The Solid Form of Language
I caught word of this printed essay by Bringhurst over at I Love Typography the other day and pretty much instantly bought the crap out of it. It's a short essay, only 69 pages, but it's a cohesive look at the nature of language, writing and the ways in which they convey and suggest meaning. The printing is out of this world, the cover itself is a soft texture with letterforms pressed in that invite you to trace them with your finger and feel the palpable characteristics of their parent languages. From the beginning:
"Writing is the solid form of language, the precipitate. Speech comes out of our mouths, our hands, our eyes in something like a liquid form and then evaporates at once. It appears to me that this is part of a natural cycle: one of the ways the weather forms on the ocean of meaning. What else are the words we drop like pebbles in that ocean if not condensing droplets of evaporated speech, recycled bits of the ocean of meaning itself?"
Comments and faves
tricksn26treats (46 months ago | reply)
nice macro. beautiful printing.
ilovetypography.com (46 months ago | reply)
I wish I could have used your photo for the article. You've really done the cover of this lovely book —both in its design and prose—justice.
phil dokas (46 months ago | reply)
Thanks John, that's quite a complement! Happy to see you found my photo and I'd just like to say thanks for writing ILT, it's directly and indirectly (c.f. the above) brought a lot of joy into my life.
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This photo was invited and added to the Great Picture group.
timoni_flickr added this photo to her favorites. (9 months ago)