jen%mit-nessus@mit-athena.ARPA (05/15/85)
From: jen%mit-nessus@mit-athena.ARPA (Jennifer A Hawthorne) I fully agree with you, SKZB, that the purpose of cover artwork is to look nice and sell books, and little else. I don't even *expect* it to have anything to do with the content anymore; it's merely become a habit to look back at the cover and see how well it agrees with the story. If the cover is nice and the material inside is readable, it doesn't much matter to me if the two aren't connected even remotely. There are only two occassions where I get a trifle upset with cover art: 1) If I buy a book because of its stunning cover and then find that the inside is utter drek, in which case it's my own fault for judging the book by its cover, and 2) if I see a book that I know to be excellent packaged badly, in which case I can only hope that more people go by word of mouth than by cover when deciding which books to purchase and read. On the other hand, I get a warm feeling when I see a nicely-executed cover that accurately reflects the book behind it. This is a moderately rare occurrance. I am given to understand that many artists are given only a synopsis of a book they are supposed to illustrate, which must make it tough on them. And then there's the cover of "Trumps of Doom", which not only has absolutely nothing to do with the book's content that I can see (if I'm missing something important, someone please let me know), but is also no fun to look at. What's an SF reader supposed to do? You pays your money and you takes your choice. I found it interesting that you liked the cover to Hell, SKZB; rumor had it that you detested it. And finally, a departing flame: Cover art can be said to be worthwhile even if it doesn't concern the book, but can the same be said for back- cover blurbs that badly distort the plot/theme/tone of a novel? ---Jen H.---
brust@hyper.UUCP (Steven Brust) (05/16/85)
> I found it interesting that you liked the cover to Hell, SKZB; rumor > had it that you detested it. > > > ---Jen H.--- > I must have misstated myself. The rumor is correct; I detest it. The thing is, the *painting* is fine; it's just horribly wrong for the book. I will forgive them if it sells, but, given clash between the painting and the lettering, I doubt it will do that. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but the cover art to BROKEDOWN PALACE is being done by Alan Lee. THIS I am looking forward to seeing. He did the covers for an edition of the GHORMANGHAST Trilogy, and those covers are magnificant. He has also done a collection of artwork called CASTLES that has been getting rave reviews. Faunch Faunch. -- SKZB
bobm@rtech.UUCP (Bob Mcqueer) (05/21/85)
> > And finally, a departing flame: Cover art can be said to be worthwhile > even if it doesn't concern the book, but can the same be said for back- > cover blurbs that badly distort the plot/theme/tone of a novel? > ... OR give away the ending, if they even come close to saying anything realistic about the novel. I can agree with this particular gripe completely. Of the SF books I've read recently, I'd estimate about 50-70% of the cover art to fit a reasonable visualization of the book (not always in agreement with MINE, but reasonable). However, the blurbs always seem to be missing the major point, turning every novel into a scenario for a bad movie, revealing what's going to happen, or some mixture of all of the above together with various and sundry other critical sins. Even literate, intelligent work has to be adorned by the publisher with the sort of hype that together with TV and movie promotional drivel provides employement for the modern day equivalent of a carnival barker. If a worthwile comment somehow DOES find its way to the back cover, it is usually seriously out of context. What's REALLY annoying is that I seem to be unable NOT to read the back of a book while I'm considering buying it. I would like to be able to use the back cover notes to determine if a paperback might appeal to me before plunking down my $3.95 + tax, rather than having to rely solely on familiarity with the author or on criticism gathered elsewhere. Next flame: those silly, oversized, overpriced "TRADE" paper editions! Back to scanning this group for pointers to interesting novels, since I can't tell by the cover [art | blurbs]. Bob McQueer ihnp4!amdahl!rtech!bobm