Author Archives: Nina Galindo

Analyzing Books: Perfect Consumable Objects

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The book is a perfect object for consumption. The book as an object has the ability of satisfying each of a person’s five senses, making it an object that is wholly consumable by people and that is useful beyond its capacity to hold and preserve text. Books may take a variety of different shapes and appearances, they are able to be presented in both physical and digital spaces in a number of varying forms, however, within this essay the form of the book which should be considered is that which is bound with a front and back cover with paper pages within. This work will primarily refer to Penguin Publishing Group ‘Classics’ paperback books as an example and definition of a book object. This specific selection of a Penguin book is to be able to utilize what to many be the most commonly known and recognized book form and shape. Since the Penguin Publishing Group is one of the most popular books publishers in the world, the form its books take can be used to exemplify what most people would consider a “book,” to be. Books are perfect objects for consumption. The text featured on and within books is not the only part of the object which is interacted with, the entirety of a book is consumed by each of a person’s five senses when they are within its presence. Readers may easily consume the book through sight, touch, hearing, taste, and olfaction which reflects how the medium of the book, its physical presence and tangibility is as impactful upon the reader as the actual text on its pages. The physicality and the ability of the object to be consumed matters, it creates and initiates the interaction between reader and book to result in the reading of the text within.

The consumption of the book is initiated by one setting their sights on it. The visual exterior aspects of the book are the first impression of the book upon the reader and the first features to be significantly consumed by a reader. The design of a book is not an aspect that is simply passed over by readers, it is a principal feature that a person will fully behold and sample before deciding whether or not to open the book object. The visual form of the book is carefully designed for this consideration and consumption so that it may convince the reader to open the book object. When placed on a shelf among other books a spine will be the first feature of a book to be displayed, it must be attractive and appetizing to the viewer. When designing the spines of its books, Penguin Random House designers focus on creating spines that will, “pop on the shelf,” make one think, “Ooh I want to see more of that,” and that will appeal to the desire of having, “a selection of nicely put together spines from a series.” (Penguin, 2021).

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The current lettering and design of spines that is common among many publishing houses was influenced and established because of Penguin’s design. As Penguin Archivist Thomas Birkhead describes, when paperback books began to increase in popularity the company’s publishers started to “pay a little more attention,” to the design of the spines, and decided to letter them vertically instead of horizontally (Penguin 2021). Although the spine of the book is at times minimal and simple, it is vital, the spine, providing the title, author’s name, and publishing house is exact, perfectly created for quick consumption by the readers eyes to convince them to pick up the book in mere seconds. The spine is the introductory component of the book, the hors d’oeuvre being the first aspect of the book to be seen by the reader and ingested by the reader that has convinced them to pull the object from the self. 

In a person’s hands the book is viewed by its cover, before being opened the front and back covers are viewed to be consulted and judged by the holder’s eyes, perfectly designed to appeal to them and to convince their opening of the object. The viewing of a book’s covers is part of its consumption, they present a feast for the eyes’ consideration. The covers of books are designed with extreme care and attention, being, as Penguin Random House Children art director Anna Billson describes, collaborative projects between, “editors and the marketing, sales and production teams.” whose goal is to “visually,” bring to life what readers look for on shelves (Penguin, 2021). Book covers are products for readers, they are lively portrayals of the book that are essential for the reader’s attraction and appetite toward any specific book, one of the first features analyzed and looked at. The design of a cover may at times go through as many as twenty meetings, a great amount of consideration and study is taken to produce a perfect cover (Penguin, 2021). Covers are made to be appealing and intriguing to the taste of their specific audience and targeted reader, their design is curated so that said person viewing them will be perfectly pleased and interested by what they have just visually consumed. 

The object and shape of the book, which is perfect to hold and carry, is specially created for a tactile experience, to be enjoyably held, felt, and cradled by the reader for an intimate and satisfying interaction and inherent absorption. The covers of many books are matte, Penguin specifically, made their classics matte in 2007 under art director Jim Stoddart (Penguin 2025). By doing so they now produce softcovers which are matte, smooth, and flexible and provide a comfortable tactile interaction with the book. 

