Category Archives: Booklore

Entries and posts that relate to the creation or consumption of books

Suspended in Translation; Translated in Suspension

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Francois Lachance

She leaves it untranslated. une langue qui abandonne son nid ne goute plus aux oiseaux There is a bit of trickiness in capturing the ambiguity of tasting like a bird but there it is — the language tastes of bird … Continue reading →

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The Double U’s Dot

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Francois Lachance

What one loses in reading The Sad Phoenician in Robert Kroetsch‘s Completed Field Notes is the design by Glenn Goluska for Coach House Press. What one misses is the erased alphabet that graces the cover, the title page and the … Continue reading →

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Red Piling on Blue

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Francois Lachance

In her Notes on the Poems, Susan Holbrook provides a variant to the “blurred” section in “Poems for Andy Goldsworthy” in Throaty Wipes. Interesting that in my attempt at deciphering the blur, I gather “red drop” as the topmost layer … Continue reading →

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Systems, Technologies and Experiences

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Lynn Coady. Who Needs Books? : Reading in the Digital Age. She acutely unknots the tangle of concepts: The problem with this conversation we’ve been having over the past couple of decades is that it perpetually confuses capitalism with technology … Continue reading →

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Pre After Forethought

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Francois Lachance

After Forethought contained musings about a poem “Afterward” by James Schuyler. In a wry fashion, I indicated without undue bibliographic precision that the poem in question was to be found in the corpus. When my friend Fadi Abou-Rihan mentioned the … Continue reading →

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Print as Phantom and Fetish

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Sven Birkerts. “Hypertext of Mouse and Man” in The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (1994). Writing on the computer promotes process over product and favors the whole over the execution of the part. […] The … Continue reading →

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Some of My Best Friends Gloss

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Sven Birkerts (again). We can expect that curricula will be further streamlined, and difficult texts in the humanities will be pruned and glossed. One need only compare a college textbook from twenty years ago to its contemporary version. A poem … Continue reading →

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Beastly Wit

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Francois Lachance

A Child’s Bestiary by John Gardner drawings by Lucy, Joel, Joan and John Gardner. Three of my favourites: The Penguin The Penguin is often compared, wrongly, To a gentleman in a tuxedo. The Penguin is all good taste and charm, … Continue reading →

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Coffee with Warhol

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Cookbook illustrated by one Andrew Warhol Shall I pour? Cream and sugar? Black? Mind you don’t spill any. And so for day 1702 11.08.2011

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Walk to Borrow, Run to Read

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Alan Bennett on Libraries (our emphasis) A library needs to be handy and local; it shouldn’t require an expedition. Municipal authorities of all parties point to splendid new and scheduled central libraries as if this discharges them of their obligations. … Continue reading →

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