White Magic

Beschreibung

Paper is older than the printing press, and even in its unprinted state it was the great network medium behind the emergence of modern civilization. In the shape of bills, banknotes and accounting books it was indispensible to the economy. As forms and files it was essential to bureaucracy. As letters it became the setting for the invention of the modern soul, and as newsprint it became a stage for politics. In this brilliant new book Lothar Müller describes how paper made its way from China through the Arab world to Europe, where it permeated everyday life in a variety of formats from the thirteenth century onwards, and how the paper technology revolution of the nineteenth century paved the way for the creation of the modern daily press. His key witnesses are the works of Rabelais and Grimmelshausen, Balzac and Herman Melville, James Joyce and Paul Valéry. Müller writes not only about books, however: he also writes about pamphlets, playing cards, papercutting and legal pads. We think we understand the ?Gutenberg era?, but we can understand it better when we explore the world that underpinned it: the paper age. Today, with the proliferation of digital devices, paper may seem to be a residue of the past, but Müller shows that the humble technology of paper is in many ways the most fundamental medium of the modern world.

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Lothar Müller

Themen in »White Magic«

Communication & Media Studies Cultural Studies Kommunikation u. Medienforschung Kulturwissenschaften Media Studies Medienforschung

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""Lothar Müller... tells an alternative historyof paper. He argues, convincingly, that paper has been, andcontinues to be, integral to our civilisation and the modern world.Through a carefully structured sequence of illuminating vignettes,he brings together fascinating facts from across the globe and thecenturies to reveal the long-running and fundamental impact ofpaper on human life, work and culture." TimesHigher Education "Müller's work leaves the reader admiring something thatfeels magical." PublishersWeekly "As paper increasingly fades into history, the story of itsrole and evolution is at risk of being lost, erasing the roadmapthat brought us to the digital era. Lothar Müller's WhiteMagic: The Age of Paper goes a long way to averting that fate,going back in time to record and describe in intricate detail howpaper came to be, and what it came to be." SouthChina Morning Post "Consistently readable and highly entertaining, this witty andlearned book deftly decouples paper's history from the story ofprinting to tell new and surprising tales about a medium thatcontinues to pervade our daily life. You'll never look at ablank page in quite the same way again." Catherine Robson, New York University "This is an absorbing history of paper, fascinating in itsdetail and magisterial in its scope. Muller writes with theauthority of a scholar and the imagination of a poet, filling hisbook with curious but essential facts and astute perceptions. It isa delight to read." Jeremy Adler, King's College London "Müller's history of paper is original, engaging andbreathtakingly erudite. It explores paper in its materiality, butalso as a source of inspiration which has shaped the history ofknowledge and creativity. In tracing paper's vital role inthe development of human civilisation, the author also argues forits continued importance in the digital age." Carolin Duttlinger, Wadham College, Oxford "Lothar Müller set out dazzling new insights into thecreation of our world, building on Harold Innis' work on thelong and complex emergence of paper. Unique in his White Magic ishis subtle blending of cultural and media history with sociologicalunderstanding and literary reflexion." Philippe Despoix, Center of Intermedial Research in Arts,Literatures and Technologies, Université deMontréal
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