) symptom of a Neo-Modernism of the Printed book, and it foretells all the identity issues, deconstruction, reconstruction, destruction, and reinvention that the photograph meant to painting. When you get a book of short stories and it comes in the form of a batch of misdelivered mail, or folds out and has a playing card and hair comb you can view that as inventive, but you can not dismiss the possibility of a reaction.
If McSweeneys is the symptom, then the Kindle
I predict an exciting and interesting reinvention of the printed book over the course of the next decade. It will have similarities to other reactionary movements like Modernism, or the British Arts and Crafts movement, and the world wide current DIY scene.
I would like to hear from you about this issue.
-Bill