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A book’s ‘smoothness,’ while lacking in glossy ‘slipperiness’ creates a pleasant physical interaction of the book that further promotes its consumption and reading. Soft cover books like Penguin’s which tend to be sized in dimensions of  each cover being “129mm in width and 198mm in height,” featuring a spine of “20mm,” which makes a layout size of  “270mm wide by 198mm tall.” (Penguin, 2025). This size allows for the object to be comfortably held, its softcover being lightweight and flexible as well, for easy transportation, carrying, and even folding if need be, whatever the needs of the consumer be. The book can be used perfectly for a reader’s needs, one can interact with its covers comfortably and do what they wish to affect it. A reader may consume the book through touching it’s form and leaving an imprint upon it, whether and imprint be defined by the leaving of creases touches and finger pringts on it, leaving marks of usage, dog-ear bookmarks or annotations are evidence of easy and accessible consumption of the object.

The physical form of the book is enjoyed by readers, it is a comfortable object that is easily interacted with and consumed. Digital books, presented on computers, tablets, or cellphones present text and information just aas well as physicial books may yet the do not deliver the same comfortable and consumable experience that physical book objects do. The tactile experience of a physical book object presents a full connection with the form, it is not separated by a power button or a screen or a keyboard, it is constantly present and ready for readers ingestion. A book can be opened at any moment, ready to face the reader directly for connection and presentation, the tactile turn of a books cover and page is a continued interaction and consumption of the form throught a readers hands and nerves. Lyngsoe Systems, which creates systems for book sorting within libraries, describes this physical interaction with a book objects as, “a sensory connection that digital formats cannot replicate…a full-bodied act of discovery, offering a reprieve from the distractions of modern technology.” (Lyngsoe Systems). The physicality of the object is significant to the reader’s consumption of the book, however it also matters when considering the later consumption of the text contained within the form. A physical book allows for a greater absorbition of the material within the book as well, as presented by Dr. Naomi S. Baron of the American University in her journal article, “Reading in a Digital Age” (2017), studies find that reading from a screen and scrolling through text instead of from a “stationary text,” like a physical book, “reading comprehension declined.” (Baron, 16). A notable preference to physical books exists among book readers, those who read are more likely to “re-read print,” and engage more with a text if it is provided in physical form. Printed books are favored by readers, many engage in digital books merely because of cost, citing that, “if costs were the same, they would chose to read print rather than onscreen.” (Baron, 18). The physicality of the book matters for the consumption of both the form and content provided by the object. The preference that readers display towards the consumption of text from a physical book, one they can feel and hold, describes that the tactile experience provided to a book’s holder impacts their understanding of the book’s stored information. The books form affects the absorption of the text within, meaning that as the text is read and consumed, so easily and congruently are body and physical aspects of the book ingested as well. 

A portion of a reader’s ingestion of the book is a result of their causing and listening to the books’ sounds. Books are quiet objects, they do not make sounds unless intentionally made to by their user, and the noises they make as a result of interaction are typically only loud enough for the user to hear. These quiet noises made because of and for the reader of the book create a delicate consumption of the object, a special one that is not intervened or intruded on by any other person. A book faces toward its reader, creating a close connection between object and person, as a person reads their eyes scan the text, in a Penguin Classics book this text is small and fills thirty eight rows on a full page.

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The placement and presentation of the text blocks on the page, regardless of their content, engross the reader within the book, causing them to be physically close to the book, fully focused with it. The specific lettering and text placement create a quiet reading of the book, its small font not meant to be read aloud or shown, perfectly provided for the full, undistracted, consumption of the book by one reader. However, thought meant to be read in quiet spaces as quiet activities books still produce sounds which are gentle, soft, and satisfying which readers may even seek to create and consume. The sounds that are made by the turning of the page of the placing of a book, or the scratching of annotations are purposely created by some readers and sought out for enjoyment specifically of the book’s medium. Creators of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) content at times uses books as their medium for sound creation. A simple search on video sharing site, YouTube, provides insight into the desire to consume book sounds.

(Above: 125,709 views for Book ASMR from one YouTube Chanel | Below: 8,553,700 views for Book ASMR from just ten short form videos)

The sound made by books, the turning of it’s pages and the tapping of it’s covers result in millions of views for book sound content, content which does not focus on the reading of the book but only on the auditory interaction with it’s materiality. The sound of books, the sound produced by their usage is consumable, it has even become consumable content which readers might seek out and appreciate. Even when sound is absent from the reading experience that silence is a product of the book and one of it’s consumable aspects as well which appeal to the sense of the book holder and promote the objects usage and appreciation.

