roachboy

there are several contexts that seem to be jammed together in the op article, really.

1. the symbolism of a book burning--or, a little story in which a book dealer tries to turn his desire to free up storage space into a piece of agitprop.

2. to what extent is this action like that which happens all the time at the publisher level in dealing with overstock--the extra copies of a book produced by a run of x copies that do not sell--damaged copies, prodution errors---or in what way is this action like getting pulped?
2a. what is the "natural life cycle" of a book?
2a.1: what happens to used books?
do they circulate in a system that enables them to enjoy a "natural" lifespan?

so is the book burning book murder?

2b: to what extent is a collapse in the used book market a canary in the mineshaft for the book trade in general? is the book trade going to go the way of the mainstream music industry?

2b.1: beneath this: to what extent is this guy's store in kansas a canary in the mineshaft insofar as the used book trade is concerned?

3. what is the present status of books--as medium of communication, as objects?

i figure maybe laying out a different set of questions could open up the discussion a bit more.

busy at the moment: i'll come back to this later.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite