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Re: RARA-AVIS: The Glass Key
On Thu, 8 May 1997, pico wrote:
>fuck the collectors and the dealers, and please LET'S READ !
Well, if you wanna fuck me, you're gonna have to be a Lot nicer.
Maybe we could decide, collectively, to read some work (a story, novel)
and then discuss it w/ one another here on the list. I would love to see
how all of us (very different) people respond to a particular work -- one
we have all read recently and closely.
----------------------------------------------------------
Michael D. Sharp, Dept. of English, University of Michigan
(msharp@umich.edu)
On Thu, 8 May 1997, pico wrote:
> James Stephenson wrote:
> >
> > James Mountain reacts to my lament about hyperinflated book prices--
> >
> > > Well, justification hey??? How about: THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE WILL PAY!!!
> > > Is that good enough?
> > >
> >
> > If it were only that simple. Public institutions like a university
> > research library must answer to the demands of faculty, students, and
> > the general public, all of whom demand (rightly) that we collect
> > material necessary for their studies. Rare books and special
> > collections departments are held hostage by dealers who justify their
> > outrageous prices with just such "arguements" as James'. A private
> > collector can "just say no" to high prices; a library doesn't always
> > have that luxury.
> > --
> > James Stephenson
> > Rare Books & Special Collections Cataloger
> > University of Maryland at College Park
> > Email: js272@umail.umd.edu
> > -
>
> There is something ABSOLUTELY out-of-order in that debate. The General
> Public want BOOKS, it want TEXTS. The rare-book thing is a constipated
> trip, and, from a freudian point-de-vue, anal phase hooked. I don't see
> the point of discussing prices of books in RARA-AVIS. When I can put my
> hand on any second-hand book of a TEXT I did not previously read, I do.
> And IT MUST BE CHEAP. Focusing on old and rare books is a way of
> evading the fact that you are no more able to focus on the text. So
> fuck the collectors and the dealers, and please LET'S READ !
>
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