"It's a slim volume to be published in November, but I couldn't resist showing it off. This is how the art dirctor at Zero books, Trevor Greenfield, has used the picture of Linda and Jai to illustrate the cover of Dog Days. I love it. Actually Zero have a nice line in strict typography; and every cover is a bracing step or two away from the usual formulaic nonsense we have to look at on the shelves.
I'm really pleased they chose to use it, and I can't think of a better way of doing it. It could so easily have been that hack handwriting idea, couldn't it? Or the old typewriter...
Tariq Goddard, whom you all know by now, is my favourite novelist. Zero Books is his imprint and his manifesto should be carved in the desk of every budding writer. It'll be in the back of Coggie's book too. I'm counting the days...
'Contemporary culture has eliminated the concept and public figure of the intellectual. A cretinous anti-intellectualism presides, cheerled by hacks in the pay of multinational corporations who reassure their bored readers that there is no need to rouse themselves from their stupor. Zer0 Books knows that another kind of discourse - intellectual without being academic, popular without being populist - is not only possible: it is already flourishing. Zer0 is convinced that in the unthinking, blandly consensual culture in which we live, critical and engaged theoretical reflection is more important than ever before.'
No comments:
Post a Comment