Book Design Research Paper

The Win-Win-Win Book Experiment: The Value of Visual Narratives* for Authors, Publishers, & Readers

ntal e m i r e p x th E Elements, i w s k o o *AKA pBhy, Illustrativae, & Other Typogra era, Marginali Fries Ephem Visual Bonus

“Design is where

literature manifests physical form.”*** –Kenneth Fitzgerald

out b a k l a books. t s ’ t e *L looking good-

B

ooks have been experimenting with the marriage of text and art since the beginning of the book as a physical format. Even before then, images were used to communicate and convey knowledge before words, as in drawings and messages from objects in nature conveyed by ancient peoples (Tonfoni and Richardson 34).

From hieroglyphs to papyrus and color dye, history has found ways to express itself. Beyond form poetry, the early novel, and the illustrated book, a myriad of innovative books and visually experimental literature have pushed the boundaries of their own form: everything from cleverly subtle uses of the self-aware footnote to a book that looks like a sandwich; a book-in-a-box where loose leaf pages can be read in any order, to a Flaubert redesign where each book is tied with a velvet ribbon and comes in its own birdcage. This phenomenon has only grown over the years, and the book is no longer a static object. New approaches to how words are arranged on a page and how a story is conveyed offer dynamic

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experiences in reader engagement. Certainly we can point to names like David Foster Wallace1, James Joyce, Laurence Sterne, W. G. Sebald, and poets like George Herbert and Guillaume Apollinaire for these lay that p textual innovations, and s k o bo s ental rative m r i a r n e p l sua f ex tive s—vi dful o y a n a w lustra h l i a w d e e e n v dd in we ha with a ntent s o y. d c r today o d an a stor ew s l l u m f e r t d o f nd an with rules how a s e h o t t s d nt en eleme that b g n i t a min or illu Perhaps one of the most well-known examples of these experimental visual novels is Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, a dizzying horror-romance tale of a family who moves into a new house with a big problem: the house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

In the full color edition, the word “house” always appears in blue (even on the copyright page), other selected text appears in red or strikethrough, various typefaces appear in varying arrangements on the page (some footnotes are vertical2, some text stretches diagonally across a page, and some text overlaps to the point of visual claustrophobia). Even more impressive is the fact that this debut tome is over 700 pages (including multiple appendices), each page carefully treated by Danielewski himself. House of Leaves quickly garnered a cult following, and Danielewski has continued 1 The Master of Infinite Jest & Footnotes.

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to write books that “embrace the graphic” (NPR). A handful of other visual narratives or hybrid novels* have caught the attention of readers and even won awards/become bestsellers, intriguing the book world with inventive formatting and added interior design elements—books like Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Tree of Codes, Reif Larsen’s The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet and I Am Radar, J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst’s S, Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts, and Zachary Thomas Dodson’s Bats of the Republic are all such examples. Many took years of dedication to finish and produce—House of Leaves was a decade in the making, and Tree of Codes was originally thought to be impossible to print. While much of the readership has been widespread and strong, hybrid novels have also received their share of pushback, largely accused of letting the gimmick get in the way of the story.

However, the authors are often willing to share their artistic vision and the decisions that went into their process, even claiming that the visual elements enhance the story in a way that words cannot. Meanwhile, the books continue to sell and readers continue to read them. Charming or not, something about these books seems to be working.

In homage to this fascinating innovation in literature, this text will attempt to explore the author/publisher/ reader relationship of these visual narratives in a similarly dynamic way. Through author interviews, book review clippings, images and illustrations, book sale figures, marginalia, and various visual elements, selected examples

*On the outside, it looks like a normal book. On the inside, you discover all this cool stuff happening on the pages--like bonus fries for the eyes!

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of these hybrid novels will be examined, including production processes and critical reception.

Whether considered art or gimmick, visual narratives offer a win-win-win outcome to publishers, authors, and readers.

Visually experimental literature provides an inherent marketing tool for publishers, an expressive, artful outlet for authors that upholds quality, and an inviting, dynamic experience for their readers. As the future of storytelling looks more progressive and immersive than ever, visual narratives will continue to intrigue, challenge, and garner attention in the best way possible.

