After this week’s discussion I began to develop a new
perspective on a book that I have been reading intermittently for the past few
months, Honoré de Balzac’s Lost Illusions.
This book tells the dual stories of David Séchard in his attempts to
manufacture cheap paper and David’s brother-in-law Lucien who dives into the
world of journalism. For archivists, especially those concerned with
preservation, historic paper types and manufacturing is often a technical
discussion. Alternatively, Lost Illusions
illuminates the social context of the technical development of paper production
and the social implications of abundant and cheap, albeit poor quality, paper.
In Lost Illusions David gives a detailed
description of history of printing and paper making, giving particular
attention to the transition from linen to cotton paper. Lamenting the fragility
of cotton paper that easily falls apart, David acknowledges that the expense,
and literal weight, of linen makes it impractical to printers publishing
newspapers and pamphlets in massive quantities. David’s interest is to decrease
the cost of production and increase productivity. Lucien, on the other hand,
depends on the fast paced newspaper market where paper, and the accompanying
writing, is digested, gossiped, and disposed on a daily basis. For the
newspaper printers, the quality and longevity that David desires are not
important.
Throughout the book Balzac created a parallel between the
poor quality of paper and the poor quality of journalism. The materiality of paper
became grounds for harsh social criticism. Currently, archivists take special
precautions to take care of the types of mass printed newspapers that Balzac
detests. Analogously, people today quickly complain about the abundance of digital
material that will somehow, in some way, be a part of the archival record of
the future. Though Lost Illusions is
a work of fiction the themes within the book are relevant to archives, and
provide food for thought for historians working in archives.
Reading
Balzac, Honoré. Lost
Illusions. Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley. New York: Barnes and
Noble Classics, 2007. Originally published between 1837 and 1843. (There are a few sections of the book that directly discuss papermaking, commercial printers, and the histories of paper. In this edition, pages 97-101, 336-338, and 452-453 are particularly useful.)
