Author Archives: Sierra Beggs

The Communications Circuit and Fanfiction

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The communications circuit proposed by Robert Darnton flows from author, to publisher, (suppliers also come in at this point) printers, shippers, booksellers, eventually to readers (binders also come in at this point), and right back to the author with the cycle repeating each time a new piece of work is finished (Darnton Figure 1, The Communications Circuit). Within this circuit, things like legal/political sanctions, publicity, intellectual influences, and social/economic conjecture have an effect on all parts of the communications circuit (Darnton Figure 1, The Communications Circuit). But one specific part of the circuit is more difficult than the others to study, as Darnton states, “Reading remains the most difficult stage to study in the circuit followed by books” (Darnton 74). One of the reasons is because, “Reading itself has changed over time. It was often done aloud and in groups” (Darnton 78). Nowadays, reading is seen more as a solitary activity. A person grabs a book, sits down and reads quietly by themselves. If they don’t like to annotate, then of course nobody would know their thoughts on the material. But in a group setting, people can share their thoughts and ideas on the subject material, much like in an English class that utilizes something like the Socratic method. Although, this still does not necessarily make it easy to study, as someone would either need to take notes, or be there in the group to study the readers themselves. 


But with the invention of the internet and world wide web, a new medium has evolved that can help uncover the reader to author relationship, turn readers into authors, and the reader’s role within the circuit. Fanfiction is a community oriented medium that allows for readers in the communications circuit to more easily be studied because, it allows for direct discourse from fans to the original creator(s), and fans-turned-author to other fans who decide to read the fanfiction. Inherent to the culture of internet fanfiction is strengthening the reader to author connection and giving fans a voice due to the focus on communicating with others in the fandom, as well as engaging creatively within the fandom. Fanfiction adds another layer to the network. It taps into a previously hard-to-study portion of the communications circuit. And the internet makes it easy to leave one’s footprints for others to read, and react to in their own way. Both Mark Marino’s hypertext “Marginalia in the Library of Babel,” and the popular fanfiction site Ao3 (Archive of Our Own) exemplify this continually evolving connection and study of the reader.

In order to start, defining fanfiction is necessary. Bronwen Thomas describes fanfiction as, “refer[ring] to stories produced by fans based on plot lines and characters from either a single source text or else a ‘canon’ of works; these fan-created narratives often take the pre-existing storyworld in a new, sometimes bizarre, direction” (Thomas 1). This can range from putting characters into alternate universes (sometimes even crossing over with other popular work’s worlds) to creating a whole new character to interact within an already existing world. A good example in Ao3 that includes character crossovers is the tag Daminette. The two names smushed together indicates a ship name (romantic relationship within the fanfiction), separating the names gives the audience Damian Wayne and Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Damian Wayne is from the popular DC universe, while Marinette Dupain-Cheng is from the Miraculous Ladybug universe. Fanfiction can be made to criticize the original work, or just because a fan thought of a cool idea within that fandom. What is also important to fanfiction is the community aspect that offers readers and creators a chance to engage directly, often through things like comments (Thomas 2). Fanfiction can also be categorized as Electronic Literature, “Works of e-lit are generally interconnected in ways that are not easily amenable to print publication, and they branch, or importantly perform on request” (Hayles 170). Fanfic ticks off basically all of these boxes, as most fanfiction sites include commenting, sometimes branching links, and are almost instantaneously available.

Now, the question is: Does Mark Marino’s text “Marginalia in the Library of Babel,” count as fanfiction? The answer is yes, it can be categorized as fanfiction. Marino has also essentially inserted his own character into the world of the library. Marino is a reader that has become an author for the sake of communicating with Borges, and others who admire Borges’s work. His work is literally titled after Borges’s short story. His character’s research in tandem with the annotations, and the home page, becomes the fanfiction itself. Marino is letting the readers see his character’s research path as a reader, which clues those who are studying the reader portion of the communications circuit into the character’s train of thought when reading the research his annotations are on. (A little meta in a way, that Marino is writing as a character both reading and writing. He is a reader writing and a writer reading, and I will be a reader writing on his work. So many never-ending mirrors.) Marino’s character also states at the bottom of his hypertext work on the home page, “Fellow traveler, tracking my steps, when you go to these places, you will see my annotations and follow them to other annotations or return here or leave your own annotations and share them with someone else” (Marino). This is a call to action for the readers to get involved in a community where they communicate with each other, and write their own annotations. His annotations are more than just his thoughts, they are often direct statements that intertwine himself with the world of Borges’s library of Babel, and other Borges’s works.


