“You can’t judge a book by its cover”
I ran into that old adage in a newspaper article yesterday. It has always struck me as one of the silliest things ever said.
Oh, I understand the intent. Don’t look at a woman’s hairstyle or hemline and think you can place her; don’t take a man’s handshake or skin color as hallmarks of his character. Fine.
But of all the ways to suggest that the superficial is not the essential, the worst analogy of all must be book covers and books. Because book covers are expressly designed to convey a sense of the contents.
A gold police badge, with a black mourning band; a backdrop of a cityscape, fire-red and smoking. Romance novel? Cookbook? Police thriller?
A lemon yellow cover with a cartoon wedding cake, a knife plunged into it oozing red icing. Auto-maintenance how-to? Civil War history? Village mystery with a woman sleuth and a few recipes tossed in?
A black background with two slanted, glowing green eyes; raised silver lettering. Belles lettres? Comedy of errors? Horror?
A beautiful woman in a torn dress on a windy tor at sunset, tattered cloth exposing an ample bosom and supple thighs… sorry, lost my train of thought there. But you get the point.
The message is valuable. The adage is bewildering.
— Frenulum
Not to correct or dismiss your insight I have always taken it as not to let the cover be how you can tell the quality of the contents. Yes you divine certain information from the cover and it helps to categorize the book in terms of genre etc. however, it has nothing to do with the quality of the story and writing. I have seen books with awful covers that when I read them had wonderful plots and characters. Conversely I have been lured by elegant covers into purchasing books whose writing style irritates me and plot bores me. At any rate this is more for the actual books and covers not the societal meaning of the phrase.
ReplyDeleteEmily in blue...again
I didn't mean to suggest that the cover was a guarantee of good writing. Rather, that of all the examples available of outward appearance vs. actual substance, it seems odd for the language to select one that's designed to convey meaning. Unlike, say, skin on a person. After all, publishers have an economic incentive to create covers that will put books in the hands of readers who are satisfied with their quick initial impressions.
ReplyDeleteEmily, thanks for your thoughtful comments.