The novel, Luicien Goldmann argued in his 1964 work, Towards a Sociology of the Novel (Amazon Link), should be considered in terms of the economic situation from which it emerged. He's a nice Marxist.

“The novel form seems to me, in effect, to be the transposition on the literary plane of everyday life in the individualistic society created by market production. There is a rigorous homology [structural resonance] between the literary form of the novel...and the everyday relation between man and commodities in general, and by extension between men and other men, in a market society.”

Well why not? It seems commonsensical that writers are products of their surroundings, as are novels.

Gone with the Wind, Hard-back, Macmillan 1936 (First Edition) and War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy, Hardback, Macmillan 1942 Edition.

Novels survive, however, and are re-issued in new bindings and new formats, formats that depend on the aesthetics, practicalities, technologies and economics of a later age. Here, in two very different works, we see design techniques, inks and cloth-board bindings (the technology of production) being re-used. The publisher (Macmillan) has noticed an equivalence: in their editions (with the same font choice, the same bible-thin paper) Gone with the Wind runs to 1037 pages, War and Peace to 1352. These are long books. Beyond that, there is little reason for using the same technology, for presenting Tolstoy's work as a Western (the type face within is 'generic' enough that the trained reader does not find it a concious imposition, the glyph-line-page recedes into almost invisibility). The chosen form of the book is dictated by techno-economic factors (and convenience to the printers) that are not the same factors as those surrounding the text's original conception. That they can remain intelligible for so long is both astounding and worrying.

This is familiar (though perhaps not considered worth de-familiarising) for most readers. The 'Wordsworth Classics' effect, of presenting an equivalence between texts through the use of matching cover designs and text-rendering, presenting them as commodities. After all, cereal on a shelf comes in a small selection of sizes with only the images differing (mostly out-of-copyright paintings unrelated to the content of the book).

Penguin, of course, was the first wildly successful mass-producer of this sort. Their 'Black Classics' are upmarket versions of Wordsworth's 'Blue Classics' (including a better range of oil-paintings), but the endgame for this process is their £2 Penguin Popular Classics range with minimalist green paper covers, "encompassing the best books ever written, from Homer's Odyssey to Orwell's 1984. For a full list and ideas on what to read next, visit www.penguinclassics.com." Go on, I won't mind

Rendering the 'best books' ever written as equivalent, of encompassing them in a 'range', a corral, has various effects. The horrific dictatorial sensation we may have: that to be the best person we must read all these best books. That they are the best because they have something in common. That there is a valid canon. Of course cheap books are good, the democratisation of learning is good; but the economic basis on which these novels are manufactured has perhaps done more to restrict readers from works of novelty and individuality than any school or university reading list - or Index Librorum Prohibitorum - has ever done. The original Penguin range, for ease of consumption, famously had fiction in orange, crime fiction in green, Pelican (educational) in blue, and a Puffin range (for children). This is not as worrying as everything feminine being pink, and everything male being blue (educational?), but its worth a stopandthink.

It also means that 'books' are irrelevant. Books become merely the medium for transferring the 'essence', the 'message' that we receive from the author. The effect of familiarity with the representation of text is a desensitization to its methods, that the typographical effects disappear. The lie is that how we are given these concepts does not matter, it is efficiency and accuracy of representation that matters. The result of this is the ascent of realism as the primary aim of art. The page must transfer the intentions of the writer as cleanly as possible, and the writer should transfer his experiences as cleanly as possible (the most avoided quality of old letter-press printing was what now typifies it for us, the 'impression', the letters should not strike the page, they should leave no indent on the paper, but the ink should be transferred as cleanly as possible: oil-based inks do not dry by through absorption, but lie upon the paper).

I do not advocate that everyone should read texts 'in the original' (though perhaps with certain authors, William Blake for example, it is advisable), whether that be first editions or native language editions, but that we should be aware of every translation that is going on in the transmission of texts from writer to reader. The epistle writer was in a better position than the modern author, his medium was the page, the modern novel writer's medium is the novel: and the novel is a deep matrix of increasingly constrained economics and convention.

How is the novel to be novel under the circumstances? The answer is a long one.

Out-door abattoir cinemas

There is no space to talk about this, but it was very good.

This Week in 5 Words and a Book

Isabel is in Cog Nito.

Robbie has been writing essays. Robbie is reading The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien.

Tom has been coughing unfortuitously. Room at the Top by John Braine

Music

#3 Open-air cinema: Click here to open the TYPE 28/02/2010 Spotify playlist to hear what we want you to listen to this week. May have nothing to do with open-air cinemas.

It has been brought to our attention (we worked it out) that not everyone has Spotify, and that you now need an invite in order to sign-up for the free version of the service. Apologies. If you would like an invite please email us at admin@type-review.com

• Ivor Cutler – If Your Breasts
• John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers – The Bear
• J.J. Cale – Don't Go To Strangers
• Little Feat – Dixie Chicken - 2006 Remastered LP Version
• The Two Man Gentlemen Band – The Hindenberg Disaster
• Joe Dassin – Le Chemin De Papa
• The Kinks – Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
• Otis Redding & Carla Thomas – Tramp
• Van Morrison – Caravan
• Bill Haley & The Comets – Rock Around The Clock
• Family – Sweet Desire
• Love – My Little Red Book - 2006 Remastered LP Version
• Caravan – Love To Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly)
• Todd Sharpville – Can't Hold Out
• Creedence Clearwater Revival – Susie Q - Single Version
• Crosby, Still, Nash & Young – Almost Cut My Hair - 2006 Remastered LP Version
• The Small Faces – Wham Bam Thank You Mam
• Band – Stage Fright
• Dr. John – Such A Night - 2006 Remastered LP Version
• Fairport Convention – Si Tu Dois Partir