Next, someone trying to research a reader could look at Marino’s story to get a good idea as to what a reader might actually be thinking, and feeling when reading. Marino’s character’s annotations are slices of gold when it comes to studying the reader, because of the immediacy of the annotations. The character writes them as he thinks them. These annotations being online gives access to anyone with an internet connection. It is easy to surmise that the original work—”The Library of Babel”—has had a profound effect on Marino’s character. The first line of his story starts with, “It starts with Borges. It always starts with Borges, the god of our hyperlinked souls” (Marino) He seems to want to communicate with Borges that the internet is the realization of Borges’s own work; that he is in awe of Borges as a person and author, even calling Borges a god. The fact that Marino even makes this work, gives an insight into what Borges’s work means to himself personally as a reader; that it left a mark on him, and with the content in the story, it gives a glimpse into the existential doubt Borges works can induce. Existentialism as a theme runs rampant in Borges’s work. Each librarian searching the Library of Babel is finding one’s own meaning of the library itself and themselves. One of the annotations in Marino’s story read as, “Existential doubt is the archival status of all creations on the web,” and is attached to the highlighted text, “I have no idea what value this document might have” (Marino).

This is on a page concerning another one of Borges’s stories, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” If the internet is the library of Babel, and existential doubt describes the archival status of works on the web, then this is how the reader sees the works in the library, because they are one in the same. It is through these annotations that the character as a reader is trying to find themselves, and getting a grip on life in general, often pondering things such as everyone having a “personal universe,” but also adds a very down to earth note with the addition of talking about a “she” that will not answer the character. The reader is lost without this “she,” stating, “what would it be worth when she doesn’t even open what emails she gets…” (Marino). And this is affecting how the reader character is reacting to the text, which then affects the communications circuit in a visible way because it is added in by the reader. If it wasn’t affecting the person enough to tint their lens, then it wouldn’t have been mentioned. This can be true for readers in general, that what is going on in their own life affects how they perceive a text, and the annotations just give credence to that. One of the annotations mentions him wanting to share a quote with his son from the “Introduction to the Semantic Web, Organizing the Web for Better Information Retrieval,” the quote being “where communication is ‘a personal, intentional, transactional, symbolic process for the purpose of exchanging ideas, feelings, etc,’” but the son is not old enough to comprehend them yet (Suellen Stringer-Hye). And another mentions him telling his daughter to draw a star next to a line in the book “Willy Wonka” that made her laugh. In both cases, Marino’s character wants to pass on this idea of communication and annotation, that comes from his intertwined research of Borges. He thinks of these things when reading, because, again, they are pertinent to how he is receiving the text through his personal reader lens. 

Next, it’s time to look at how the fanfiction site Ao3 can be used to study the reader of popular media and reader-turned-author within the communications circuit. Ao3 is a site dedicated to giving a multitude fandoms—including those of literary works, TV shows, bands, manga, anime, etc—a platform to write their own stories on their fandoms. The focus will be on the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, specifically a work under the tag known as “salt.” Even if Miraculous Ladybug is an animated TV show, the fanfiction on Ao3 is written. (And it is a similar feedback loop from original creator to fanfiction writer, but instead of a reader they are a viewer that functions much like a reader in terms of how they react to a popular story.) The reason the tag salt is being used is because it usually refers to the creator of the fanfiction being fed-up with the canon events within a work. This tag is directly tied to a negative reaction to the original work, and a reader then turning to make their own story using parts of the original work they like to satisfy their need for the cannon to be different. This also communicates to other fans this person’s thoughts on the original work. Tags themselves also can be used to give the fanfic’s author’s thoughts on the original work, or even their mindset when writing if they use specific tags made by themselves. An example of this can be seen in a fanfiction titled “Dusk is like a Dagger,” by the user Esilvpio. Two of the tags read as: “I Wrote this Instead of Sleeping,” and “I Can’t Believe I Wrote This.” The first tag indicates that the author was possibly sleep deprived when writing this fic. One thing can be for certain though, is that the author is intentionally talking to the readers through these tags, especially with the use of the first person pronoun. The author wants us to know this information, and how it, then, affected their writing. Either way, this discourse can continue down in the comments where readers of the fanfiction can give their feedback on the fic, and the author can answer back if they so choose within an instant. Authors can also leave notes to their readers about anything they want, whether that be updates on their personal life, or criticisms of the original work. This reads much like Marino’s annotations, which gives the readers an insight to the author’s inner-world.