To taste an of object a person places it on their tongue to learn its flavor and to begin the consumption of the thing. But typically books are not tasted, not eaten or chewed, they are devoured differently than food. Books are not featured in menus or dinner plates but within a readers specific interaction with them there is at times a literal consumption of the book object. When reading a person may lick their finger to turn a page that is stuck to another. Using the temporary adhesive of their saliva to continue flipping through a book is a form of consuming the book object. As the person returns to their finger to their mouth to lick again they taste the residual flavor of the paper that may be left on their finger and then return their saliva to the page, placing a by-product of their digestion within the book. Saliva is created within the mouth to beginning the digestion of food. As explained by the dental care organization, Palatine Dental Associates, in their article “The Benefits of Saliva,” (2024),  “Saliva plays a key role in the digestive process. It contains enzymes…which begin the breakdown of carbohydrates and fats in the mouth.” Hence, as a finger is brought back past a person lips after touching a page the taste of the page is introduced to the saliva and actually ingest by the body. This practice of flipping pages is not harmful to the reader, so within the mouth the beginning of the digestive process treats this interaction with the book exactly like food. In this sense the book is consumed by the reader by having its pages sampled at every other turn. The book object can be perfectly and harmlessly ingested even in this absentminded way, simply and out of the readers own habit for.

The last sense to which the books consumability appeals to is olfaction. The ability to smell the book is a direct, literal, and an easy consumption of it that can take place by simply being in the object’s presence. Books produce smells which are composed by a variety of their materials which make up their form. The scent of the page, ink, adhesive and cover material of the book all attribute to its scent which is absorbed by a person inhalation. As studied by the National Institute of Health, within an aritcle which describes, “How the nose decodes complex odors,” (2020), the process of smelling an object like the book involves scent coming into the body as  “tiny molecules,” which,  “stimulate specialized nerve cells, called olfactory sensory neurons, high inside the nose.” The processes of olfaction allows the scent of the book to be quickly analyzed and recognized by brain and therefore to a degree consumed by the body. Within his 2013 article for the Smithsonian Magazine, science writer Colin Shultz describes that the smell produced is caused as, “the chemical compounds used—the glue, the paper, the ink–begin to break down.” which release “volatile compounds,” that feature a “hint of vanilla, [since] Lignin, which is present in all wood-based paper, is closely related to vanillin.” The book object is created with wood-based paper which smells pleasant, the presence of this smell is evidence for the perfect design as an object that can be consumed. One can consume a part of the book simply by taking a whiff of it, of its good scent. This scent of the book is not subconsciously received, it is an active part of the book reading and consmeing experience, so much so that it has even been capatlized on separate from the book object. The smell of a book is ingested by every reader, and even sought out by some to be constantly duped when away from books. A desire for the scent of books, and therefore a desire for the consumption of books is obvious through the commercialization and capitalization of the smell of books into aroma objects like candles, scents, and fragrances.Entire websites exist dedicated to the sale of books scented objects. Sites like, Smells Like Books, feature signature products of book scented colognes and lotions for, “book lovers who want to carry a little piece of fiction with them – wherever they go.” and Frostbeard Studios who sell book scented candles which are indented to smell like specific books or even an Oxford Library. A search on online retailer Amazon’s website for “book scent,” even brings up over 2,000 search results of items that smell like books. The scent of books is ingested with every instance that the book is held and opened. The smell so satisfying that there is a market for it’s purchase, the smell of the object is a perfect way to consume the book, even when not actively reading from it one will be reminded of its form and then its content.

Book are perfect objects that can be fully consumed by a person. A book can fulfill each of a persons five sense allowing for a full absorption of the book object. Not only is the text featured within a book important to the reader, but the book’s medium, an entirely consumable bound codex, is relevant and impactful upon them as well. The book is able to be consumed by appealing to a persons visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and olfactory senses, this ability of the physical object to be consumed increases it’s success as an information storage device, it makes readers more likely to engage with the books form and want to access the information within it. The opportunity of a book object to be consumed by a person creates greater opportunity for someone who is attracted by the form of the book to then choose to enter into the literary world.  

“Amazon.Com Book Scent.” Amazon, www.amazon.com/s?k=book+scent&crid=VCCTN3VNC4JP&sprefix=book+scent%2Caps%2C397&ref=nb_sb_noss_1. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

Baron, Naomi S. “Reading in a Digital Age.” The Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 99, no. 2, 2017,  pp. 15–20. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26388266. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025.

“Book Lovers’ Fine Fragrance.” Smells Like Books,  smellslikebooks.com/collections/book-lovers-fine-fragrance. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

“Book Lovers’ Soy Candles.” Frostbeard Studio, www.frostbeardstudio.com/collections/permanent. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

“Designing Penguin Modern Classics.” Penguin Books UK, Penguin Random House, 22  Oct. 2025, www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/penguin-modern-classics-design. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

“How Book Covers Are Designed.” Penguin Books UK, Penguin Random House, 14 Dec. 2021, www.penguin.co.uk/about/company-articles/how-book-covers-are-designed. Accessed 12 Dec. 2025. 

