Comments on d i a p s a l m a t a: A Blank Poem (1723); or, the Present of Absence

oh, interesting! and I was just near NYU! Bummer. ...

2010-09-11T19:04:01.506-04:00

oh, interesting! and I was just near NYU! Bummer. If you (or anyone else) ever checks it out, do snap some photos.

I love this! A quick note to say that according to...

2010-09-11T18:40:14.684-04:00

I love this! A quick note to say that according to ESTC, NYU has a copy. Just in case you find yourself in New York before you get to Philly... I would *love* to see this. I still have friends at Penn and will ask if they have seen it--maybe I can get Peter to take some photos of it! Hell, maybe *I'll* go back to Philly to see it. Will tell you if I do.

ha! I love the idea of dumb paper inducing anxiety...

2010-08-30T19:07:21.770-04:00

ha! I love the idea of dumb paper inducing anxiety in investors -- or rather, that paper which is just serving the function of paper producing more anxiety than the text. If it no longer functions as a transparent carrier for written communication -- WHAT IS IT, WHAT DO WE DO WITH IT? it must be marked.

"this page intentionally left blank" is ...

2010-08-30T18:37:34.660-04:00

"this page intentionally left blank" is (or was ca 20+ years ago, when I labored in the margins of that field) printed on all (otherwise) blank pages of equity prospectuses, maybe bond syndication documents, &c &c.

the purpose was, you couldn't let any reader wonder whether s/he was missing something of import, that other investors weren't.

Hadn't heard of the Fabyan book; looked it up,...

2010-08-30T16:31:55.977-04:00

Hadn't heard of the Fabyan book; looked it up, though -- pretty clever! I'm wondering now about the genre of ironic blankness...

Or of course in page proofs, "this page intentionally left blank"; or this page intentionally left blank.

thanks, great post. sent me to Sherman's chapt...

2010-08-30T06:50:43.645-04:00

thanks, great post.
sent me to Sherman's chapter on Sir Julius Caesar's copy of Foxe's Pandectae 1572, which precedes another blank book (save for its index), Thomas Winthrop Coit his Theological Common-Place Book, 1832 by 260 years.

A much later blank book is :
George Fabyan. What I Know About the Future of Cotton and Domestic Goods (Chicago, George Fabyan, 1905).

The blankness of its pages says, "nothing."

2010-08-29T20:36:31.119-04:00

This comment has been removed by the author.