http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editor…
Lane Smith’s “It’s a Book” ends when a monkey, whose patience has been tested by a technophile donkey, uses the term “Jackass” to describe his benighted companion. Some parents have objected, and you can read about the controversy on Cape Ann in the Boston Globe. Lane Smith defends himself with the claim that the book needed a punchline at the end, and he may be right. I’m usually opposed to the language police, and I was on first reading the article. Then I remembered “It’s a picture book” and imagined the two and three-year-olds I know gleefully embracing the word and the wild rumpus that ensues. On second thought, maybe it’s not such a bad way to end a book.
Stuart Shieber uses It’s a Book as a point of departure for discussing the trade-offs between e-books and the printed codex. You can hear him and Robert Darnton discuss old books and new media in the link below. Shieber’s presentation begins at about 31:55.