Category Archives: Publishing

On the Road (original scroll edition) by Jack Kerouac: paper versus oblivion

Posted on 14 May 2013 by Propagandum

What was Kerouac trying to do by typing this early version of his classic novel on 120 feet of long strips of paper joined together with tape? How and why does this strange writing technique change what we feel about … Continue reading →

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Science, publishing and writing style

Posted on 17 March 2013 by Propagandum

Two examples of each today, and some ideas about outreach, power and sustainability: 1. Cambridge, UK,  home of Propagandum Towers and a university or two, every year hosts an excellent science festival. For two weeks thousands of people teaching and learning heavy-duty … Continue reading →

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The mystery of the covered-up book cover …

Posted on 9 March 2013 by Propagandum

Wandering into my local bookshop the other day, I was shocked to see this: W – as some people say in cyberspace – TF? What’s going on here? How can you buy a book if you can’t read what it … Continue reading →

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Have you tried the new reduced whiches and thats diet?

Posted on 8 January 2013 by Propagandum

You don’t have to be a professional writer to benefit from making your writing sound more natural. The words which or that are often stodgy and unnecessary. Following Strunk and White’s helpful suggestion – under their banner ‘Omit needless words’ – … Continue reading →

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Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist (exhibition review) #2

Posted on 2 October 2012 by Propagandum

This excellent exhibition (in the Queen’s Gallery, London) has some fascinatingly different stories to tell of Leonardo’s extraordinary anatomical sketches. We can have our interpretations on the surface or we can dig for them, depending on whether we like our versions … Continue reading →

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Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist (exhibition review) #1

Posted on 17 September 2012 by Propagandum

This is an unusual start to any review, but the gallery’s beautifully panelled and French-polished rosewood doors and postmodern urinal dividers in the spotless toilets were so unusual in their generosity to the possibility of civilized public behaviour that I … Continue reading →

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What is synaesthesia? Why is it important?

Posted on 6 August 2012 by Propagandum

Crikey – the online Random House dictionary says synaesthesia (synesthesia in more search-friendly US English) ‘is a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization … Continue reading →

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What is the Apple success formula? Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (book review)

Posted on 23 April 2012 by Propagandum

As Steve Jobs was dying of cancer of the pancreas in 2011, it was ironic, Isaacson notes, that all the top-notch medical specialists gathered around him should have the same fenced-off departmental or ‘silo’ pathology Jobs fought all his life: … Continue reading →

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16 things about white space

Posted on 3 April 2012 by Propagandum

1. White space is the name typesetters, typographers and type designers – artists of the black – give to a presence where we might expect an absence. We can, if we choose, see a shape where the mark has not been … Continue reading →

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A post about books about books

Posted on 1 March 2012 by Propagandum

27 February was the first meeting of our Cambridge books-about-books book group. It has been a pet project I have been looking to get off the ground for a couple of years. It is in the semi-public domain under the aegis … Continue reading →

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