Subject: Re: (urth) TBOTNS as political document and the wait for new sun
From: Josh Geller 
Date: 10 Jul 2003 09:15:56 -0700

On Thu, 2003-07-10 at 08:41, matthew.malthouse@guardian.co.uk wrote:
> On 10/07/2003 16:55:41 Josh Geller wrote:

>>In a society that does not have mechanical printing, where would be
>>the most likely place to find a scriptorium?

Actually, I misspoke slightly. I think that they do have mechanical
printing, but not much need for it because the society is mostly 
illiterate.

> Plausible.
 
> But no clue that the Commonwealth _is_ a society without mechanical 
> printing.  Ultan and Cyby are Curators not Scrivenors.

Exactly. But I think what I say still applies. There don't seem to me
too many books around, and no newspapers. There is also no mention of
a Printer's Guild (btw, secular guilds in the middle ages did have
ceremonies analogous to the St. Katherine's Day feast). I think that 
if there are any printing presses around, the librarians control all
or most of them, and in the same way that the use of the roads is 
forbidden to the general populace, the use of printing is forbidden to
people not associated with the government, as the Library certainly is.

Perhaps upon receiving the book, Master Ultan had enough copies made to
stock the branches of the library.





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