“How the Nose Decodes Complex Odors.” National Institutes of Health, U.S.  Department of Health and Human Services, 12 May 2020, www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-nose-decodes-complex-odors. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

Lavender, Sarah. “Book ASMR | Sarah Lavender ASMR.” YouTube, 27 Jan. 2025, youtube.com/playlist?list=PLymIhVfp2ZPwnP24koZ_OGd5pk879JisE&si=pIfLziBsvmHKLVwH. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

Musgrave, Amy, et al. “Designers on What Makes The Perfect Book Spine.” Penguin  Books UK, Penguin Random House, 17 Feb. 2021, www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/book-spine-design-cover-designers-interviews. Accessed 12 Dec. 2025. 

Schultz, Colin. “That ‘Old Book Smell’ Is a Mix of Grass and Vanilla.” Smithsonian Magazine, The Smithsonian, 18 June 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/that-old-book-smell-is-a-mix-of-grass-and-vanilla-710038/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

“Template Jargon Buster.” Penguin Books UK | Official Site, Penguin Random House, 15 Oct. 2025, www.penguin.co.uk/about/work-with-us/cover-design-award/template-jargon-buster. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

“The Benefits of Saliva: An Essential Fluid for Health.” Palatine Dental Associates, 17 July 2024, www.palatinedentalassociates.com/the-benefits-of-saliva-an-essential-fluid-for-health/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

“The Enduring Love for Physical Books and the Importance of Reading .” Lyngsoe Systems, Lyngsoe Systems Library Solutions, lyngsoesystems.com/library/knowledge-hub/trends/the-enduring-love-for-physical-books. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

“YouTube ‘Book Tapping Asmr.’” YouTube, www.youtube.com/results?search_query=book%2Btapping%2Basmr. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025. 

Final Project Proposal

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For my final project I will write an essay analyzing how the book is a perfect object that can be not only read, but consumed fulfill all of a persons needs.

For my project I will describe how the object of the book is consumable, I will not be focusing on the text that can be read from the book, but instead every other feature that the codex is made from to be a perfect consumable object.

To view the book as an object that is consumable by people I will overview and describe the book object’s ability to satisfy a human’s hierarchy of needs and be consumed by each of a person’s five senses.

Since books can take a variety of different forms and appearances, this project will primarily use a Penguin Publishing Group ‘Classics’ paperback book as the example and definition of a book object.

The reason for a Penguin book to be used as this projects’ book object reference is to be able to utilize what may be the most commonly known and used book form and shape. Since the Penguin Publishing Group is one of the most popular books publishers in the world, the form it’s books take can be used to exemplify what most people would consider a “book,” to be.

Thesis: The Book is a perfect consumable object. Using a Penguin Random House Classics book this project will analyze how beyond the text that it holds, each facet of a book can be consumed and ingested by each of a person’s five senses, giving one the ability to fulfill all of their needs through the consumption and absorption of a book.

Week 13: Books to Read or Collect

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When does a book reader become a book collector? Most who read, who pursue reading as a hobby, will borrow, or buy, and own books. They will have a bookshelf or bookshelf’s to display and keep their books, bit are they collectors of them or just owners? While reading Unpacking My Library, by Walter Benjamin, I became interested in the process by which someone becomes a collector of books rather than simply a reader of them. Through the reading I figure that the collection of books, not only the ownership of them, is intentionally, one has to state that they are a collector of books in order to be one.

If a reader has a large number if books in their library it is not a collection until they deem it one, until they do it is a group, library, or an assembly, not an intentional collection. To collect books is to appreciate them and see them beyond the material they hold, but as Benjamin describes, to love them as , “the scene, the stage, of their fate.” (Benjamin, 60). There is a difference between a person who says that they love reading and books and a person who says they love books and owning them, one is a reader, one is a collector. A person who reads may be a collector, but there is not always a certainty that a collector is a reader.

I have realized that I am teetering on the verge of becoming a collector of books, not just a reader of them. I used to only buy books if I intended to read them immediately, as a reader I have had rules for my shelves, just as he had ruled that “no book was allowed to enter [them] without the certification that [he] had not read it.” (62). But the rules I have for my book ownership are changing, I now have begun to buy multiple editions of the same book, or have bought books that I will read “one day,” even if a planned date for reading is non-existent. I want to have books not just to read, but because I like having books, I am becoming a collector, my library of books is now a collection of chosen books, not just an assemblage of literary devices.

