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Product Description
VE3 is a re-imagining of a book originally published in the 1960s. The book is the first ever book in a box , called Composition No.1 by Marc Saporta. When we say book in a box we mean: quite literally a book that comes in a box with loose pages. The narrative is contained on each page, leaving it up to the reader to decide the order they read the book, and how much or how little of the book they want to read before they begin again. In so many ways, Composition No.1 was published ahead of its time: the book raises all the questions we ask ourselves today about user-centric, non-linear screen driven ways of reading. With this in mind, Visual Editions approached Tom Uglow of Creative Labs Google and Youtube to write an introduction for the book. This re-imagined edition also includes several of Salvador Plascencia's (author of The People of Paper) drawings, looking at all the different components that make up a typical book. The book is designed by Universal Everything, a London based design studio known for their interactive screen-based work (clients include MTV and AOL). The book, as Visual Editions have shown with their other two titles, will have a high attention to design and production values and in many ways is the best example of a book as an object, or better yet, the book as an experience. Along with their usual consideration to high quality craft and finish, the designers have also generated unique digitally-generated artwork for the backs of each page, making for a gorgeous, tactile design relevant to literary, art and design and digital audiences. Ultimately, Visual Editions re-imagined Composition No.1 asks readers to question: what is it that makes a book a book?
About the Author
Marc Saporta (1923-2009) was a French novelist, essayist and literary critic. He is the author of five acclaimed novels: Le Furet (1959), La Distribution (1961), La Quete (1961), Composition No. 1 (1962) and Les Invites (1964). He also translated writings by Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac and Martin Luther King.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Amazon Product description above is fair enough. Stephen Spender's 1951 autobiographical 'World within a World' was a best-selling book in its day, rearranging time sequences within a bound volume. Marc Saporta's 1962 loose-leaf boxed novel took the randomisation of narrative to its logical extreme: you can read the pages in any order. The idea was taken up by B.S.Johnson for his semi-autobiographical novel The Unfortunates, 1969, a boxed set of chapters. I bought this new English translation of Saporta's work mainly our of curiosity, to see how much bearing it might have on Johnson's masterpiece (as I believe it to be). The answer is, almost nothing. Saporta's book has cancer as a principle subject, as does Johnson's. However Johnson had recently lived through the cancer death of a close friend. Only the physical presentation of the story, the form of the book, is relevent. I can't speak for the merits of the translation of Saporta's texts. The English book as printed is a lamentable piece of work. Written in the historic present there is a ever-present flaccid urgency of titillation and soft porn. Here is one of what could be many random samples: 'The blouse is cool, crisp, spotless. But Helga's breasts throb as they resist the fingers in search of the weak points under the material'. The box is excellent, well made and good value. The paper is rather flimsy. On the back of each loose page is an art work of tiny letters made to appear like patterns in sand, light and dark shapes.. As a sub title it says on the lid of the box 'This book can be read in any order' It should add 'but it won't make it any better'. I would have loved to hear Johnson's view of it, or in the historic present, I'm not loving it. I'm grateful though to the publishers. The French original is rare and expensive, and at last I have been able to satisfy my curiosity.
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