BASC14031 - Basic Program Autumn Symposium: The Future of Books?
Course Description
We live in times when books as sources of knowledge and esthetic experience have greater competition than ever before. However, while digital revolution has given rise to a variety of concerns about the future of books, it has also made books more accessible than ever. Digital publishing, digital preserving of older texts, and digital distribution of specialized publications have not made obsolete those box-like objects of paper and ink that reveal worlds of ideas and experiences to the curious, attentive, thinking, imaginative reader.
Our symposium offers an opportunity for a conversation about the future of books with an historian, publisher, librarian, and bookseller as well as a vicarious group reading experience of one of the many book-fantasies of Jorge Luis Borges’.
Course Outline
Interactive Lecture on “The Symbiosis of Information Technologies New and Old in the Print and Digital Revolutions,” given by Ada Palmer, a historian, novelist, and composer, and a professor in the History Department at the University of Chicago. Author of Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance and science fiction series Terra Ignota.
Breakout Discussion - Books According to Jorge Luis Borges. Discussion led by Basic Program Instructors
Books are an overarching theme in Borges’ fiction. We will discuss two of his famous short stories: “The Library of Babel” and “The Book of Sand.” Both stories are available in Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, Penguin, 1999. ISBN-13: 978-0140286809. Other stories related to the symposium’s topic include “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” “The Garden of Forking Paths,” “Funes, His Memory,” and “The Aleph.”
Panel Presentations and Discussion featuring Timothy Mennel, Executive Editor, University of Chicago Press, Elizabeth Frengel, Curator of Rare Books, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago, and Jeff Deutsch, Director, Seminary Co-op Bookstore
Lead-In Events (included in your registration)
The Magic of Books
Thursday, October 10, 2 PM – 5:15 PM, Gleacher Center Lecture, screening, and discussion of Peter Greenaway’s 1991 film Prospero’s Books inspired by Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest (with Sir John Gielgud as Prospero).
Inspired by Shakespeare’s Prospero and Sir John Gielgud’s insights, Peter Greenaway poses the question, “Are we truly the product of what we read?” The setting of the film is conceived as a scholar’s dream of Renaissance Italy. Familiarity with The Tempest is key to experiencing the film in its visual, poetic, and philosophical richness.
Basic Program instructor, Katia Mitova, will give a short introductory lecture and lead the discussion.
Where the Past and Future of Books Meet in the Present: A Field Trip to the Hyde Park Campus
Monday, October 21, 10 AM – 12 PM, Regenstein Library
Guided visit to Rare Books Collection (with a focus on the newly donated Robert Connors Collection) and a behind the scenes tour of the Mansueto Library at University of Chicago. The field trip will conclude with an optional visit to the famous Seminary Co-op Bookstore.
Notes
This event is open to all.
Join us for a day-long symposium on Saturday October 26, 2019 from 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m and for our two lead-in events.
Location for October 26: The Gleacher Center, 450 Cityfront Plaza Dr., Chicago, IL 60611
Tuition $200, includes two lead-in events and the all-day Symposium. Also included is continental breakfast and a boxed lunch on October 26.