New Books in Communications

Brian Cummings, "Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book" (Oxford UP, 2022)


Listen Later

Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book (Oxford UP, 2022) is a book about material books, how they are cared for, and how they are damaged, throughout the 5000-year history of writing from Sumeria to the smartphone. Its starting point is the contemporary idea of 'the death of the book' implied by the replacement of physical books by digital media, with accompanying twenty-first-century experiences of paranoia and literary apocalypse. It traces a twin fear of omniscience and oblivion back to the origins of writing in ancient Babylon and Egypt, then forwards to the age of Google. It uncovers bibliophobia from the first Chinese emperor to Nazi Germany, alongside parallel stories of bibliomania and bibliolatry in world religions and literatures. Books imply cognitive content embodied in physical form, in which the body cooperates with the brain. At its heart this relationship of body and mind, or letter and spirit, always retains a mystery. Religions are founded on holy books, which are also sites of transgression, so that writing is simultaneously sacred and profane. In secular societies these complex feelings are transferred to concepts of ideology and toleration. In the ambiguous future of the internet, digital immateriality threatens human equilibrium once again.

Bibliophobia is a global history, covering six continents and seven religions, describing written examples from each of the last thirty centuries (and several earlier). It discusses topics such as the origins of different kinds of human script; the development of textual media such as scrolls, codices, printed books, and artificial intelligence; the collection and destruction of libraries; the use of books as holy relics, talismans, or shrines; and the place of literacy in the history of slavery, heresy, blasphemy, censorship, and persecution. It proposes a theory of writing, how it relates to speech, images, and information, or to concepts of mimesis, personhood, and politics. Originating as the Clarendon Lectures in the Faculty of English at the University of Oxford, the methods of Bibliophobia range across book history; comparative religion; philosophy from Plato to Hegel and Freud; and a range of global literature from ancient to contemporary. Richly illustrated with textual forms, material objects, and art works, its inspiration is the power that books always (and continue to) have in the emotional, spiritual, bodily, and imaginative lives of readers.

Brian Cummings is Anniversary Professor at the University of York. Before arriving at York, he was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and then Professor of English at the University of Sussex.

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in CommunicationsBy Marshall Poe

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

6 ratings


More shows like New Books in Communications

View all
All In The Mind by ABC listen

All In The Mind

756 Listeners

New Books in History by Marshall Poe

New Books in History

209 Listeners

New Books in Psychoanalysis by Marshall Poe

New Books in Psychoanalysis

193 Listeners

New Books in Military History by Marshall Poe

New Books in Military History

162 Listeners

New Books in African American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in African American Studies

161 Listeners

New Books in Biography by Marshall Poe

New Books in Biography

77 Listeners

New Books in Science by New Books Network

New Books in Science

13 Listeners

New Books in Philosophy by New Books Network

New Books in Philosophy

110 Listeners

New Books in Native American Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Native American Studies

104 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

292 Listeners

New Books in American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in American Studies

29 Listeners

New Books in Intellectual History by New Books Network

New Books in Intellectual History

61 Listeners

No Such Thing As A Fish by No Such Thing As A Fish

No Such Thing As A Fish

4,858 Listeners

The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,670 Listeners

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out by Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

4,535 Listeners

Blocks w/ Neal Brennan by Neal Brennan

Blocks w/ Neal Brennan

1,283 Listeners

Fabriken by UR – Utbildningsradion

Fabriken

0 Listeners