Tumbling quotes, images, and thoughts related to the making of meaningful marks for a book in progress, The Urge of the Letter: A Sentimental & Natural History of Writing, by Matthew Battles (matthew dot battles at gmail dot com).
“There was a quiet to the room, a hush. And then there it was.” The trailer for the Norton publication of Jung’s Red Book features the scanning of the volume. The Red Book’s publication is a remarkable case of synchronicity. In the midst of the agonies of the lettered culture, with the fortunes of the physical book falling, along comes a codex that demonstrates the glorious possibilities of the form. It’s hard to imagine the process by which Jung excoriated and remade himself embodied so thoroughly in any other medium, analog or digital. Surrounded by its worshipful coterie, Jung’s tome here appears not as merely one special book, but the last. Bathed in light, its scanning approximates a ritual apotheosis of the book.
