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Nostalgia and the Physical Book

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Nostalgia and the Physical Book NOSTALGIA AND THE PHYSICAL BOOK Cheyenne White A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2021 Committee: Kristen Rudisill, Advisor Esther Clinton © 2021 Cheyenne White All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Kristen Rudisill, Advisor We are used to seeing books, handling them, reading them, but we are not so used to analyzing our relationship to the form of the object, yet in this thesis, I argue that the very shape and composition of books has an impact on our interactions and relationships with them. By looking at the material book, we must confront the cultural, social, and individual significance that these material objects are imbued with. The physical attributes of books, from the smell of ink and paper to the distinct feel of a hefty hardback or flexible paperback, contribute specific things to culture and an individual’s experience as physical books carry commercial, aesthetic, and emotional value. By looking at material culture studies, memory and commemoration, as well as theory behind nostalgia, I argue that the physical book can be both a powerful object and carrier of social meaning by utilizing Grant McCracken’s notion of displaced meaning, academic studies of nostalgia, the science of book scent, bookshop curation, and book collecting, along with essay compilations by booklovers. From the affective power of the sensory aspects of books to book collecting and book spaces, the materiality of the book is revealed not as a mere vessel for texts but as essential to the physical book’s ability to anchor memory, emotion, and identity. iv For my grandmother Elaine White who never doubted I would finish this project even when I did v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First I’d like to thank the Popular Culture staff at BGSU for their support and guidance in these chaotic times. Thank you to my thesis committee Dr. Kristin Rudisill and Dr. Esther Clinton for providing me with guidance and feedback that helped shape my ideas into an actual thesis. I’d also like to acknowledge my undergraduate mentors Dr. Steffi Dippold and Dr. Naomi Wood from Kansas State University who taught me much about writing and scholarship. I relied on the tools you gave me to carry me through tough times. My cohort provided support and commiseration through this process as we struggled to find our footing not only with the stress of graduate school but in the midst of a pandemic. Our time together was disrupted, but I’ll always be grateful for the kindness shared. Thanks, as well, to Joshua Smith for being a sounding board and commiserating with me over the writing process. The tips you provided from your own experience made it all a little less intimidating. To all of you, your friendship was one stable thing I could count on in an uncertain time to keep me afloat. To my family, I cannot express enough how much I appreciate your patience in listening to me ramble and rant about my topic, research, and writing process. I am sure some of you are even more relieved than I am that this project is complete. Thank you to my mom, Debbie White, for patiently listening to me during many stressed-out late night phone calls. To Danny White, my father, and Samantha Swank, my sister, thanks for providing support through it all. Lastly, I’d like to thank my grandmother, Elaine White, who was a willing ear everyday for years even if she didn’t always understand what I was talking about. Your blind faith in my academic abilities kept me going even in your absence. You trusted that this would come together even before it had started. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I. THE SENSORY AFFECT OF BOOKS: NOSTALGIA, IDENTITY AND EMOTION ............................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER II. BOOK COLLECTING AND THE AFFECTIVE BOND ................................ 52 CHAPTER III. BOOKSTORES: CURATION, BRWOSING, AND IDENTITY ................... 88 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 126 WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................... 137 1 INTRODUCTION Books have been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember, with teetering stacks piled haphazardly around the house a constant presence. Library books, Scholastic book orders, used book sales: any time I have had the opportunity to get my hands on books, I do. Once I was old enough to start acquiring books for myself (sparing my parents’ wallet the burden), I took to it with what has been at times considered too much zeal. My passion for books is not focused solely on the stories or information they contain, though. There are times I buy books purely for the aesthetic value of the object: old, outdated science books with somewhat grainy pictures in them, a classic literature work with pages worn soft by age, an edition with an attractive binding. For several years now, I have been buying nearly every copy of illustrated Peterson Field Guides I find because the art style of the illustrations combined with the overall heft and design of the books speaks to me. Some books I value because they have a particular aesthetic with yellowed pages or certain fonts, while some carry the special “old book smell” that triggers memories from previous encounters with books and the spaces they fill. Regardless of how much I enjoy reading, the mere act of handling a physical book has an appeal all its own. Ownership is not the only allure either, as library books to me are just as satisfying to behold, while libraries and bookstores (especially the best of them) have an atmosphere that cannot be matched by any other retailer or shop. Books in the popular imagination hold a place of endearment. People are book lovers, collectors, and readers. Bibliophiles and bibliomania loom large within book culture. With the position of the book in our cultural imagination, strong feelings are bound to arise. In what follows, the interplay of nostalgia and the physical book is explored. I will be researching the nostalgia that is evoked by physical books and the memories associated or carried within them. It 2 could be said that people have a “book fetish” that lends the material object a certain power in the cultural landscape. This reveals the need to investigate the power and influence of the book as a physical object, shaped by and interacting with nostalgia. The role of the material book in culture is part of why it is not nearly as endangered by digital technologies as one might think. Many people go through life not contemplating books as objects except when there is a perceived threat to their continued existence, such as that of digital technologies replacing or phasing out the material. Otherwise, people mostly tend to be aware of the sensory aspect of books only as background noise to their lives, not fully considering the role of these objects. Overlooking the book as object is a common behavior, but by doing so, we miss out on just how important the materiality of the book is. Looking at material culture studies, memory and commemoration, as well as the theory behind nostalgia, I argue that the physical book can be both a powerful object and a carrier of social meaning. As other scholars have noted, “Books, despite their ubiquity and cultural endurance, are rarely considered objects whose significance extends beyond their capacity as content providers” (Lenaghan 3). This work seeks to bridge the gap between the love for books as reading material and the evocative power of the physical book by showing how the material form of the book interacts with the emotional landscapes of individuals. I also consider bookstores as physical book spaces that have a similar affective dimension as individual books, as it is essential to pay “simultaneous attention to the multiple dimensions of the material, the social, and the aesthetic” as Frederic Jameson reminds us (Jameson 67). Much has already been written about nostalgia and the book in popular culture, although frequently the works that most prioritize the aspect of nostalgia and the physical book are not academic but rather from self-proclaimed booklovers or book collectors, such as The Man Who 3 Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett (2010), I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel (2018), The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee (2006), Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (1998), and The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (2017). Even analysis of antiquarian book collecting (everyday book collecting is usually accounted for in the same works that espouse the love of books and literature) tends to devote some attention to the text of the books—as seen in works by Margot Rosenberg, Jean Peters, Henry Petroski, Seumas Stewart, Allen Ahearn, and Robert A. Wilson—rather than fully focusing on the physical attributes which determine the value of the object in the book market. This is in spite of the fact that antiquarian books, unlike records or other collectibles that carry texts, are often experienced only as physical artifacts rather than being read for their contents. In fact, the idea of reading the rare volumes so coveted by antiquarian book collectors is, at times, scandalous, as doing so could decrease their value through wear and damage imposed by the very action the books were originally printed for. My research explores the interaction of the physical book with wider cultural and emotional responses, allowing for a more interdisciplinary analysis of the widespread connection between nostalgia and the physical book.
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