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读麦·讲演·书的未来(1972)·007

作者:读麦

(James F. White)In 1884 a Chicago businessman, A. B. Dick, solved a business need for rapid duplication by inventing a process for stencil duplication. It proved so efficient that he marketed it under the name of“Mimeograph”. Gutenberg made it possible to put prayer books in the hands of people; Dick made prayer books obsolete. Prayer books are mostly propers which are hard to locate and confusing to most people. Dick gave each minister his own printing press and a new possibility of printing only what was needed to do the same for hymnals.

(詹姆斯·A·怀特)1884年,一位芝加哥商人A·B·迪克发明了一种模板复制的方法,解决了对快速复制的商业需求。事实证明,这种方法非常有效,因此他将其命名为“仿造的器具”。谷登堡使得把祈祷书交到人们手中成为了可能;迪克使祈祷书过时了。祈祷书通常意味着难以明确位置的章节,因而让大多数人窘迫。迪克让每一位牧师有了自己的印刷机,提供了一种新的可能,即,只印刷所需的内容,如同从赞美诗集中挑选所需一样。

按:谷登堡解决了信息的复制,迪克解决了短平快地复制信息。

油印只印刷所需的篇章乃至某一页某一段,这凸显了机制书的不足:一是作为信息容器的书本大于即时的信息需求,书到用时方恨厚——书到用时方恨少说的是信息的关联不是信息的存量——二是书的形制为信息平添出一种确定位置的麻烦。

这一段,麦氏引自James F. White的《New Forms of Worship》(New York:Abingdon Press,1971,P28)

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