The Chip Kidd TED talk was a lot of fun to watch. While a few of the jokes came on a bit fast and thick, I appreciated hearing the insight and experience Kidd has in the book designing industry. The question posed, “What do stories look like?” was really interesting. While his statement, all books need a face, felt like he was trying to sell his services, I appreciated the sentiment. If anything, I am more attracted to books when there is little to no imagery on the cover. I do appreciate that this in itself is a face. And also, the synthesis of the Jurassic Park icon was fascinating.
David Bellos’s piece of foreign-sounding phrasing and syntax was incredibly helpful and interesting. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this in terms of my own translation project, and attempting to keep the sentence structure faithful to the original, not necessarily to make it sound more “French”, but because the sentence structure is performing a very specific and important function in the tone of the novel. I appreciated the point that “the natural way to represent the foreignness of foreign utterances is to leave them in the original, in whole or in part.”
I loved Jhumpa Lahiri’s text, being a big fan of her prose beforehand, but hearing her perspective on the imperfection and inherent contradictions present in the process of book art, but also, the power and relevance they hold in the world of literature. I particularly found chapter six, titled “My Jackets” fascinating, and how Lahiri writes about the conflicts between imposed identity against intentional expression. I’m looking forward to discussing this in class and hearing everyone’s thoughts.
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