Lastly, just like with Marino’s text, let’s look at a fanfiction written by the user Kanzakura called “Begin Again.” First let’s look at the tags:

Right off the bat, the author is letting the readers know through the tags that this is set in an “Alternative Universe” (AU for short), that it does have canon compliance for “some of Season 3,” and not compliant for “season 4.” Now some background information on Miraculous Ladybug is needed to fully understand the gripes this viewer turned author has with the original story. Miraculous Ladybug is set in a universe revolving around two teens, Marinette (Ladybug) and Adrien (Chat Noir), who are chosen to become superheroes to fight a mysterious supervillain wreaking havoc in Paris. Their powers, and the supervillain’s powers, are fueled by Gods called Kwami’s that represent different ideas. Marinette’s kwami is named Tikki—the kwami of creation—and Adrien’s kwami is named Plagg who is the kwami of destruction (a yinyang relationship). (I’m the source, because yes, I watched the first three seasons when they came out.) For this specific fic it is also important to know a couple more points. The first being that the character “Felix,” was Chat Noir in the original darker/edgier proposed version of the show that got replaced by Adrien. Second, Lila is one of (if not) the most hated characters in the show who is a compulsive liar. The main reason being her lies were very obvious, and the audience couldn’t believe Marinette’s and Adrien’s class would basically abandon Marinette for Lila’s lies. This can be seen in the “Lila salt” tag above. The salt tag along with a specific character means that the author does not like Lila, and is signaling to the readers that this story will involve Lila getting some kind of comeuppance.  This also leads to the “Marinette Deserves Better,” “Marinette Protection Squad,” and “Marinette gets good friends” tags. The author is letting the audience know that this story will ‘do right’ by Marinette, and do what the original creator (Thomas Astruc) did not. This is directly from the disbelief that Marinette’s friends would believe an obvious liar, so to remedy that, this author will implement better friends into the narrative. The last important thing to know is that the character Chloe Bourgeois, is a bully in the original narrative, but the audience really thought that she could have an amazing character arc and become one of the good guys. Astruc chose not to implement this suggestion, and even more recently tweeted on social media that:

 So this fan in reply, is writing a story with a “good” and “protective” Chloe Bourgeois because they believe Chloe should get a chance at redemption. In Kanzakura’s notes they state: 

This strengthens what was aforementioned, that the author here is changing Chloe and how the characters react, because they find canon absurd. It almost reads as a rant towards the end, so the frustration is evident. All of these points, in addition to Kanzakura’s want for parts of the show to be different, is the impetus for the background of their writing, and thus they become an author themselves to change the characters’ fates. Kanzakura—as a reader— is directly reacting to and criticizing the original work, but is still showing love to the concept, all in order to make it their own story to share. They bounce off of the original creator, and it is obvious from Astruc’s tweet above that he also is in direct communication with the fans. This is all done with the click of a button, and an instantaneous signal sent through the internet.

Now moving on to the fans who read this fanfiction reactions and how the internet enables them to do this with relative ease. One of the first reactions one can take without commenting is by simply leaving a ‘kudos’ for the work. Leaving a kudos allows for readers to directly show that they enjoyed the work of the author. This specific fic amassed 2, 254 kudos. But the real gold is in the comments. The first chapter has 23 comments, many of them being encouragement and affirmations of liking the story so far. Almost all of them have replies from the author, some of the replies being minutes apart. Chapter 2 has 22 comments, and one particular one stood out:

Similar to Marino’s text discussed earlier, this reader’s experience and reaction to the text is influenced by their current real life circumstances. It’s to the point that depending on how they perceive the following chapters’ sad content, they will stop reading the story all together. The author, as an advantage of this format, is able to try and assuage the reader’s fears through a reply to the original comment. This one-on-one direct communication was more difficult in the past before the internet, letters could get lost and could take a long time (although here the author did take a while to get back to the reader). One would also need to know someone’s address to send things like letters, and for telegraphs—while pretty instantaneous—they had to be translated and sent to the person. Or they would have to have the chance to meet in person. But with the internet and world wide web, it is one human directly to another. The only middleman is technology. But it makes it so much easier to have a community like Ao3 where interactions like the above are highly valued. These comments can be made anywhere with a device and internet connection. And the same goes for if you want to study the reader, or even the reader-author relationship in the communications circuit, because these comments are publicly posted and accessible to everyone. 

One more comment that caught my eye was in regards to chapter three:

This reader is able to bring up their qualms with the story thus far. And they also ask everyone in the community if they are feeling the same way. Again, this is an invitation to see what others’ reactions are to the written story, albeit a specific part of the story. It gives this reader’s unique perspective, and again there is a reply from the author. The author then shares their own unique perspective on their decisions. This exchange is very reminiscent of a group reading session, where people are encouraged to engage in discourse.

Overall, the internet and world wide web has opened a whole new plethora of resources for people to better understand the readers’ part in the communication circuits. And it is sites like Ao3, and Mark Marino’s “Marginalia in the Library of Babel” that allow for an insight into this discourse. In a way, they are bringing back the idea of reading together, or at least sharing reactions and ideas in a group-like setting. And because of the internet and world wide web, this is done between people from various backgrounds and places all over the world tied together through a common interest.