Week 12: Archival Theory

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The archive is a place for authors to say they were ‘here,’ alive in a certain time in history and creators of work that reflected that exact time and their lived experiences in it. During their life time an author may not be able to publish all or any of their works, who they were, what they thought, disappears a few years after their deaths and cannot be retrieved in the future unless properly archived and saved. Unfortunately, not all works are destined for the archive, many do not get added to archival collections, or if they do, they time to process them is long and waiting. Because of this some authors, particularly African American authors as mentioned by Jean-Christophe Cloutier in, The Lifecycles of Twentieth Century African American Literary Papers, have made their own archives, ones to preserve their works and ideas similar to how any institutional archive might.

Their archives would keeps safe their works and thoughts, sometimes even providing the “train of thought” or work process to develop them by preserving documents besides a finished product. An authors archive even went beyond what an institutional archive would display, they would, “becomes a site where an author’s hidden identities, affiliations, and political ambivalences and fantasies,” could be kept, even if they would typically be determined, “difficult, messy, shameful, or inchoate for public presentation.” (Cloutier, 9-10). When creating their works these authors knew that their books could be published, but had to prepare for the possibility that they would not be archived and preserved as valuable. However instead of accepting that possibility and future those authors followed a “desperately human desire” to “fill that unfillable space” (19), by carving out and ensuring and time proof location and place for their words.

I have thought at times of making my own archive like this as well, collecting and organizing all my saved essays and assignments in folders and boxes for safe keeping. My archive would not be made with the expectation that it would ever end up in a collective archive, but with the hope that if a family member within a coming generation were to ever receive it that I, my work, would be remembered and re-read.

Week 11: The Archive

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What drew my attention the most from this week’s reading was the inclusion of how in both quantitative and qualitative methods of reading the history of the archive in for use in book history there are difficulties in accessing information and records.

In the quantitative method of “reading the archive,” historians would collect information about “the records of publishers and allied trades; bibliographies and library
catalogues; and information created by legislative and governing bodies in
managing the book trade.” (Bode and Osborne 225). Researchers look for information that will allow them to understand the work and culture that surrounds the production of a book in order to comprehend how different eras of history affected the production and reading of books. However the quantitative method will not answer all questions, many times records are in poor quality, with “historical data often ‘patchy,'” and are also biased, with, “historical data… inflected by the perspectives and intentions of the individuals and institutions that create and curate them.” (228). In the qualitative method there are faults as well, when reading from and accessing information from an archive one must remember that the archive, although it may be expansive, is “[n]either complete or fully revealing,” as “Individuals make decisions about what documents they want to keep or discard.” which invited the bias of the archivist to affect the “completeness,” or a collection or grouping of works (Bode and Osborne 224).

In both methods bias affects the collection of work, the perspective and values of the archivist, or the organization they collect for, will frequently be the deciding factor between what is included or disregarded in a collection. The archive, which I previously believed to be a place of equality, where books and information are all kept safe to the best of the archivist’s ability for reader’s access and reference, does not view all books, and therefore information, equally. Archivists must make careful and difficult choices to decide which items deserve to be in an archive and why, knowing that the decision to preserve one book or artifact of information might mean to loose another one. It is interesting that while book historians may read books from within an archive to disseminate how certain perspectives, politics, and cultures would have affected the production of a book, the same archive that they are reading from would have be affected by those same subjects.

BLAST – Midterm

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Volume 1 of BLAST published by John Lane Publishing in 1914. It is a Fair condition, damaged on its cover and spine but completely legible. It was Published on June 20th, 1914 and edited by Wyndham Lewis, including his own works and the contributions of a variety of different authors and artists. This book is part of a literary journal which spanned over two volumes, the first printed in 1914 and the second in 1915. It was printed in England in English by Leveridge and Co., St. Thomas’ Road, Harlesden with a letter press. It is a presentation of the art movement of Vorticism through an editorial collection of Manifestos, Critiques, Articles, and Photographs composed by multiple different contributors. This one is a copy of volume one from within San Diego State University’s Special Collections Archive, which acquired the book in 2016. 

