Aliteracy As Self-Censorship

Chapter 3

Books

• Books in Colonial North America

Ø 1638: First printing press arrived

Ø 1644: First book printed in colonies appears: The Whole Booke of Psalms

Ø 1765: Printers revolt after passage of Stamp Act Ø Act was designed to control expression in the increasingly restless colonies

• By the mid-1770s anti-British sentiment had reached its climax

Ø Pamphlets motivated and coalesced political dissent

Ø After the War of Independence, printing became central to cultural life in major cities

• Books were still expensive, often costing the equivalent of a working person’s weekly pay

• Literacy a luxury

• Improving Printing

Ø 1884: linotype machine

Ø Offset lithography made it possible to print from photographic plates

• The Flowering of the Novel

Ø 1860: Irwin and Erastus Beadle began publishing dime novels

Ø By 1865 Beadle and company produced over 4 million volumes Ø pulp novels

• The Coming of Paperback Books

Ø 1935: Allen Lane founded Penguin Books and invented the paperback

Ø Today more than 60% of all books sold are paperbacks

• The Cultural Value of the Book

Ø Books are:

Ø Agents of social and cultural change

Ø Important cultural repository

Ø Windows on the past

Ø Important sources of personal development

• The Cultural Value of the Book

Ø Books are:

Ø Good sources of entertainment, escape, and personal reflection

Ø More individual, personal activity than consuming advertiser-supported media

Ø Mirrors of culture

• Censorship

Ø Books are targeted because of their influence as cultural repositories and agents of social change

Ø Book publishers’ obligations demand they resist censorship

• Among the library and school books most targeted by modern censors in the United States are:

Ø The Harry Potter series Ø The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Ø To Kill a Mockingbird Ø Of Mice and Men Ø The Color Purple Ø The Goosebumps series Ø In the Night Kitchen

• Aliteracy: Where people possess the ability to read but choose not to

• What kind of culture develops when its population refuses to read?

Ø “For that crime, a person pays with his whole life; if the offender is a nation, it pays with its history” -- Joseph Brodsky (1987)

• Categories of Books

Ø Book club editions Ø El-hi (textbooks for elementary and high schools) Ø Higher education (college and universities) Ø Mail-order books Ø Mass market paperbacks Ø Professional books

• Categories of Books

Ø Religious books

Ø Standardized tests

Ø Subscription reference books

Ø Trade books

Ø University press books

• Convergence

Ø E-publishing

Ø E-books

Ø Print on demand (POD) Ø Platform agnostic publishing

• Smartphones, Tablets, and e-Readers

Ø e-Readers

Ø Platform agnostic printing

• Conglomeration

Ø Cottage industry was a term used to describe the publishing industry before conglomeration

Ø Today, industry dominated by a few giants which are divisions of national or international conglomerates

Ø Opinion is divided on the benefit of corporate ownership

• Conglomeration

Ø Parent company expects profitability at all costs

Ø Subsidiary rights

• Instant books

• Paid Product Placement

• Hollywoodization

• Growth of Small Presses

Ø The overcommercialization of book industry mitigated somewhat by rise of smaller publishing houses

Ø The number of bookstores in the U.S. is dwindling

Ø Another alternative is buying books online

• The Lessons of Harry Potter

Ø Why does it resonate with young people?

Ø It seems to have an impact with all ages too

Ø The success (and profitability) of this well- written, thoughtful, high-quality content contrasts with what critics contend is a steady decline in quality in other media