Mark Danielewski likens his first novel, House of Leaves, to a “remediation of film,� just as he connects his sequel Only Revolutions to that of music, and his most recent multivolume project, The Familiar, to a television series (Carpenter). In this sense, the blue house could be reminiscent of the blue screen technique used in filmmaking, or to recall a

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hyperlink, although this and other ancillary details are kept as ambiguous as they are intricate. When asked about the word familiar showing up in pink, Danielewski declines to give a direct answer, stating, “the reasoning behind this is all rather extensive” (Foley). For House of Leaves, it was a decade of extensive—years of writing and reworking and designing—and Danielewski admits to enjoying a certain level of control with his work. “I like making decisions that are very specific,” he says, owing this in part to the author-reader relationship, where the reader can approach the text and ask questions like “why is this word by itself ? Why is this word placed on the verso…[They] can take some confidence in the fact that I’ve spent some time thinking about that. Out of this particularness comes its own aesthetic” (Crispin). Danielewski also recognizes that the unconventional form in literature isn’t a new concept:

“Someone picked up on this awhile ago, this notion of quantum literature, and this describes where I like to live.

Those variations

make a difference.”

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In between word and image, or between relationships with image, is where Danielewski has set up camp.

Committing to only images or to conventional narrative signifies a certain interaction with story, but playing with both word and image can “tickle that part of the imagination that doesn’t sit comfortably in one or the other” (NPR). House of Leaves lends itself to this dimensional experience. Johnny Truant is the story’s unreliable narrator, son who discovers a manuscript connected avid N e al g th rson n to an enigmatic documentae i p d n clu nter ’s ow s in i t e c n ry, The Navidson d e a an pi ru ive that ilm e, T t f s s a u r e m t r o Record. no na fro gh foot tiple errifyin xcerpts d l n u a t sm es, e editors, and c low e n l r e o r f a fer el from a biz ture re nov s n e e i t h l o g u n T . livin ent op c t p y t l i PR) i e N m k ( r a ” f e fam nt e, own 1 ts, i ylin s heir p r t i e o t r f t c o s s n ive o tran foot rrat n a w n e w i d v ro e an Fortunately, thei a lif e n v o a h ke a t “ Danielewski’s pubtely tima l u lisher, Pantheon, is used to proand

1 ducing high quality image-driven pieces, especially graphic novels. They’re able to work with specific design concepts and create them as elaborately as they were intended (O’Kane). Amazingly, the hardcover sold over 200,000 copies, following the buzz generated with a one-page-at-a-time online serialization leading up to

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the book’s release (Foley). Including the paperback, House of Leaves has now sold over half a million copies (Nielsen).

The release of the full-color, 2-color, black and white, incomplete and remastered paperback editions helped to

maintain the title’s cult status since its publication in 2000.

A note on the text explains the differences between editions (the blue house turns grey for the black and white edition, with the 2-color option promising either the blue house or red minotaur but not both). This bears considering the cost of printing and whether the publisher needed to cut corners with some of the later editions. On one hand, the cost of printing more artistically complex books is typically much higher than the standard, and could potentially impact the use of these narrative techniques. However, advancements in printing technology and techniques could also be their greatest cheerleader. Regardless, Danielewski has remained with Pantheon (an imprint of Penguin Random House) for his following projects, including The Familiar, his epic 27-volume endeavor with collaborative design partners to support his ongoing process (about

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ten volumes have been created so far, with only two published and the third to be released June 2016). With his novella, T h e Fifty Year Sword, “a story of violence and sewing” with stitches of red thread throughout its pages, a limited first printing of 1,000 copies featured Napalese binding and came in a custom latched box. These copies can go for as much as $1,000 on eBay (Carpenter). Limited editions can often act as a built-in marketing tool for publishers, and in this case, not only is the book itself wrapped in an unusually delightful package; it also offers the exclusivity of a rare Dutch edition as the stitched red cherry on top.

Not all readers have bought into the hype, however.