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Front Endpaper

The book is a soft cover journal featuring a faded magenta pink color on its mirrored with its title, BLAST, printed diagonally across both the front and back covers in large Grotesque No. 9 font. This book is in legible and clean condition, however the spine and the cover are both damaged. The cover is legible but torn at the edges and completely detached from the volume, its color is also faded at the center, turning slightly brown from pink. The spine is also damaged, a large portion is exposed while other pieces of the cover have stayed on. Because of this delicate spine the book may only be opened a quarter, not fully flat. Although the book does feature signs of its age through its deteriorated cover and spine, evidence of previous ownership is sparse. The pages in the interior of the book are made of wood pulp and are in a better condition than the cover, they are clean with no additional annotations. There are no additional plates, handwriting, or stamps within the copy to describe ownership. 

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Front and Back Covers

BLAST features a variety of texts as well as whole pages dedicated to illustrations pressed on by woodcuts. There are also various photographs which are printed on a different type of paper, they are printed in black and white ink on a glossy sturdy stock of paper instead of the wood pulp paper used in the rest of the journal. The illustrations and the photographs are created in the Vortist style, blocky, with stark and defined lines and shapes.

Analysis: 

Blast is composed of a multitude of texts. It includes a play, poems, art, photographs, letters, and critiques. It is mostly pressed in Grotesque no.9 font in a variety of different sizes and placements among the pages. It is a review of, “the Great English Vortex,” (Lewis 1), edited and written by Wyndham Lewis with contributions from writers and artists, Ezra Pound, Ford Maddow Huefffer, Rebecca West, Edward Wadsworth, Gaudier Brzeska, Frederick Etchells, W. Roberts, Jacob Epstein, Cuthbert Hamilton, and Spencer Gore. This first volume is not a stand alone edition, a second volume was published the year after the first in 1915. No other volumes were published after, many of those involved in writing pieces for BLAST joined the troops to fight in the first World War, and afterward “after the war…Blast out in 1915, the “War Number” would be the magazine’s last.” Therefore, efforts to publish a third edition failed. The journal was created to express Vorticism as an artistic movement. In the 1914 publication, BLAST vol 1, writer Wyndham Lewis diverged from the standard writing and printing styles of the time to introduce the vorticist style to London. The cover of his journal featured a bright pink color and large, bold, and slanted title, it is the pinnacle of his vorticist style through those features. The intention of this cover is to introduce that style, blast it in the reader’s eyes, and to encompass one of the messages within the journal, that writers and readers, should want to indulge in the “now” of literary art, which was bold, abstract, and new, not the past or future, but the present.  

Published in London, England the journal immediately presents an abstract aesthetic when compared to other trends and formats in published work from the period and in the years before. It counters any sort of expected presentation, blasting it apart and presenting the vorticist style. Vortisim was an art movement created by Lewis, meant to, “create art that expressed the dynamism of the modern world,” The movement is introduced right from the cover, the bright vuschia color being an attention grabbing color on any shelf or surface, while the title makes a readers take a pause, wanting to know more about the publication based on what is left on and off the cover. The title, “BLAST” is printed diagonally, left to right across the cover in large, thick, black letters in Grotesque no.9 font on top of the hot pink soft cover. The cover is not delicate and finely printed, it does not feature the names of the authors or publishers upon it, it only relies on its new style, reminiscent of cubism and feeling abstract in its placement to attract readers and represent its text. The cover is a perfect representation of the entire rest of the journal as the text within will follow the message and structure that it presents and introduces.  

The message of the cover is “BLAST.” Blast as a word means to destroy, to break something apart, as a title that word conveys that the writers aim to blast, break apart from the norm and create a style of literary art that is new and current, not a repetition of previous forms and works. Vorticisim is that style which the writers choose to employ to blast the previous. It is a, “combined cubist fragmentation of reality with hard-edged imagery derived from the machine and the urban environment, which relies on, “a bold blend with harsh lines and harsher colors. Instead of abstraction the Vorticists developed a vivid geometric style, which set apart their typography.” The art style of Vorticism is presented by the initial, “BLAST,” of the cover communicated through the rotation of the text to be diagonal and gigantic, bold and dark across the face of the journal contrasting against the equally bold magenta background. The style is laid throughout the rest of the journal, the manifestos within the first forty pages featuring the art style through the fragmented spacing of their text, the bolded type, and the abrupt, concise statements. 

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The text of the journal does not only follow the artistic style established by the cover, but its language and tone aswell. “BLAST,” printed in all capital letters, shouts at the readers, it is meant to trap the reader’s attention not only producing an image of destruction, but by presenting a statement and phrase that the text will expand upon. The body of the journal follows in the step of the title and continues to shout and exclaim toward the reader, the manifesto supplying many BLASTs and BLESSING toward the reader in the same tone conveyed by the cover. 