Existential Questioning—Final Thoughts

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The main thing I’ve gained from this class is more questions—a deeper understanding yes—but also a profound perspective switch.

A sample of some questions I have yet to answer:

What should be archived? What is a book? How do I get out of Babel’s library? What is to be ‘trusted?’ What does trusted even mean? What does anything mean?

I will say, for sure, that I have a new appreciation when it comes to books as an artifact (and artifacts in general). I think this story will give an adequate example of what I learned in this class.

I was going through my grandpa’s safe with my mom the other day, and found my great-grandma’s stamp collection book. Now this is a hefty and thick book, and you want to know my first reaction, BECAUSE of THIS CLASS? It was to read its life story. I flipped through the dusty pages (which coated my fingers btw) to discover some interesting things. 1.) Some stamp spots had glue residue, indicating there were stamps there at one point (I told my mom, and she was like :how did you know that? I felt like Sherlock Holmes in that moment). 2.) I also gathered that most of the stamps collected were from the US, Australia, and Austria. 3.) Some of the stamps are from the early 1800s. 4.) There were also countries that no longer exist in the world today. This made me wonder when the book was from. One piece of writing told me all I needed to know. 4.5) It referred to the ‘Great War,’ not World War I or World War II, which means it was published after World War I and before World War II. My mom was yet again amazed by my detective skills (which I learned from this class). Those were just some of the things I noticed, but before this class I would’ve thought it was just ‘cool’ and moved on. But I didn’t, and it made me appreciate the book even more, and gave me so much more joy/curiosity than previous me would’ve gotten out of it.

I also now have so much more curiosity in terms of the digital world that I didn’t before. This class was like opening my eyes underwater, and being able to see Atlantis with 20/20 vision.

I honestly learned everything…that’s all I can really say—is just everything—which is why I say Existential Questioning because how do you even explain everything? You can’t, so you just sit with it. Anyways, so sad this class is coming to an end. I’ve never been so upset for a class to end.

post-book!! class me>>>>>>>>pre-book!! class me

Final Project Abstract and Thoughts

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My final project will focus on the power aspect between reader and creator, that before this class I never really considered before. I’ll also be touching on power in relation to access. I will be doing a creative project that brings together both the digital and physical. Mark Marino’s and Borges’s works are especially pertinent to this project in terms of inspiration. Borsuk’s and Bouse’s work, Between Page and Screen, is also influential as it points to the access part of my project.

nteracting physically with an archive, and subsequent forms of literature, is a form of power exchange between the reader and creator with the physical object acting as the transmission point between the two. It’s where terms are negotiated by each individual. On the one hand, the reader chooses what to read, where to go, and what to do. And on the other hand, the creator makes the paths, sets the guidelines, and can restrict access. This project brings those power exchanges and struggles to the forefront of the individual’s mind through an interactive experience that allows them to reflect on their discovery journey through a piece with many different branches, where not all of the materials are provided to them. They have the power to actively fulfill all of the requests of the author, or actively resist those requests. Either the readers get the full experience or they won’t, all depending on their available resources (like time, money, creativity) and determination.

All the Cool Kids are Zining 💅✨

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I had the pleasure of attending Vide’s workshop on making zines and memes. Honestly, this workshop helped me immensely with my idea for my final project, and future Prof. Vide (yes he did so well that I’ve deemed him a future professor) even gave helpful websites that can also be used in our final project making process (at least in my case, as I want to involve hyper-links). Anyways, after a very comprehensive history of zines and memes, we got down to the dirty work, trying to make our own zines.

I definitely need to learn how to fold paper straight better, but other than that it was pretty easy to make the physical zine form. I didn’t have enough time to finish my Zine (and no I won’t share it, because it is unfinished), but I did come to a cohesive theme for the Zine. I made it into a tiny Burn Book, as the newspaper I had access to included a photo of Pete Hegseth. (I gave him devil horns and a devil’s tail…immature, maybe—well deserved, definitely.)

Anyways I’m going to give y’all the link if you want to check out the resources Prof. Vide gave us just in case it is also helpful for y’all’s final projects. https://tinyurl.com/ZinesAndMemes2025

Also thank you Vide for having this workshop :).

Proof of life:

Childlike Wonder

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If this class and these last two readings have taught me anything, it is to approach the physical aspects of books, their history, and subsequent possible future with a childlike wonder. In the humdrum of certain classes, and constant pressure to be serious about the grades my perfectionist brain yearns to achieve, as well as the social expectations bearing down on my shoulders to be a serious adult, my research/assignments—while still interesting—become drained of color. The information and the search for information feels more like a means to an end rather than the end itself, and the process itself becomes a challenge to rush through and away from. There is no genuine wonder within my learning sometimes.

