Books versus Covers
Back when I was a young scholar there were several things one learned that violated the "never judge a book by its cover" rule. One was that when you saw a disheveled fellow walking down the street talking to himself, you could reliably assume that he was disturbed and probably not taking his medication. And you could assume that a nicely typeset and printed article was worth reading. Things have changed. Now when you see an unshaven fellow in rumpled clothes walking down the street conducting an animated conversation you can't assume that he's off his Chlorpromazine . He might just as well be an investment banker working on a big deal. Why did typesetting signify quality writing? Dating from the days of Aldus Manutius typesetting a book or an article attractively in justified columns using proportionally spaced fonts was a time-consuming task involving expensive skilled labor. Because of that high up-front cost, publishers insisted on strong controls on what ma...
