M A N T E X N E W S L E T T E R
Number 38 - December 2000
Writers - Readers - eBooks
----- ISSN 1470-1863 ----
0----- The New Typography - book review
Don't be misled by the title. This book was
written in 1928. But it is both a historic
document and an exhilarating manifesto of
the modernist movement in design.
Jan Tschichold vigorously makes the case
for clarity and functionality in design.
He illustrates his arguments with examples
from some of the best artists of the modernist
movement - Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, and
Kurt Schwitters.
It has been translated into English for the
first time, and attractively reproduced in
a form which reflects his original typography
and design.
If you are interested in print, layout, graphic
design, or the modernist movement in the arts,
you should give serious consideration to this
book. Review and details at -
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/tsch-01.htm
0----- Hear the Book - writers/readers wanted
www.HearTheBook.com is a new site dedicated
to the English spoken word. Imagine you want
to buy an audio tape: unlike a book you can't
just walk in to a shop and flick through it.
Hear The Book intends to provide a facility
to preview audio books using streaming audio
over the Internet. It will also provide authors
and readers with opportunities to showcase their
work free of charge.
The site currently hosts about 40 samples and
has room for many more. Samples are hosted free
and a royalty is paid on any complete works sold
through the site - on tape, CD or as an audio
download.
They are particularly interested to hear from
'story tellers' who have already recorded their
own or others work or who could easily do so at
this stage. They are also interested in hearing
from authors who have access to recording facilities
and in both sample readings to host free of charge
and complete works to resell.
Contact Michael Trott at - info@hearthebook.com
0----- Great Writers 1 - Joseph Conrad
The latest of our resources and recommended
reading lists for outstanding novelists is
Joseph Conrad. He is a writer who straddled
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and
is now most famous for his novella 'Heart of
Darkness' which tears apart the hypocrisies
of Imperialism. Yes - this was the story on
which Francis Ford Coppola based his film
'Apocalypse Now!' Read the original - it's
even more complex.
http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/conrad-00.htm
0----- Government Health Warning
The Institute of Public Policy Research
believes that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's
plan to bring the UK online by 2005 will
worsen the digital divide.
The Institute's report says that those who
have some or no Internet access will become
a "digital underclass" under the government's
online initiative, which will in turn hinder
the development of the UK's Internet economy.
In addition, a former senior government advisor
recently said that UK Online will miss its 2005
deadline to get government services onto the
Internet because the civil service does not
have enough resources.
The Institute argues that Blair's target does
not go far enough by placing IT facilities in
schools and libraries.
Source - Independent [London], 26 November 2000
[Readers outside the UK might like to know that
whilst Prime Minister Blair bleats about New
Technology, he is famously computer-illiterate,
and the majority of members of parliament still
cannot be reached by email or web sites.]
0----- Did You Know? - Literature and Banking
Which novel by Dickens was inspired by
false hopes of a gold rush in Wales and
a failed bank in Ireland?
Which 19th century novel predicted
credit cards?
What links fraudster Nick Leeson and
Phileas Fogg, the hero of 'Around the
Word in Eighty Days'?
Which novel, published a year earlier,
foreshadowed the crash of Barings Bank?
What links John Grisham and Shakespeare?
Answers to these questions, and more
interesting gems from the representation
of banking and finance in fiction are the
subjects of an interesting website on this
topic. It is maintained by Roy Davies at
the University of Exeter. Go to -
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/bankfiction/
... and did you know that ...
Although Emile Zola wrote a great novel
about banking and the Paris bourse in the
19th century, he himself never had a
bank account?
Thackeray turned to writing after losing
a fortune in Indian banks?
Jules Verne was a stock broker before
becoming a writer?
0----- Reading and Writing Web Site
Dan Kurland has a crisp web site devoted
to aspects of reading and writing. It covers
topics such as 'Critical Reading' and 'Critical
Thinking' - as well as 'Three Ways to Read and
Discuss Texts'.
He's just added a new section on 'A Grammar for
Reading and Writing', a series of web pages on
key aspects of grammar for describing and
evaluating the reading and writing processes.
[btw - Dan wrote his pages using Arachnophilia]
http://www.criticalreading.com
0----- New domain names
The body which decides on domain names
has just came up with a cluster of new
endings. These are as follows:
.aero for aviation
.biz for business
.coop for co-operatives
.museum for, er, museums
.name for individuals
.pro for professionals
You can't register them yet, but there
is apparently a lot of pre-sale jostling.
0---- Great Writers 2 - Henry James
Henry James wrote an enormous amount -
almost all of it first rate fiction.
He is renowned for a prose style which
became more rich, baroque - and some
would say unreadable - as his work
progressed.
We've just started a series of guidance
notes and recommended reading. It gets
under way with details of some of his
earlier and easier books. We'll add more
on the later works in the next few weeks.
http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/aa810/james-00.htm
0----- King jumps ship
Best-selling novelist Stephen King
launched his latest work as a serialised
and downloadable eBook as the publishing
event of the year. Now he has abandoned
the venture after only a few weeks.
What went wrong?.
Basically, he made three mistakes, then
compounded them with a fourth. First, the
downloads were overpriced. One dollar per
chapter doesn't seem much - but stretched
over fifteen episodes, this adds up to much
more than the price of a paperback book.
Second, who wants to wait over a year for
the outcome of a suspense thriller? Mystery
stories are not the same thing as soap operas.
His earlier eBook had done well - because you
got a complete novella in one download.
Third, he threatened to kill the story if
people didn't pay for the downloads. It's
bad enough to threaten your customer-readers,
but he then went one further by doubling the
price of the episodes. That looks plain
greedy, Stephen.
And now because sales have dropped, he's
stopped writing. This means lots of loyal
fans have paid for something he will not
deliver - and they're emailing their
complaints in bucketloads.
Some people have argued that this shows
eBooks won't work - but it's not true.
Readers are prepared to tolerate the
disadvantages of eBook formats - reading
on screen, or printing out pages - but
they do want the text to be available
right *now* - and it needs to be *cheap*.
Read his side of the controversy at -
http://www.stephenking.com
0----- Quotable quotes
"The meaning of life is that it stops."
Franz Kafka
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News-38-December-2000
ISSN 1470-1863
The British Library