Paper
Subtitle: an elegy
By: Ian Sansom
Edition: Fourth Estate paperback edition.
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9780007480272; 9780007481071
Subjects: Paper; History; Papermaking
Description: Paper is the technology through which and with which we have made sense of the world. The making of paper and the manifold uses of paper have made our civilization what it is. But the age of paper is coming to an end. In 2010, Amazon announced for the first time that it was selling more e-books than paper books: according to some, the paper book has no more than five years before it becomes extinct. E-tickets replace tickets. Archives are digitised. The world we know was made from paper, and yet everywhere we look, paper is beginning to disappear. In 'Paper: An Elegy' Ian Sansom curates a history of paper, in all its forms and functions. Both a cultural study and a series of personal reflections on the meaning of paper, this book is a timely meditation on the very paper it's printed on. As we enter a world beyond paper, Sansom explores the paradoxes of paper - its vulnerability and its durability - and shows how some kinds of paper will always be with us.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 216-230).
Table of contents: title: Respecting paper : an introduction; title: A miracle of inscrutable intricacy; title: In the wood; title: Walking papers; title: Victims fo the bibliomania!; title: Ornamenting the façade of hell; title: The soul of advertisement; title: Constructive thinking; title: The secret is the paper; title: The squiggle game; title: A wonderful mental and physical therapy; title: Legitimationspapiere; title: Five leaves left.