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By the vorticist art of the page the statements of the writer are efficiently communicated and ennunciated. Instead of a simple critique or insult toward England, for example, Lewis is able to practically yell his words toward the reader, not relying on extra characters, terms, or languange, but instead on the shape and space that the words take on the page, demanding more attention and feeling from the reader. The readers of BLAST would have been reading from such a format for the first time, the style, vorticisim being a new art by Lewis; the new artistic style was novel to readers, being introduced to it from the cover and exploring it throughout the entirety of the work. Because of the new literary art style that BLAST was presenting its intended audience for reading was those participating in the London art scene. The creators of the work signed their names in its manifesto; they were a group of, “young writers and artists,”who were part of that scene.  

Intriguingly, Lewis speaks directly to the readers to explain where to procure more copies of the journal. Although BLAST was printed at Leveridge and Co. at, St. Thomas’ Road, Harlesden, on the flyleaf of the journal these readers are even invited to get more copies of BLAST from Lewis himself, “Copies may also be obtained from MR. WYNDHAM LEWIS, Rebel Art Centre 38, Great Ormond Street, Queen’s Square, W.C. (Hours, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)”

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Print House and Rebel Art Center

However, even though BLAST is advertised by Lewis to be able to be received from the address he provides, the publishing company of the journal, John Lane Publishing also advertises their own publications at the end of BLAST. They include a list of the Memoirs, Biographies, Fiction, and Novels that they publish, however these are notably not printed in the Vorticist style. 

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John Lane’s Publications List

The cover of BLAST introduces the written style of Vorticism to the reader, as well as the art style of Vorticism. In the journal is a woodcut image by Edward Wadsworth pressed directly on the page as well as a printed reproduction of his art.

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Woodcut by Wadsworth

The art by Wadsworth throughout the journal compliments the written works, being formed by their same structure and producing it in image instead of text. The cover of the journal echoes this, the cover is not just a piece of text, but art as well. It is a line formed by text striking through a pink canvas, all of BLAST is part of art, the cover remains an introduction to all of the art of the text, not just the style of the type, but the entire artistic Vorticist movement meant to be created. The styles of the cover, the text, and the art pieces all follow the Vorticist intention to “intended more to express a feeling and mood than tell a story or display a distinct picture,” the positions of the subject of the works, the size of “BLAST,” the placement of text, and the image of the art are express the feelings of the writers and artist first, and elaborate on their distinct message second

BLAST was used by Wyndham Lewis and his collaborators to present the art of Vorticism to London. Initiating their art from the cover, they introduce the reader immediately the art form, blasting them with “BLAST,” on a bright pink surface. Using this cover they are able to prepare the expectations of the reader for the art that they will ingest by reading the journal, allowing them to know that they will be seeing an art that is new that blasts the old away and that is not for, “the sentimental future.” but for the now, for the present. (Lewis 7). 

Works Cited

“Blast: Review of the Great English Vortex (1914-15).” Omeka Library, omeka.library.uvic.ca/exhibits/show/movable-type/the-book/blastmagazine1.html#:~:text=The%20Magazine.%20Blast%20was%20printed%20in%20July,and%20to%20brand%20it%20as%20being%20English . Accessed 26 Oct. 2025. 

“How Blast Magazine Changed Literature Forever.” Type Room, 30 July 2015, www.typeroom.eu/how-blast-magazine-changed-literature-forever . 

Morrisson, Mark. “Blast: An Introduction.” Modernist Journals | BLAST: An Introduction, Modernist Journals Project, modjourn.org/blast-an-introduction/ . Accessed 26 Oct. 2025. 

“Vorticism.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/v/vorticism . Accessed 26 Oct. 2025. “Wyndham Lewis – Blast, No. 1.”

Digital Literature, A screen and page

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Between Page and Screen is an incredibly interesting and creative piece of digital literature. The pairing between using a physical book and using a screen to read it relies on two tools, the book and the digital device, instead of only one. When reading the book through the reflection of the webcam a reader can also see themselves, they can see themselves reading and reacting to the story, which is uncommon, unless someone reads in front of a mirror. This aspect, seeing oneself while reading, makes readers more aware of how a work makes them feel, they can see the surprise, sadness, or joy on their own faces.