But with the experience I have now, and especially this quote from Unpacking My Library, “Among children, collecting is only one process of renewal; other processes are the painting of objects, the cutting out of figures, the application of decals-the whole range of childlike modes of acquisition, from touching things to giving them names…everything said from the angle of a real collector is whimsical,” I am reminded to see with the eyes of a child just discovering something (Benjamin 61-62). It is this childlike wonder that carved the path for the “Bookwork” mentioned on pages 8-9 in Dr. Pressman’s book intro. The sculptors utilized what Benjamin describes as “childlike modes of acquisition.” They touch and shape the book into something new, coming at it with a childlike wonder that makes it their own.

The midterm and these readings made me realize I am still able to have that childlike wonder without the seriousness clouding the work. I can discover things and be excited from those discoveries, and not do it just for a grade but because I genuinely am in awe from the information. It was the physical inspection—the holding, touching, and the turning of the pages—of Copernicus’s book, along with the discovery of questions, that reignited that childlike wonder spark in my brain. I wasn’t sorting through a vast amount of research with no direction, but instead a path that was being revealed to me for the first time that made me want to dig deeper.

It’s like going from being oxygen deprived to your lungs being drenched in O2. I felt excitement and wonder during school for the first time in a long time, and I’m glad these readings actually put it into perspective for me. Now going forward, I’ll make sure this child like wonder stays with me, no matter what I choose to do in the future.

As a Bookseller

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“The bookseller frequently takes a gamble with the
books stocked on the shelves and serves the community in a similar way to
libraries by providing a meeting place for book talk and a collection of books
that reflect the taste of the community served” (Bode and Osborne 222).

This quote hit me in the face with the force of a medium-sized paperback book, that is to say not hard but also not gentle. I’m mainly interested in the very last part, the part about it reflecting the taste of the community and the gambling part. For context, I do work at Barnes and Noble, and have for almost a year (I think today is actually my one year anniversary), so I’ve learned a thing or two that customers aren’t exactly privy to, or at least it’s not common knowledge.

While different Barnes and Noble do fluctuate based on their customer base—i.e. some stores have bigger mystery and thriller sections, while others have smaller mystery and thriller sections—and we do take a gamble based on the books we shelve, there are some instances where this is not the case.

There are certain things Barnes and Noble does, that changes the dynamic between the customers and booksellers—because after all—it is a corporation. This becomes recognizable when you know the relationship between Barnes and Noble and publishers. The publisher tends to have all of the leverage when it comes to selling their books to Barnes and Noble. But, the company added a few years ago something called ‘our monthly picks,’ which are Barnes and Noble’s hand selected picks of (usually) 6 books that are deemed as must reads that month. But really, it’s a way to gain leverage over publishers. If Barnes and Noble can make a book a bestseller by putting it on the monthly pick list, then the company gains more leverage over the publishers (they can negotiate the price). So even if the booksellers haven’t actually read the books, or even hated them, they are still required to claim all the books as ‘their’ monthly picks and sell them to customers. (I remember flat out refusing to sell one of the monthly picks because I was ethically opposed to it.) While they don’t encourage flat out lying, it seems to be implied in order to sell a monthly pick. If most customers knew this, it could break the trust created between bookseller and customer.

So, instead of the customer base really making up some of the top selling books in a Barnes and Noble, it is often the set monthly picks that do well. Now that is not to say that all monthly picks are bad, it’s just that we are actively told to influence customers into buying a book they might have not purchased before for a reason that goes against one of our sayings, ‘to put the best book for the customer in their hands.’ It’s no longer a complete gamble because there are ulterior motives and factors at play.

It’s similar with the bestseller’s list, publishers pay Barnes and Noble to be on the list. Whoever pays the most gets the top spots. This is all to promote the book, and not actually name bestsellers, while also basically preemptively making them bestsellers. It is a way to influence people. By setting these books a part from the rest, and also signaling to the customer that ‘this book is more valuable’ Barnes and Noble is able to make that list into ‘reality.’ Because who doesn’t look at a bestsellers’ list and think, ‘oh I should read this because it’s on the list, so it must be good.’

It’s different from a library, because it is a business.

Switching focus into the gambling aspect of the quote, it’s more of a calculated risk than anything, especially when it comes to opening a new store. For instance, the store I work at now, I helped with setting it up. And when doing so, I though that some of the sections were small, or not as well stocked as they should be for the area we are in. We barely got any manga, and we are basically right next to a college. A big demographic for manga is college kids, so it seemed like there should’ve been more than what we got. While they predicted correctly that we would have a big CD and vinyl record customer base, they did not correctly predict the manga customer base (which lead to some loss in revenue due to some manga not being available at the store right that moment). In this way we are able to adapt to our customer base, and also know the community better so those calculated risks become safer and safer.

