Pagination Blues
I guess it should have been anticipated. Perhaps the UK publishers (Random House/Jonathan Cape) don't have a clue of the importance of the pagination of a gigantic Pynchon novel. Or Pynchon sees the obsessive analysis of his work as a Routinization of Charisma? Whatever the case, the pagination in the current AtD wiki is to have its soft-cover variants and we'll just have to deal.
I just got the news this morning from Dr. Basileios Drolias, proprietor of the Against the Day blog. I haven't yet seen the paperback so don't know how different it is.
I suppose worst-case scenario is that readers who want to take full advantage of this wiki will have to get themselves the original hardback (hmmm ... no, impossible! an economic reason to change the pagination?...) or one of the many contributors will devise a page-conversion equation.
WikiAdmin 08:01, 7 October 2007 (PDT)
The UK Paperback Pagination
Basileios Drolias has sent along the differences in pagination between the UK and USA hardback editions and the forthcoming UK paperback. The first entry is the hardback edition; the second is the UK paperback edition. He also includes a first pass estimated formula for converting page numbers:
- Part 1 page 1 | page 1
- Part 2 page 119 | page 133
- Part 3 page 429 | page 483
- Part 4 page 695 | page 781
- Part 5 page 1063 | page 1195
- last page: page 1085 | page 1220
- The best factor for translating from one page to the other seems to be close to 1.1237. Still not 100% accurate.
WikiAdmin 07:11, 9 October 2007 (PDT)
Random House UK Explains
I emailed Random House UK Marketing's Tom Avery, asking why they changed the pagination for the paperback edition. His reply:
- I’m afraid the decision to alter the pagination was made from a practical perspective – as we are publishing in B format, retaining the same page size would render the text microscopic.
FYI: "Paperback (B format)" means that the size of the book is 198mm x 129mm (7.8" x 5"). You may also see paperback editions of books advertised as "A format." This means that the size of the book is 178mm x 110mm (7" x 4.3").
Interestingly, both the Penguin and Jonathan Cape (Random House UK) ARCs of Against the Day were printed in "C format" (235mm x 153mm / 9.25" x 6") aka "Royal Octavo."
Hopefully, the USA edition will opt for a larger paperback format to avoid repagination!
WikiAdmin 08:18, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
Further Discussion
Well, let's stop blaming Penguin before we actually have the paperback in our hands. Based on the evidence so far, I do belive that the US paperback will have the same pagination as the first edition: Amazon as well as Penguin's own website state that the paperback runs to 1104 pages. In all likelihood, this page count shouldn't be regarded as the number of numbered pages, but as the total number of pages in the book. Thus, many websites originally listed the page count of the first edition at 1104 pages, and if you include the unnumbered pages of the front and back matter of the first edition, it does in fact run to 1104 pages.
This doesn't necessarily mean, of course, that the US paperback will end up with the stated number of pages. The stated page count of the first edition changed back and forth a number of times in the months leading up to publication, and the page count of the US paperback can still be changed. If it stays at 1104 pages, though, I think it likely that this translates into 1085 numbered pages.
I've also got my hands on a copy of the UK paperback, and it is correct that this edition has a different page count. Amazon.co.uk lists the page count as 1234 pages, but the actual number of numbered pages is 1220 (again, note the difference between the total number of pages and the numbered pages). The good news is that most of the many typos from the first edition have been corrected in this edition. The bad news is that the print is vanishingly small - practically unreadble - and, of course, that the page count differs from the first edition.
So let's hope that the page count of the US paperback remains at 1104/1085, and that the many errors have been corrected here as well. Then we would have a decent standard text from which to proceed.
Torerye 00:48, 9 October 2007 (PDT)
I wrote (most of) this on October 7, but posted it to a Talk: Pagination Blues page.I am posting it here now:
Although I have yet to see the American Penguin paperback of Against the Day-- one is on the way to me--I have learned that it consists of 1104 pages, about 19 numbered pages more than the hardcover. First, depending on how the numbering is done--more non-AtD-text pages might have been counted--the actual difference between the two editions could be even less.[I think Toreye is correct and the text pages will number 1085, after non-text pages are eliminated]
Pagination is determined by type size, font and page set-up as well as the height and width size of the book. Given those choices, the pagination of the book becomes mathematical.
The paperback size of Against the Day SEEMS to be a very close match to the hardcover--9 x 6 vs 9.4 x 6.2--with the hanging hardcover trim removed. (Had Against the Day been smaller in height, this might not have been the case)
Anyway, the worst case for matching the Penguin paperback pagination with the hardcover seems to be around one extra page correlation needed around every 55. Therefore, around 2 per hundred pages.
A-And, so, so many pages have entries--do all of them?---that readers and posters using the Penguin paperback should be able to easily locate the page on which they want to post by a moment's check for other words and phrases already posted.
A-A-And, There are still a lot of Penguin hardcovers available and Penguin is offering them new at just $3.25 over the paperback price as I write. (And, although I do not believe in buying 'used' books for authors I would like to get whatever not-usually-enough royalties they deserve, there are many 'used' hardcover AtDs available very cheap.
[Buy new for Jackson is my motto] MKOHUT 21:08, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
Re: publishing formats:
Although I am not fully familiar with American book production lingo, in my time in publishing, I never heard paperback formats referred to as A-B-C, etc. A-and there seem to be more size possibilities in American houses, sizes referred to in inches, of course; most common sizes being 5.5 x 8.5 and 6 x 9.
The ARCs of ATD were surely done from the same digital file in a common size each agreed upon.MKOHUT 21:21, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
