WHATEVER I CAN THINK OF//

//EXTREMELY ORIGINAL AND INCREDIBLY AWESOME.

I think Jonathan Safran Foer is definitely one of my favourite authors.I'm nearly shy to admit this because as you are reading this you are probably thinking "Ugh,another die hard Foer fanatic!"

Well-I say this enthusiasm definitely has a valid foundation .I've just come across one of his latest works which definitely got me extremely excited as I'm planning on making book art next year.I suppose one could refer to his latest effort as an interactive paper-sculpture rather than just plainly calling it a book.It can be regarded as the result of the convergence of literature and fine art sprinkled with Foer.

The story goes as follows....
I am imagining that he was sitting at his desk on a Thursday afternoon with his dog at his feet (I can't remember his dog's name-refer to Eating Animals if you find it to be essential info :P).I would imagine that he was looking out of the window,observing a mundane NY day passing by...He would be observing people sitting on benches or somewhere in a large green park or open plane across the road.He would see all the cutting edge New Yorkers reading from their reflecting I Pads or Kindles and would think to himself "How sad that all these people are making bookstores obsolete..."


What would follow is this (of course-this end product is what I'm basing my ridiculous "I would think" story on)....A book that would not be the same if your read it electronically!A physical book that could not just plainly be transformed into a pdf and substituted by a 45mb file.



This book would be his new title "Tree of Codes".It consists of another pre-existing book that Jonathan Safran Foer has so to speak appropriated to arrive at his new novel.The appropriated book is "The Street of Crocodiles",by Bruno Schulz.Foer simply edited out words or phrases to arrive at his own new story.This was done by printing various manuscripts of "The Street of Crocodiles" and figuring out how to create a new unique tale that exists in its own right.To make the book more than just an appropriated literary piece, he created it as a paper sculpture version,where he took Schulz' book with the original layout and created die cuts to eliminate the words that he was not using in his new found story.


Apparently many book printers said this book is impossible to print and compile,but the Belgian publishers "Die Keure" took on the challenge.Here's a video featuring the author/inventor himself explaining the idea:



here's some responses from other people :

Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer - Public Reactions from Visual Editions on Vimeo.

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