I read the packaging of the era of drawing

Over the past few years, the “graphic text” has flooded the market. Some people have described the prevalence of “graphic texts” as a “revolution” in the book industry. Then there is a new saying: “This is a reading age!”

From the excitement of "graphic text," it seems that it is really "reading the picture era." However, one of the phenomena that cannot be ignored is the excessive packaging. An editor once told me that traditional book publishing is a book writing and should now be called "book making." I think the kung fu of writing books is in the middle of the word, and “doing” books focuses on the packaging and forms. Now, it is even more of an exercise in this kind of packaging effort. It should be said that there are certain reasons for making texts in books such as tourism and life, but not all books are suitable for drawing texts. Many of today's graphic documents, regardless of whether the pictures and content are in agreement or not, no matter how high the artistic quality of the pictures, must leave a "crystal" of the package in the book. This doesn't seem right. I think that general books should be written mainly, illustrations are illustrations, and some books, literary talent is only tens of thousands of words, there are more drawings than the text, these drawings are not a work of art, many pictures look good, look carefully It is color.

I saw a report in the "Reference News" that the British are proud of Shakespeare and that everyone must have a complete collection of Shakespeare. However, not everyone loves to see Shakespeare's works, and not everyone can read it. Therefore, in order to meet the vanity of some people, British publishers specially produced the Shakespeare Complete Book. That is to say, only hardcover bookcases, without any content, so placed on the bookcase, can show the owner's elegance and knowledge. I think this may be a thorough "packaging age," but is this the death of the book? Obviously, only the bookcase has no content and it is not a book.

Excessive packaging has poured water into the “reading age” of today, but I miss the colorful pictorials and comic strips of the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, the comic book was mainly based on graphs, supplemented by text, and it was a literal "graphic text." From the old books I read in my home, the illustrations of many literary masterpieces are much more delicate than the current "graphic texts." For example, the color illustrations of Liu Danzhai in the “Dream of Red Mansions” published by the People's Literature Publishing House are very detailed, and they are in tune with the content atmosphere of “Dream of the Red Chamber”. The illustrations in "How Steel Was Tempered" are black and white, but they themselves are artworks. Books are also products, of course. With regard to the various benefits of book packaging, this is common sense and I don't need to say anything. My objection is to emphasize the packaging to the extreme, ignoring the content of the book, rather than opposing the packaging itself. For example, people need to dress and dress properly, but the appearance does not show how good or bad the person is, what is ugly, what level of knowledge they have, and what their abilities are. I believe that most readers will not only look at the cover and illustrations when they buy books, but others.

Reprinted from: Fujian Daily