Friday, February 24, 2006
The Eyes Have HAD IT
For several months I've been meaning to document (and for about ten years I've been noticing the phenomenom of) book jackets which feature a face from the cheekbones down. This might be appropriate for the cover of a book about anonymity, and, in the first few intstances I observed, circa 1996, the dust jackets were the jackets of books with more or less bizarre content.
Now, however, it is very common to see part of a face on the cover of a book. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, before its cover was replaced with the full face of the beautiful actress from the movie, featured the left side of the face of a geisha of old. I gather the picture was taken in 1925 or so. Certainly the entire photograph exists, but the jacket only shows part of the face. This jacket at least showed ONE eye, and the other eye could be seen if one looked at the binding, but many, MANY books have covers which are almost menacing in their segmenting of the human face.
Tonight I saw one in the store where I work. I was shelving in the music section. I picked a hefty tome off the cart. It was a book called MOZART'S WOMEN. It's a standard biography of the women in the life of an artist. So what's on the cover? A nice 18th century oil-painting of a high-falutin' gal in a great, billowy dress. But the upper edge of the jacket, where, in the old days, a little space above the head of the person depicted would have been shown, is the exact area where the bridge of the subject's nose is shown. Why, in the name of the demi-hemi-semi-quaver, is one of Mozart's women shown only from just below her eyes when the rest of her body is shown? Not only do we see the feet, we get a nice bit of the oriental rug the feet stand upon.
As soon as I saw the book I wrote the title down on a Post-it. I'm going to note such books whenever I see them and compare the contents to the jackets. I bet 90 per cent of these books are standard stories without monstrous themes. Mozart, for example, didn't date serial killers. The entire face of at least one Mozart female should be on a cover of a book about Mozart's lovers.
Have a look at the new books the next time you visit a book store. You'll see a lot of the lower-two-thirds of people's heads. But not a lot of eyes.
Now, however, it is very common to see part of a face on the cover of a book. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, before its cover was replaced with the full face of the beautiful actress from the movie, featured the left side of the face of a geisha of old. I gather the picture was taken in 1925 or so. Certainly the entire photograph exists, but the jacket only shows part of the face. This jacket at least showed ONE eye, and the other eye could be seen if one looked at the binding, but many, MANY books have covers which are almost menacing in their segmenting of the human face.
Tonight I saw one in the store where I work. I was shelving in the music section. I picked a hefty tome off the cart. It was a book called MOZART'S WOMEN. It's a standard biography of the women in the life of an artist. So what's on the cover? A nice 18th century oil-painting of a high-falutin' gal in a great, billowy dress. But the upper edge of the jacket, where, in the old days, a little space above the head of the person depicted would have been shown, is the exact area where the bridge of the subject's nose is shown. Why, in the name of the demi-hemi-semi-quaver, is one of Mozart's women shown only from just below her eyes when the rest of her body is shown? Not only do we see the feet, we get a nice bit of the oriental rug the feet stand upon.
As soon as I saw the book I wrote the title down on a Post-it. I'm going to note such books whenever I see them and compare the contents to the jackets. I bet 90 per cent of these books are standard stories without monstrous themes. Mozart, for example, didn't date serial killers. The entire face of at least one Mozart female should be on a cover of a book about Mozart's lovers.
Have a look at the new books the next time you visit a book store. You'll see a lot of the lower-two-thirds of people's heads. But not a lot of eyes.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 3:14 AM 