According to research by designer and doctor of philosophy Zoe Sadokierski, the word most often used in a sample

Fig. 1 Word Cloud.

of book reviews for visually experimental hybrid novels was “gimmick,” portrayed by word clouds with word size proportionate to the frequency of usage (Sadokierski 137,

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188). Less patient readers gave up on finishing House of Leaves or initial volumes of The Familiar altogether, either too bored or too distracted by the visual clutter (Goodreads). Particularly with The Familiar, Danielewski reminds readers that although tackling 27 volumes can seem daunting, because of the typesetting and visual formatting, an 800-page book is actually more like the equivalent of a 300-page book (NPR). Danielewski’s canon is a good example of one that

has remained effective despite its criticism. Initial reviews of House of Leaves deemed the debut as “demonically brilliant” and “impossible to ignore” by author Jonathan Lethem, and Kirkus Reviews maintains that Danielewski “skillfully manipulates the reader’s expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography” (Penguin Ran-

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dom House). House of Leaves went on to win the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, and has gained a following that has spilled over into its own online forum pages. His novel Only Revolutions was a finalist for the National Book Award (Danielewski). Considering Danielewski’s success, design writer Rick Poynor observes: “The positive reaction to House of Leaves suggests the degree t o

which readers’ tastes have already been transformed by exposure to devices, texture and rhetoric of contemporary graphic culture.” (Poynor qtd. in Sadokierski 31). Perhaps more so than with digital interactions, books with experimental ty-

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pography often demand patience, even a need to turn the book sideways or to keep track of binary storylines present in footnotes or marginalia.

In this way, these hybrid novels invite an awareness of the reading experience that is fully immersive, even interactive, instead of approaching the plot as one to plow through at a rapid pace. This form of reading is especially interesting in light of the conversation in publishing as to the future of storytelling. With more and more interactive apps, enhanced ebooks, and print/digital counterparts to fiction, stories are expanding beyond linear form. Still, print books like House of Leaves pose an exceptional challenge in being reproduced digitally—an undertaking that is still pending for House of Leaves and many similarly unconventional texts (O’Kane). Even investing in the print format to the extent of The Familiar’s 27 volumes is somewhat of a gamble. Danielewski admits the project “cannot be sustained by grants” (of which he’s received none) (NPR), and essentially the long haul endeavor “requires a fellowship” (Crispin). Ultimately, Danielewski turns to his readers. “If the readers don’t turn out for it,” he states, “this

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will not see a conclusion” (NPR). Fortunately, Danielewski has made a name for himself, one that readers know to associate with epic form-bending labyrinthine storytelling.

Many may still find this approach gimmicky, and yet plenty others are buying in— the first two volumes have reached sales of 50,000 copies and counting (Nielsen). Danielewski has created a world in which his readers will gladly revisit.

Another author who has played with form and visual elements in his books is Jonathan Safran Foer, upping the experimentation with each work. His debut novel, Everything is Illuminated employs mild adventures in typography, whereas his sophomore novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close includes photographs and a flipbook-like image series, illegibly overtyped text and single lines on a page, colorful handwritten inscriptions, and proofreader’s red-pen marks. The novel received its share of criticisms, primarily due to the novel’s delicate story of a boy who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks, and whether the use of

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these illustrative elements is too jarring for such a subject matter. Others praised Safran Foer’s treatment of a sensitive young protagonist trying to piece together a shattered world after a “highly visual catastrophe” and his use of “graphic devices [to] communicate in ways that words alone could not” (Sadokierski 138). Safran Foer himself claims, “Most of what I do in my books I do exactly because I can’t explain in any other way” (Sadokierski 138). Extremely Loud won a handful of awards and was made into a movie starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in 2012, adding more selling features to the book.

Pe r h a p s his most unconventional project to date is Safran Foer’s found poetry cutout book Tree of Codes (2010). Each page is essentially a unique die-cut of selected words from the pages of Safran Foer’s favorite book, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz. The words left on the page read as one big poem, carefully lifted from the original text by Schulz. Scan to see how For this project, Safran Foer worked Tree of Codes with Visual Editions, a specialty pub-

was made!

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lisher in the UK dedicated to the craft of producing artfully unconventional texts. Despite Safran Foer’s previous success, he initially had a difficult time finding someone who would take on such an ambitious project. In fact, most printers claimed the book could simply not be made (Visual Editions). Finally, Visual Editions found a printer in Belgium, Die Keure, who “relished the challenge” of piecing together Tree of Codes. The 3-month process involved massive reams of paper, a woodblock-based cutout system, and careful ordering of die-cut sheet stacks (Visual Editions). The book itself is surprisingly lightweight, and is currently out of stock, but limited edition posters from the leftover printer’s sheets are available for purchase—each one is signed by Safran Foer (Visual Editions). This serves as yet another built-in marketing perk for the publisher and author through a showcase of the very brilliance that delights its readers.

