pagesofjulia

I’ll begin with some educational resources in case we’re not all up to speed.

According to Merriam-Webster Online, a deckled edge is “the rough untrimmed edge of paper left by a deckle or produced artificially.” Way to use the word in its own definition, Merriam-Webster. There was a time in printing when a book would be printed on a long roll of paper which was then folded over and bound, leaving some pages folded closed, thusly:

The reader would then use a paper knife to cut the pages to read the book, leaving the pages rough and jagged-like.

Today, we mostly don’t make books like this any more. (I say “mostly” because surely there’s an obscure little press somewhere… who knows.) But many books, especially when they’re trying to be arty, are being machine-made with “deckled edges.” This mimics a historic printing method, presumably making the reader feel she’s been transported to another era.

Now, there are plenty of discussions of this method and its virtue as art or its flaw as pretension. I don’t have a horse in that race. I’m not impressed by the art or offended by the pretension. Well, I guess if you pressed me, I’d say new things made to look old are a little silly in many cases. But that’s not my gripe.

My gripe is with utility. I’m a booklover, but I love them for what’s inside them, not so much for the container. I mean, I DO love books – books themselves – I’m not going to be an e-reader convert anytime soon! But to me a book is a book: mainly a vehicle to get those words inside my head. And the deckled edges make it difficult to turn pages and difficult to turn back to a specific page I have in my notes. This is getting between my head and those words! I am frustrated! Please, no more deckled edges!

(This rant has been fermenting inside my head for I don’t know how long, but this post was finally stirred up by the two paperback copies of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God I had to choose between. One had underlining and margin notes. The other had deckled edges [and was otherwise beautiful]. What to do? What to do? What would YOU have done?)

Does anybody else have a frustration with this? Or, do I blaspheme? Please emote. (And vote in my poll.)

Filed under: musings |