I just thought my perspective on this might be interesting.

(P.s. You didn’t hear any of this from me. I’m not trying to get fired💀, because I do love the job for every other part.)

Electronic Literature and AI

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Scott Rettberg mentions, “poem and stories that are generated by computers, either interactively or based on parameters given at the beginning,” as a form of electronic literature (Rettberg 172). Does this sound familiar? Because to me it sounds like A.I. Rettberg even goes on to say that these generators, “stretch back to Christopher Stratchey’s 1952 M.U.C. Love Letter Generator” (Rettberg 172). So if this stretches all the way back to 1952, why is A.I. only gaining mainstream attention and gathering worry from the majority of people today?

The first reason is AI is more accessible today. You don’t have to know any code to create an AI generated piece of work, because the AI itself is already made by others. It is now in a digestible form for most of the population that has access to the internet. It’s like when Gutenberg’s printing press vastly improve literacy rates, because the material became more accessible to the masses. it also wasn’t being used by big corporations to ‘optimize profits,’ which is just a codeword for ‘we actually think AI can replace human jobs, even if most AI is actually more costly for us.’ Fear-mongering, if one will. AI, at least to my knowledge, was not being actively used against the majority of the population in any noticeable way.

Instead, in regards to the paper and the 1952 example, it was a tool for creativity—an experimental tool at that—that did not replace a human in any meaningful capacity, because the human was involved in making the AI itself and the prompt.

So what do we do now? Well, we take the tool back and thus our power back to use it the way we want to (not a replacement, but a tool), and also try to make laws surrounding AI use. Regulations are needed, and people have a right to know when AI is used and where specifically it is used.

Dr. Bookworm and Sierra Beggs on: De revolutionibus orbium cœlestium and Stanford

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As a bookworm with a PHD in 16th century Renaissance codices, I can tell you that this first edition of the first part of Copernicus’s, De revolutionibus orbium cœlestium, is a spectacularly tasty specimen. When I took my first bite, I easily recognized the vellum outer cover (a typical material used for covers when this book was published in 1543) stretched over some kind of wood. The spine also includes the name of the book in gold gilded letters.

Next, I delicately ate through the front cover, right below the bookplates with surgical precision (so as to not damage the bookplates, so I can further investigate them). I find there are three bookplates present. The first looks to be a family library crest that includes a crown and the writing “Ex Libris Marchionis Salsae,” in an almost cursive-like font. This is the bookplate of Giovanni Domenico Berio and his son Francesco Maria (Salsae Bookplate). The second is a family crest with two angles on the side of the crest along with a crown above the crest, and the motto, “Comme Je Fus” (Ward book Plate); This is the bookplate of William Ward, the third Viscount Dudley and Ward. The final bookplate is a Stanford book plate detailing the book as part of the Newton collection, with a note it was a gift from Alfred W. Van Sinderen, and a subsequent stamp denoting the withdrawal of the book from its library.There also seems to have been some kind of rectangular paper on the back inside cover that, for now, is lost to time. 

Above the bookplates I process some newer paper in my gut that signifies some more information about the piece, and also on the other side in relation to the corrections made by (my mouth can’t quite make out the full name) K. Paul III from the Holy Office. The note rewrites all of the Latin corrections in one spot, but does not translate them. And right underneath this includes more on Copernicus’s life.

The book was gifted to SDSU in 1991, as stated on the donor page accompanying the book, by The Friends of the Malcolm a Love Library. The book is mostly in Latin, but also includes some Greek. And the church edits are in Church Latin shorthand. The publisher is Vittembergæ : Excusum per Iohannem Lufft, and the editor is cited to be G.J. Rhäticus (SDSU Special Collections). Although there also seems to be another publisher: Norimbergæ apud Ioh. Ptereium, Anno M. D. XLIII. But I believe Vittembergæ : Excusum per Iohannem Lufft is actually the printer as Excusum can be Latin for “to print” or “to forge” (https://www.latin-is-simple.com/en/vocabulary/verb/3773/). Either way the translation for the places cite the book being made in Germany. The back half of the book is more pristine than the front half, particularly a little bit after the famous page with the solar system diagram. Signatures are also present on the pages.

Some pages took longer than others to chew through, which means they are of varied thicknesses. Faint horizontal lines on the paper and the taste of fibers—which are also visible to the naked human eye—leads me to believe the paper is of the cotton-rag variety.

While making my tunnel I noted water damage on some of the pages. When going through the binding it is also obviously bounded by some light blue-green thread as well as tan thread, and is made up of multiple folios gathered together. And there are signs of other bookworms studying the pages of this book.