A variety of other visually experimental literature has benefitted both the publisher and the author’s audience.

Reif Larsen’s debut novel The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet allegedly garnered

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the author an advance of just under a million dollars after a ten-house bidding war (Peretz). What was it about this particular book to cause that much fuss over a firsttime author? The success of other visual narratives may have pointed the compass north for publishers, or perhaps Larsen’s work exuded its own innovative promise. Published by Penguin Press in 2009, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is a coming-of-age tale narrated by a precocious selfdeclared cartographer, also the author of the book’s considerate marginalia (taking up a third of the page), complete with diagrams, illustrations, blueprints, and parenthetical ponderings. Larsen’s most recent novel, I Am Radar, employs visual elements to a slightly lesser degree, but still includes diagrams a n d maps, which are of particular interest to Larsen (Peretz). Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts, experienced a similar debut success even before the novel was published, thanks to an elaborate marketing strategy involving a MySpace page, which acts as a gateway to bonus content and behind-the-scenes marginalia of making the book (Sadokierski 144). The book trailer featured actress

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Tilda Swinton, and Hall even toured internationally at book fairs.

The attention the novel received was likened to that of a major motion picture rather than that of an unknown author (144). Still, readers took the bait for a book with “a typographic shark attack” (157), and the author holds that for him, it’s less about selling books and more about “finding new ways to tell a story” (qtd. in Sadokierski 160). As storytelling evolves, interested audiences will likely evolve with it.

On the other end of the spectrum, acclaimed producer and director J.J. Abrams, who does have name recognition and an already established audience, partnered up with writer Doug Dorst to bring to life his concept for a book called S.—a story within a story within a story. A fictitious novel, Ship of Theseus, appears as an old library book that’s been passed back and forth by two college students, who add in a plethora of margin notes. The third storyline is that of the mysterious writer

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of Ship of Theseus, and the finishing touch is scrawled-on napkins, vintage photographs, letters and postcards, and a message decoder wheel, all loosely tucked in the pages of S., which even includes fake websites that readers can actually visit. The small thrill of reading someone else’s margin notes is either a cheap ploy or a genius move for dimensional, tactile storytelling.

Finally, one of the more recent visual narratives on the scene is Zachary Thomas Dodson’s Bats of the Republic, billed as “an illuminated novel” that features hand-drawn maps, bat illustrations, diagrams of natural history and science fiction, and a historical fiction novel inside the novel itself. The book trailer is a simple but clever visual demonstration of what readers will find inside— with special note given to a manila envelope marked “DO NOT OPEN.” The author sets up the story while flipping through pages, returning more than once to the envelope as a reminder of what readers should not read. Of course, readers will likely go buy that book just so they can find out what’s in that envelope—it’s using human curiosity and delayed (or not delayed) gratification at its finest.

Gimmicky or innovative, readers will help determine the strengths and weaknesses of visual narratives. Examples of successful cases seem

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to suggest that they’re working—at least, enough to keep publishers and readers interested in the new forms of storytelling writers are coming up with. Authors like Safran Foer and Steven Hall aren’t shy in addressing criticisms, even dismissing them as snobbery or lack of understanding for their work (Gallacher qtd. in Sadokierski). Visual narratives are experimental for a reason. Their very nature invites a certain level of intrigue as stories continue to push boundaries and offer new opportunities for reader engagement.

The balance for the author and designer is to allow these graphic devices to support the story rather than detract from it—a balance that can continue to improve along with their creation. Author and book critic James Wood states, “The novel is the great virtuoso of exceptionalism: it always wriggles out of the rules thrown around it.” (Qtd. in Sadokierski 190). Publishers can welcome unconventional stories knowing they bring a unique built-in marketing tool with them. Authors can keep creating nearly to the limits of their own creativity, with optimism that someone out there will believe in their work and find a way to make it. Readers can look forward to the future of rule-bending books with continued intrigue for reading between the lines. As one Tree of Codes critic and artist Olafur Eliasson puts it, books with visual elements craft a narrative that,

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“materiality and our reading experience into a book that remembers it actually has a body� in our digital age, bring

(Visual Editions). Perhaps this gets at the crux of what visual narratives offer us: an art form that upholds its craft, invites its reader in, and often sells itself.

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