Printing in the Wizarding World by pepoluan

    Pagina Catalogata come Supposizioni, teorie, approfondimenti

I read the essay “When Magic Meets Muggle Technology” by PrefectMarcus. I thoroughly enjoyed the essay, which provides a pseudo-science, almost science fiction view of the wizarding world. Being myself an ardent fan of the sci-fi genre, I value this essay dearly.

The essay ends with a question: how does a wizard printing press work? PrefectMarcus offers some possible solutions, such as: a bank of enchanted quills (far too slow), and a simple offset press (also too slow). Not to mention that both methods will drive up the price of the books.

Rita Skeeter, copyright Mary GrandPre.
Although it certainly won’t be canon, allow me to present a hypothesis here.

Wizards publish books the same way as Muggles do. A wizard or witch writes his or her manuscript with quills, and complete with illustrations, and so forth. (Obviously there is no Microsoft WizardWord. But there seem to be quills that accept dictation. . . .) The manuscript is sent to a publisher, which will assign an editor, and back-and-forth the manuscript goes, until it reaches completion.

Then, the wizard-publisher goes to a Muggle printing press — there are Muggles aware of the wizarding world, notable examples being the Dursleys (no matter how they vehemently deny it), the Grangers, and the Muggle Prime Minister. I believe there are other wizarding-aware Muggles, and one or more of them owns a printing press.

Or, most likely, they’ll go to any printing press they like, one that offers the best quality at the right price. Anyway, printing presses couldn’t care less what they’re printing on their Linotype-Hell machines, as long as the manuscript is received in QuarkXpress format (or any other Desktop Publishing software). The content to be printed may seem to the Muggle publishers to be just so much Gobbledegook . . . but who cares? The customer pays. Like, for instance, the illegal presses I have in my country that print pornographic smut . . .

Monster Book of Monsters cageUm, back to the essay.

“Ha! But computers don’t work in the wizarding world, so there are no QuarkXpress files!” I hear you protest. Which is why the wizard-publishers first ask the assistance of a wizarding-aware Muggle who’s skilled with QuarkXpress to scan/type/what-have-you the manuscript and lay it out using QuarkXpress.

I hear you scream, “But . . . but . . . how do you explain the moving pictures? And the scurrying, biting books?” Well, as we see with Colin’s camera, for a picture to actually move it must be developed using a magical solution. So, in this case, after the Linotype-Hell completes printing all the thousands of pages (which will have taken only a couple of hours — I’ve seen how those machines work, they’re fantastically fast), the printed sheets are sent back to the wizarding-publisher, which will imprint — using magical ink, I daresay — all the moving images. For fancier books, for example, the Monster Book of Monsters, the book is charmed.

This wonderful collaboration between wizards and Muggles allows books (and newspapers and magazines) to be printed quickly, revised every year if need be, and most importantly, at a low price.

So there you go. Another mystery solved.
_________________________________________________________
[*] Ed. note: What follows is an “autobiographical” note provided by the author: “pepoluan is a muggle-born wizard who, quite unusually, acquired his wizarding skill some time after graduating from university. Thus he never enjoyed the delights at any wizarding school, and required lessons with personal tutors from the Ministry of Magic. This anomaly, however, gives him unique insight on the liaison between the wizarding world and the Muggle world.”

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Testo tradotto (italiano) link




Ho letto il saggio "Quando la magia incontra la tecnologia babbana" di PrefectMarcus. Ho apprezzato molto il saggio, che fornisce una visione pseudo-scientifica, quasi fantascientifica del mondo magico. Essendo io stesso un appassionato fan del genere sci-fi, apprezzo molto questo saggio.

Il saggio termina con una domanda: come funziona una stampante? PrefectMarcus offre alcune soluzioni possibili, come: un banco di penne incantate (troppo lento) e una semplice stampa fuori uso (anche troppo lenta). Per non parlare del fatto che entrambi i metodi aumenteranno il prezzo dei libri.

Rita Skeeter, copyright Mary GrandPre.
Anche se certamente non sarà canonico, permettimi di presentare qui un'ipotesi.

I maghi pubblicano libri allo stesso modo dei babbani. Un mago o una strega scrive il suo manoscritto con le penne, e completo di illustrazioni, e così via. (Ovviamente non c'è Microsoft MagoWord, ma sembra che ci siano delle penne che accettano la dettatura ...) Il manoscritto viene inviato a un editore, che assegnerà un editor, e il manoscritto va avanti e indietro, finché non raggiunge il completamento .

Poi, l'editore-mago si rivolge a una tipografia Babbana - ci sono Babbani consapevoli del mondo dei maghi, esempi degni di nota sono i Dursley (non importa come negano con veemenza), i Granger e il Primo Ministro Babbano. Credo che ci siano altri Babbani che conoscono i maghi e uno o più di loro possiede una stampante.