While the typeface is Roman, the ink itself pools in different places. This points to the use of a Gutenberg-like printing press being used, due to the ink being spread by hand (A video showing the process and similar ink pooling). The ink is black for the main text, and for the edits and corrections done by the church the ink is red (now a more rusted red-brown). There are also signs of the red-brown ink in multiple other places in the book.

Most sections also include an Ornamental initial lettering of the inhabited variety that includes cherubs and other figures. The book also contains various tables with data in them, the lines never quite matching up perfectly. But this book also has some amazing examples of geometric printing done for the complicated diagrams explaining the math. 

Some other interesting quirks about this particular book I found includes some kind of fiber—maybe even hair—stuck to the ink on one of the pages and looks as if it is even coated in the ink. There is also a stray thread sticking out from one of the pages that seems to match the tan binding thread. There is also a page where I got a mouthful of red-brown ink due to what seems to be an ink spill of some sort on one of the pages. Stanford also added a seal on a couple pages. Lastly (even more curiously) there seems to be a page ripped completely out of the book.

Finally, the content of the book, which while all in Latin—and some Greek—is about our solar system and Copernicus’s findings in relation to a Heliocentric system along with the revolutions of the planets around the sun (also includes the moon around the Earth).

I will now pass the mic to my research assistant at SDSU—Sierra Beggs—for further postulation. Now, one particular feature I found particularly interesting is the embossed Stanford seal mentioned previously by Dr. Bookworm. First, it is important to try and pinpoint when Stanford had the book.

Stanford acquired the book as a gift from one Mr. Alfred W. Van Sinderen sometime between 1945 and 1990. Since Van Sinderen graduated Yale in 1945, and subsequently went to Harvad to get a business degree, it is more than likely to have been sometime in the 1950s-1980s (Yale Van Sinderen, Life of Van Sinderen, Death of Sinderen). Since it is a rare item, it would make more sense for it to be acquired by him and gifted to the Stanford library after becoming more established. But the main point to be made is that the seal itself shows that during this time in Stanford history, ownership of a rare item—and the knowledge inside—was more important than the item itself, instead of an item to be preserved it became a status and power symbol for an ‘elite’ institution. 

There is no doubt that Copernicus’s work was revolutionary. His heliocentric solar system became the center of our understanding of our solar system in the present day. It is an invaluable piece of history that needs to be preserved, especially this first edition copy. Stanford already had a bookplate taped on the inside of the front cover, so why use an embossed seal on these precious pages? While inkless, an embossing seal still creates an indelible impression on the front and back of a page, one raised and the other indented. This is an alteration that changes the physicality of the paper. It is something that is irreversible without further damaging the book. This permanent change does not seem to be done for the sake of preservation, but solely to mark possession of the book and leave a mark of prestige.

The seal itself proudly says “STANDFORD LIBRARY,” and includes their famous sequoia tree in the center. It’s a stamp that leaves no interpretation on whose stamp it is, and the all caps gives it this booming effect. It is a stamp that is obvious and forthright. At this point it is more than just saying ‘it’s in our collection,’ but a trace purposefully left to exude a ‘mine, mine, mine,’ mentality. And later down the line when other people flip through its pages, it gives a, ‘look, this was mine once’ mentality. People will—in no uncertain terms—know that the Stanford library once held this piece of history. It’s a very showy way of claiming the book, and one that screams ‘I’m better than you, I’m allowed to mark this piece of history permanently.’ A sign of power. That they have the power to make this mark.

On top of that, if the pages chosen were damaged, then the pages are either deemed as not important, or possibly more important. It is not just marking one, but two pages due to the indentation nature of the seal. All of the seals are in the later half of the book, which is in more pristine condition than the pages in the front half; this is because the front pages seem to have been handled more than the back pages. Stanford, thus, could have believed that the back half must not be as important as the front half of the book, and chose these specific pages for this reason. It is more likely that these pages were deemed as unimportant, and thus ok to be damaged for the seal. After some digging, the first page the seal appears on is the last page of book four chapter three, and the beginning of chapter four, “The moon’s revolutions, and the details of its motions” (Rosen 208) . And also occur on the very last page of the book, which is about “Computing the latitudes of the five planets” (Rosen 379). This could also be evidence for the importance of these pages, as one involves the moon that revolves around us, and the other is the very last page of the book. The moon itself is the closest nonhuman made celestial object to us, which could be seen as very significant. And the last page denotes the end, something Stanford may have wanted to claim—the end of the book as a final calling card. That, in the end, Stanford will be remembered and its prestige will carry on forever.

Overall, the seal is unnecessary, there is no reason that Stanford needed to use an embossed seal with their library’s logo that would aid in the preservation of this historic object nor in the study of it. Instead, it can be seen as a desecration—while it is a part of this specific copy of Copernicus’s book, and thus the book’s history—it does not make it something that was absolutely necessary. The bookplate at the front was enough, even if Stanford was afraid of someone stealing it—which again is about ownership—that did not translate to marking the book in a permanent capacity.

