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Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
When it comes to literature, the package is irrelevant.
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While I would agree with you on a strictly abstract level, I have to say that when trading money for a book I am unable to ignore the container of the content when deciding how much a given title is worth. You are beyond me on that one.
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Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
It represents a distraction from the literature, not an augmentation of it.
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Then we would agree that there exists no distraction-less piece of writing in all of human history, I assume? Operating with this understanding necessitates this view because no piece of literature is unencumbered by a container of some sort, whether physical or digital.
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Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
If I'm obsessing about the smell of finely-crafted french linen, I'm not absorbing the story.
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That is a personal call and I would not wish to disagree with it. I agree with your denigration of obsession in relation to this topic. It would probably be an unhealthy obsession when all you want to do is read the book. The collector's of fine books are obviously taking part in a passion wherein their values and judgments are based on different criteria, which would be necessarily divorced from ideals obsessing over the pure and unadulterated experience of the text as removed from thoughts concerning the container as possible.
Overall, when you and I are speaking about the smell of a well made item (which can evince certain qualities) it appears (from your comments here and my previous comments) that we may be talking at different walls and a pursuit of mutual understanding may be strenuous, at best.