What I Learned
In going to archives and special collections, I got to see books in forms with which I haven't had much experience. Like most people today, I tend to read books in either the typical bound format or online. All other types of books have generally been in a museum, where I am unable to touch or carefully examine them. In archives and special collections, not only did I get to encounter a wide variety of books in different forms (scrolls, accordian-folded, loose-leaf, replications, tablets, etc.), I was able to examine them in detail. This gave me a greater understanding as to how books exist and function outside of what we consider to be the traditional formats.
Book History and Language
One of the elements of book history that I find most interesting is how language can result in both gain and loss of meaning. For books written in a dead lanuage, their meaning is lost forever, an example being the piece of papyrus that Kelci showed us. Even though it can tell us how it was made, our not understanding the papyrus's language heavily restricts our ability to fully understand the piece. Even when a language is not dead, language can cause translation errors. Translating a book to another language allows it to be accessible to larger audience, but constant translations between several languages can result in the word choice and perhaps even meaning of a book to be changed or lost entirely, as is seen in the proposed Ismene line in Antigone. Even books written in the original language can be hard to understand, seen in how the majority of people cannot read and understand Shakespeare without some sort of translation or explanation. I find it very interesting how a book's language can tell us so much, but as languages change and translations occur a great deal can be lost.
Great points! The connection back to Antigone was spot on. I find it interesting how just a simple changing of speaker or tense that arises from a translation error can have such profound effects on a text's meaning.
ReplyDeleteI really like the points you make about meaning changing/being lost through translation. I would love to know more about meanings of ancient plays, like Antigone, have changed throughout history.
ReplyDeleteI also tend to read books that are typical bound format or online as well. I find it interesting how the way books were created has evolved over time. I agree that there can be a loss of meaning over time as well.
ReplyDeleteMeanings will always change over time--some things are lost while others are gained.
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