According to Adams and Barker, the publisher has "the initial decision to multiply a text or image for distribution." Then according to Darnton's communication circuit, the publisher would then hand the text off to the printers, then to the distributors, and so on through the cycle. Adams and Barker continue on to explain that one of the main duties in commercial publishing (the most familiar form of publishing) is to weigh the pros and cons of a particular piece of literature and decide if it is financially worth it for the company to print it. When you have a physical book that doesn't sell, the company is at a loss because of the cost of the materials it took to print and transport the book.
In the 21st century we have an (almost) free method of "printing" and "distributing" literature. Publishers have a medium for books that they aren't sure will sell. Instead of rejecting the books outright, they have a way for the company to make money off of these iffy books with very little overhead cost. While there are still traditional publishers like Random House and Penguin Press, there are now many on-line publishers who will publish your work for (sometimes) free. So now a publisher is not just merely the person who says ya or nay to your book being distributed, but instead become a nonjudgmental distributor.
A publisher has changed from being someone who decides weather it is fiscally responsible to print a book to an indiscriminate website that is fused with the printers, shippers, and sellers.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
I pledge allegiance to the cow?
I pledge allegiance, to the cow, of the United States of America.
We are a nation centered around our flag. American's today believe that anyone who defiles a flag is a communist Al Qaeda member, who hates America and all it stands for. In America we seem to almost have a flag fetish. I tried to find another country that had such strict etiquette with regards to their national flag, but I was unable to find one. As a matter of fact, I only found one sight that talked about the etiquette of other nation's flags other than America.
While A might stand for Apple Pie or An Archer, the US flag stands for freedom and democracy, to Americans at least. But I ask, would things be different if we made a pledge to a different object? Would we still care so much about flags? Instead, what if Francis Bellamy decided that America's national symbol was not the flag, but the cow. Now we find ourselves pledging allegiance to the cow of America. After 9/11 there was a back order of cows because of the upwelling of patriotism. There are numerous laws that tell you how to handle your cow and how to dispose of an old one. This sounds rediculious because we have been reciting the pledge almost daily in primary school. I believe this is one of the reasons why flags are so important in American culture.
We started every school day by pledging our allegiance to the flag. Crain talks about how these images are ingrained in us from childhood. Passing on our culture and heritage. Crain says that "the child is similarly the medium through which the alphabet permeates culture." (p.56) We can see how the previous generations try to instill upon us the importance of the American flag.
We have the idea that the flag is the symbol of American, but it could just have easily been another figure. We try to convince others that the US flag represents liberty and freedom, but wouldn't a cow do just as good of job?
We are a nation centered around our flag. American's today believe that anyone who defiles a flag is a communist Al Qaeda member, who hates America and all it stands for. In America we seem to almost have a flag fetish. I tried to find another country that had such strict etiquette with regards to their national flag, but I was unable to find one. As a matter of fact, I only found one sight that talked about the etiquette of other nation's flags other than America.
While A might stand for Apple Pie or An Archer, the US flag stands for freedom and democracy, to Americans at least. But I ask, would things be different if we made a pledge to a different object? Would we still care so much about flags? Instead, what if Francis Bellamy decided that America's national symbol was not the flag, but the cow. Now we find ourselves pledging allegiance to the cow of America. After 9/11 there was a back order of cows because of the upwelling of patriotism. There are numerous laws that tell you how to handle your cow and how to dispose of an old one. This sounds rediculious because we have been reciting the pledge almost daily in primary school. I believe this is one of the reasons why flags are so important in American culture.
We started every school day by pledging our allegiance to the flag. Crain talks about how these images are ingrained in us from childhood. Passing on our culture and heritage. Crain says that "the child is similarly the medium through which the alphabet permeates culture." (p.56) We can see how the previous generations try to instill upon us the importance of the American flag.
We have the idea that the flag is the symbol of American, but it could just have easily been another figure. We try to convince others that the US flag represents liberty and freedom, but wouldn't a cow do just as good of job?
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The End of Cartographers
When first thinking about this assignment, I found it very hard to think of other examples other than those in the text. I believe this is because in today's world, maps aren't really payed attention to. Sure we use our GPS systems while driving, but it is still very rare that we actually look at a map, especially a physical map.
This is an internet meme that went around a website called reddit. This was the first thing I thought about when reading the question. The meme is in the form "I'm from _____ and this is how I see America." The picture above was made by someone from southern California. The person who posted this image took a stock map of America and reduced it to a map of stereotypes. Almost a caricature of America. It was posted on-line as a joke, but some of these maps really do show how the rest of the country/world views the United States. The outcome of these types of maps are usually taken with a grain of salt. Since we live in the digital age and can easily access an accurate map, I don't think anyone would mistake this for a real map of America.
It seems that in our time the map is reasonably stable. I found a wikipedia article that lists the changes to the world map from the last 3000 years. It seems that since the fall of the Berlin wall and communist Russia, there haven't been many changes to the map that aren't countries splitting or name changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_map_changes
This is an internet meme that went around a website called reddit. This was the first thing I thought about when reading the question. The meme is in the form "I'm from _____ and this is how I see America." The picture above was made by someone from southern California. The person who posted this image took a stock map of America and reduced it to a map of stereotypes. Almost a caricature of America. It was posted on-line as a joke, but some of these maps really do show how the rest of the country/world views the United States. The outcome of these types of maps are usually taken with a grain of salt. Since we live in the digital age and can easily access an accurate map, I don't think anyone would mistake this for a real map of America.
It seems that in our time the map is reasonably stable. I found a wikipedia article that lists the changes to the world map from the last 3000 years. It seems that since the fall of the Berlin wall and communist Russia, there haven't been many changes to the map that aren't countries splitting or name changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_map_changes
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