| Description |
xiv, 311 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 274-291) and index. |
| Summary |
Paper is older than the printing press and, even in its unprinted state, it was the great network medium behind the emergence of modern civilization. In the shape of bills, banknotes, and accounting books it was indispensible to the economy. As forms and files it was essential to bureaucracy. As letters it became the setting for the invention of the modern soul, and as newsprint it became a stage for politics. In this brilliant new book Lothar Müller describes how paper made its way from China though the Arab world to Europe, where it permeated everyday life in a variety of formats from the thirteenth century onwards, and how the paper technology revolution of the nineteenth century paved the way for the creation of the modern daily press. His key witnesses are the works of Rabelais and Grimmelshausen, Balzac and Herman Melville, James Joyce and Paul Valéry. Müller writes not only about books, however: he also writes about pamphlets, playing cards, papercutting, and legal pads. We think we understand the "Gutenberg era," but we can understand it better when we explore the world that underpinned it: the paper age. Today, with the proliferation of digital devices, paper may seem to be a residue of the past, but Müller shows that the humble technology of paper is in many ways the most fundamental medium of the modern world --From dust jacket. |
| Contents |
Leaves from Samarkand -- The rustling grows louder -- The universal substance -- The printed and the unprinted -- Adventurers and paper -- Transparent typography -- The demons of the paper machine -- Newsprint and the emergence of the popular press -- Illuminated inner worlds -- The inventory of modernity. |
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Thanks -- Prologue: The microbe experiment. -- Part one. The diffusion of paper in Europe: Chapter 1. Leaves from Samarkand: 1.1. The Arab intermediate realm ; 1.2. Calligraphy and the Cairo wastepaper basket ; 1.2. In Scheherazade's world ; 1.4. Timur and Suleika. -- Chapter 2. The rustling grows louder: 2.1. The European paper mill boom ; 2.2. Paper, scholars, and playing cards ; 2.3. The rise of the file : paper kings, chanceries, and secretaries ; 2.4 The merchant of Genoa and his silent partner ; 2.5 Ragpickers, writers, and the pulpit. -- Chapter 3. The universal substance: 3.1. Marshall McLuhan and the Pantagruelion of Rabelais ; 3.2. Harold Innis, the postal system, and Mephisto's scrap ; 3.3 The world in a page : watermarks, formats, colors. -- |
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Part to. Behind the type area: Chapter 1. The printed and the unprinted: 1.1. The pitfalls of a formula : "from script to print" ; 1.2. The white page ; 1.3. "Found among the papers ..." -- Chapter 2. Adventurers and paper: 3.1. Don Quixote, the print shop, and the pen ; 2.2. Picaresque paper : Simplicius Simplicissimus and the Schermesser ; 2.3 Robinson's journal, ink, and time. -- Chapter 3. Transparent typography: 3.1. The epistolary novel's mimicry of letter paper ; 3.2. Laurence Sterne, the straight line, and the marbled page ; 3.3. The fragmentation of the printed page : Jean Paul, Lichtenberg, and excerpts. -- |
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Part three. The great expansion: Chapter 1. The demons of the paper machine: 1.1. The mechanization of sheet-making ; 1.2. The loom of time, the French Revolution, and credit ; 1.3 Balzac, journalism, and the paper scheme in lost illusions ; 1.4. The secrets of the scriveners : Charles Dickens and Mr. Nemo ; 1.5. Foolscap and factory workers : Herman Melville and the paper machine. -- Chapter 2. Newsprint and the emergence of the popular press: 2.1. The boundless resource base ; 2.2. The newspaper, the price of paper, and the patrioteer ; 2.3. Émile Zola, the Petit Journal, and the Dreyfus Affair. -- Chapter 3. Illuminated inner worlds: 3.1. Wilhelm Dilthey, historism, and literary estates ; 3.2. Henry James, Edith Wharton, and the autograph hunt ; 3.3. Laterna Magica : paper and interiors. -- Chapter 4. The inventory of modernity: 4.1. Typewriter paper, deckle edges, and white space ; 4.2. James Joyce, newsprint, and shears ; 4.3. William Gaddis, the paperwork crisis, and punch cards ; 4.4. Rainald Goetz, the mystic writing pad, and the smell of paper. -- Epilogue: The Analog and the digital -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Image credits -- Index of names. |
| Language |
Translated from the German. |
| Subject |
Paper -- History.
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Papermaking -- History.
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Paper industry -- History.
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Printing -- History.
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Paper. (OCoLC)fst01052348
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Paper industry. (OCoLC)fst01052447
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Papermaking. (OCoLC)fst01052642
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Printing. (OCoLC)fst01076612
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| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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History.
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| Added Title |
Weisse Magie. English
|
| ISBN |
9780745672533 (jacketed hardback ; alk. paper) |
|
0745672531 (jacketed hardback ; alk. paper) |
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074567254X (paperback) |
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9780745672540 (paperback) |
| Standard No. |
40024574807 |
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