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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.

The Power of the Book – Book as Idea

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Throughout the novel The Book, by Amaranth Borsuk, we have been learning about the history of books, how they have been made, manufactured, commodified, and read, and the changes in form that these books have taken. However, this is the first time in this book where the power of the book has been explicated. Borsuk argues that the ultimate power of these books is, in fact, political, and how people were threatened by the mass spread of literacy and tried to gatekeep books for only the rich and powerful. For example, “The workman-like columns of the newspaper made text available and accessible on a scale that he felt threatened the power of the book. It also made language a tool of commerce and mass culture. (Borsuk, 127)” The spread of literacy and information to the mass population would be threatening to anyone who is in a position of power and control. It only makes sense that the power of the book would be gatekept by oppressors so that they can continue the harm they are inflicting. This is why we see banned books when we have corrupt people in office, authoritarians, and dictators. They don’t want the spread of certain information to keep the mass public uninformed and oppressed. Books hold so much power that they can heavily influence society and start political movements. The more accessible the knowledge is, the more people will understand, and the less abuse they will endure. That is why books are so powerful, because they are political and create real social change. The kind of change rich and powerful people don’t want to see.