Further points of study are needed to really flesh this idea out. I would like to reach out to the Special Collections at Stanford to inquire about the origins of when the seal was used, when it stopped being used, and if it is still in use today. It would also be interesting to see when exactly they had the book, as it is a rare item, they most likely have archival records on when it was donated and when it was withdrawn. There is no information on their archive site on it, so it is something that requires a one-on-one chat with someone in Special Collections (specifically the Newton collection, because that’s the collection this book was a part of during its time at Stanford). (It would also be cool to translate the Latin Church short hand, just to see the actual reasons the edits were being made—especially because the diagram with sun in the center wasn’t crossed out.) And that curious fiber/hair could also be an interesting point of study. Could it be from one of the workers working on the printing press? Is there any possibility of it being Copernicus’s? (probably not) Or maybe from the church official making the corrections? Lastly, was there really a page ripped out? Was it a mistake? Why was it ripped out and what was on it? All of these are questions I will try and continue looking into.

Now enjoy a couple of photos of me at Special Collections :).

(P.s. I will add the proper MLA citations [not just the links] when my migraine is actually gone.)

Physical Bodies

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Borsuk’s 4th chapter had a quote that was an impetus for a revelation I had in regards to the way I think about books and us as humans. On top of that, it also makes me appreciate the book as a physical object so much more than before taking this class, and reading this specific chapter. The quote I read that prompted this revelation was in relation to the popularity of the codex, “…it has proven useful as a portable, source-efficient physical support suited to the average human body” (Borsuk 197-198). This idea that the book is suited to the physical human body—not necessarily the mind but our hands, arms, etc.—therefore the book, then, is a reflection of our own physical body. There is an inherent, often unrealized, point of connection when holding a book or even a smartphone.

It brings me back to the practice of mindfullness, where you consciously bring yourself into the present and actively bring yourself back into your own body. This usually leads to a clearer mind and can help you focus. It’s a concept I learned about when I attended a behavioral program to help with my anxiety/OCD and depression. I used to heavily disassociate, but in learning mindfullness techniques I could bring myself back from that 2D-like game-scape into the real world. The mindfullness exercise I came up with was putting my hands on some part of my skin, closing my eyes, and just focusing of the feeling of my own skin (I also focused on my breathing too). Now I think of touching/holding the physical book as a mindfullness exercise, and when I think back to my visits to special collections for the midterm project, I realize I was already doing this; I would be in the present with the physical book, feeling the pages and the ink which connected me to the moment, my body, and the book itself. I think from now on, every time I touch a book, and physically feel it in my hands the same process will occur. In this way the book is a physical extension of my physical body and a mirror of it.

For a moment my body and that book (or laptop or phone or etc.) are interacting and participating in an exchange. For a moment there is an undeniable physical connection only broken when I am no longer holding or touching the book.

More Than a Safeguard

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Within the first part of Bonnie Mak’s text, How the Page Matters, Mak states, “…the page has emerged as a safeguard for intellectual and artistic achievement” (Mak 3). But I believe the page is more than just a safeguard, it is also (something Dr. Pressman mentions a lot) a form of radical action, through the unique use of a page we reevaluate some of our core ideas and notions of the reality around us. For instance, if we think back to one of the special collection items we viewed last week, the astronomy foldable piece (if someone could remind me of its actual name and maker, I would deeply appreciate it because I am gelling right now), reimagines how we see the page. The individual triangles can be pages by themselves, or when it is all laid out it could be one big page, or when folded in a 3D shape the page itself can become 3D. These changes radically change our perception of reality. One thing can be many, and can shift between two states (like 2D to 3D). Both the piece and Mak’s text makes us think that if we don’t even know what a page is, then what do we really know about the world, society, and politics. There is this paradigm shift that deconstructs what we see and builds it anew. They both challenge and update what has commonly been seen as ‘normal,’ and leads to question things on a grander scale. The page can be a tool to bring about change not only in ourselves, but also in society (etc). This makes the page more than just a safeguard, more than a defensive tool, but also makes it an offensive tool that can make a real tangible change. Even making minutia changes to the page’s architecture can have profound impacts. Something as small as a margin can transform the way we take in or see knowledge. It also can change how we react to the content on the paper itself. One example I can think of is the use of margins, negative space, and words on a page that holds a poem to construct a specific shape. Or I also think about a page in a kid’s book that mimics the shape of the content or vice-versa. For instance, if the page is made into an apple shape, no matter the content you will automatically think of an apple, and also try to relate it to the content on the page itself. By deliberately changing the architecture of the page, one takes a radical action to change the readers’ thoughts and perceptions of the world.