The appearance of the text relies on both a webcam and the book. Without both the text is unreadable and causes the reader to have to shelve the book or look back at the webcam disappointed. By having to hold up the book to the screen a reader must feel comfortable relying on digital technology, and the technology has to rely on the person. I find it interesting that typically only a person relies on a device, but in this scenario, the device must also rely on the person to be able to have the book to read and take symbols from, that is a unique interaction. I would like to see more pieces of digital literature like this, ones that ask for cooperation between a person and their device, not just usage in one direction, but an actual partnership between the screen.

Between Page and Screen is what I also imagine using AI generators like ChatGPT must be like for those who use it to create images of documents. In generating images from prompts the computer and the person must, “talk,” through the chat box to produce work that is made by the computer by inspired by the words of the person. In Between Page and Screen the reader communicates with the computer while turning the page and presenting the glyphs and the screen speaks back through translating the book’s story.

Books and Interface

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This chapter of The Book speaks to and proves just how much readers may want to interact with the book, not merely be able to see its words, but hold, write on, and interface with it, Many of the “e-reader” inventions described by Borsuk are made to “emulate the physical book,” with features that “evoke the curved spine of a paperback.” (Borsuk, 232). Typically today the book, both physical and digital as we know are made for interaction that goes beyond just skimming eyes over letters, with the digital even having tools for bookmarking and annotation, while the physical keeps appropriate margins for the same purposes. Books with these features are made for what Borsuk describes as “handedness.” (234).

The book as an interface is something that permits and invites full immersion into it, not just immersion in the text provided, but in its shape, page, and utility. As a device it is a body that wants to and is meant to be used, have its pages turned until they are torn or have it’s screen pressed until it is cracked. The book will only continue to grow and evolve so long as it prioritizes the reader’s experience, improving and adapting to how a reader can read the book.

How The Page Matters

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Typically I would not give much thought to the page, it presents ideas, depicts stories and art, and is sometimes a blank canvas for expression. A blank page can be marked on any number ways, drawn on, written on, painted on. However, anything that is put to the page is hence affected by the page, borders are imposed, not decided, making anything put on the form influenced by it’s shape. The form and singularity of an unbounded page suggest to any reader that “there is noting more to read than what is on the page” even if the author of the work had not intended for it to be the end. (How the page Matters, p.14) The page, when not presented or bound by the person who place their work on it, defines the meaning and end point of what is on it on it’s own.

When a work is displayed on a page the sheet enhances the ideas presented and in part informs the reader or viewer about the work, if a story is written on one lined piece of paper, one might assume it was a draft written by a student from a notebook, however if that same story is typed and spaced with 1” margins on a sheet of paper, a reader might believe it is a final copy. Because of the pages materiality and specific form, viewers and readers will regard a work differently. As explained by Mak, the page, “significantly influences meaning by its distinctive embodiment of those ideas.” (How the Page Matters p.5). The page which has an expected form, allows for the transmission of ideas from one person to another, it works both within physical and digital spaces, presenting information to various audiences. But before any information is read or viewed, the form that it takes on the page already speaks for it. Even when a page is simply differently formatted by APA or MLA standards, the reader may already change their expectations or opinions on what they are going to read and take away from a text.

The page matters because it is one of the principal conveyors of information in our world, it presents ideas and the work of anyone. It’s shape and form that follow a variety of standards affect how readers and viewers of that page will understand the information featured on it.

The Book as Idea

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The book is an expression of ideas that are formed by the desire to create, share, and work. Each facet and piece of the book is used to express the ideas and creativity of an author, from it’s covers, which can depict great artist and introduction, to its pages that might be beautifully illuminated, and even including its fonts and included images. The book is a canvas for words and information as well as a stage for an author to fully express their point of view where they can connect with their indented reader to the best of their ability. Books in through this purpose are, as Borsuk in, The Book, writes, “always a negotiation, a performance, an event.” (147).

The book used and viewed as an idea, rather than just as an object allows for a broader and more creative use of it as a medium. It allows author to use every surface of the book for their message and tone, allowing the reader to read from the book before ever opening it, when the book is an idea the reading and comprehension of it begins at first glance, a very first touch of the binding immediately introduces the authors perspective and subject. The book as an idea also allows for more inspiration for authors writing within it, being able to take the ideas provided by the books’ shape and form into fuel for their stories, like as done by author Stephane Mallarme, who formed his story on the page like an actual shipwreck, making readers as they turned the pages, “complicit in the shipwreck.” (129). The book as an idea becomes ideas, a tool for inspiration and evolution of the books presentation and form, idea allows the book to change, not forced into a rigid and single standard shape.