Deciphering Physical Books

Deciphering Physical Books

The value textual artifacts hold in cultural settings is evident in my own home. My family’s office space is littered with books that have deteriorated spines, burnt pages, and faded covers. Nevertheless, they are proudly displayed on tables throughout the room. Externally, these books are merely objects that are deemed insignificant to those who are unaware of their intrinsic value. However, these books are significant internally because they harken back to traumatic points in my mother and father’s lives; the Turkish invasion of Cyprus left my parents in the midst of a violent revolution. At the time, their books were their most prized possessions because they were used as items to distract themselves from the war. When the war ended, people plucked flowers from their gardens and placed them inside their homes to symbolize the “bringing of peace” inside the home. My parents plucked many flowers and placed them inside their books to serve as tokens of remembrance and to bring peace to the objects that helped them get through the war. To this day, the flowers remain in the books. However, those who judge the books solely on their exteriors have no idea of the underlying value they hold to my parents.

In class, we discussed how people use bookshelves to display their collection of books and ultimately point to their interests and values; those who own many books are likely to be passionate about reading, and they want to make this clear to others with a visual display. However, my parents have different reasons for wanting to display their books. The books are not so much about the physical space they occupy or the qualities they suggest about my parents but their internal, tangible contents. Sometimes, the exterior of the book pales in comparison to what lies inside. To my parents, the flowers that are now imprinted inside the pages and each singular page of every book hold an incredible amount of meaning to them. It is what can be seen and felt on the inside of their books that resonate greatly with them, even though they may appear dilapidated and insignificant to other people. When reading “Baxter’s Procrustes” by Charles Chesnutt, I became frustrated by the book club’s values. The extravagant books that are placed on display highlight the superficial values of the book club; they simply value books for their impressionability and ability to look good on display. They are not appreciated for their contents, which is what I believe is far more important.

The different stations of the lab activity furthered my understanding of this. Station 2 helped me understand how certain aspects of a book can be unique to its time period, which is how it is given meaning. The books found at this station were similar to one another; they all had the same plain cover and decaying spine. However, their true value was found after observing the contents inside. The majority of the books had pull-out maps, which indicated that the people who owned these books were into traveling and studying geography. Thus, it was the content that was found in the book that gave it meaning; nothing was revealed by simply observing the cover of the book. Similarly, the flowers imprinted inside my parent’s book echo back to the tradition of bringing flowers inside the home after the Turkish-Cypriot revolution ended. The flowers are tokens from a time period which are found inside the book, thus giving it meaning. In both cases, the books became purposeful when their contents were understood in the contexts of their owners’ lives and the time period which they lived in. Station 1 of the lab strengthened my opinion on the importance of the internal space of a book. When Professor Cordell held a light to the pages of one of the books, my lab partners and I were able to see a watermark at the corner of the page. Watermarks not only serve as a deterrence to unlawful copyrighting but also as an indication of the book’s publisher. The watermark is an indication of who owns the book, which reminds me of the flowers inside my parent’s books which also point to their owners.