O, molto probabilmente, andranno da chiunque ha una qualsiasi stampante che a loro piace, quella che offre la migliore qualità al giusto prezzo. Ad ogni modo, le stampanti non potrebbero preoccuparsi di meno di quello che stanno stampando sulle loro macchine Linotype-Hell, a patto che il manoscritto sia ricevuto in formato QuarkXpress (o qualsiasi altro software di Desktop Publishing). Il contenuto da stampare può sembrare che gli editori Babbani siano semplicemente fuoridigobbiglie. . . ma a chi importa? Il cliente paga. Come, ad esempio, le presse illegali che ho nel mio paese che stampano materiale pornografico. . .

Monster Book of Monsters cageUm, torna al saggio.

“Ah! Ma i computer non funzionano nel mondo dei maghi, quindi non ci sono file QuarkXpress! "Ti sento protestare. Ecco perché gli editori-mago chiedono prima di tutto l'aiuto di un Babbano che conosce i maghi esperto di QuarkXpress per scansionare / scrivere / scoprire il manoscritto e disporlo usando QuarkXpress.

Ti sento urlare "Ma. . . ma . . . come spieghi le immagini in movimento? E i libri che scorrono e mordono? "Bene, come vediamo con la macchina fotografica di Colin, per una foto che effettivamente si muove deve essere sviluppata usando una soluzione magica. Quindi, in questo caso, dopo che Linotype-Hell ha completato la stampa di tutte le migliaia di pagine (che avranno impiegato solo un paio d'ore), ho visto come funzionano quelle macchine, sono incredibilmente veloci), i fogli stampati vengono inviati di nuovo all'editore magico, che stamperà - usando inchiostro magico, oserei dire - tutte le immagini in movimento. Per libri più elaborati, per esempio, il Mostro dei Mostri, il libro è affascinante.

Questa meravigliosa collaborazione tra maghi e babbani consente di stampare rapidamente libri (e giornali e riviste), revisionati ogni anno se necessario, e soprattutto, a un prezzo basso.

Quindi eccoti. Un altro mistero risolto.
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[*] Ed. nota: Quella che segue è una nota "autobiografica" fornita dall'autore: “Pepoluan è un mago babbano che, in modo abbastanza insolito, ha acquisito la sua abilità magica qualche tempo dopo la laurea all'università. Quindi non ha mai goduto le delizie in nessuna scuola di magia, e ha richiesto lezioni con tutor personali del Ministero della Magia. Questa anomalia, tuttavia, gli dà una visione unica del collegamento tra il mondo magico e il mondo Babbano. "

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Testo tradotto (inglese) link



Printing in the Wizarding World by pepoluan

I read the essay “When Magic Meets Muggle Technology” by PrefectMarcus. I thoroughly enjoyed the essay, which provides a pseudo-science, almost science fiction view of the wizarding world. Being myself an ardent fan of the sci-fi genre, I value this essay dearly.

The essay ends with a question: how does a wizard printing press work? PrefectMarcus offers some possible solutions, such as: a bank of enchanted quills (far too slow), and a simple offset press (also too slow). Not to mention that both methods will drive up the price of the books.

Rita Skeeter, copyright Mary GrandPre.
Although it certainly won’t be canon, allow me to present a hypothesis here.

Wizards publish books the same way as Muggles do. A wizard or witch writes his or her manuscript with quills, and complete with illustrations, and so forth. (Obviously there is no Microsoft WizardWord. But there seem to be quills that accept dictation. . . .) The manuscript is sent to a publisher, which will assign an editor, and back-and-forth the manuscript goes, until it reaches completion.

Then, the wizard-publisher goes to a Muggle printing press — there are Muggles aware of the wizarding world, notable examples being the Dursleys (no matter how they vehemently deny it), the Grangers, and the Muggle Prime Minister. I believe there are other wizarding-aware Muggles, and one or more of them owns a printing press.

Or, most likely, they’ll go to any printing press they like, one that offers the best quality at the right price. Anyway, printing presses couldn’t care less what they’re printing on their Linotype-Hell machines, as long as the manuscript is received in QuarkXpress format (or any other Desktop Publishing software). The content to be printed may seem to the Muggle publishers to be just so much Gobbledegook . . . but who cares? The customer pays. Like, for instance, the illegal presses I have in my country that print pornographic smut . . .

Monster Book of Monsters cageUm, back to the essay.

“Ha! But computers don’t work in the wizarding world, so there are no QuarkXpress files!” I hear you protest. Which is why the wizard-publishers first ask the assistance of a wizarding-aware Muggle who’s skilled with QuarkXpress to scan/type/what-have-you the manuscript and lay it out using QuarkXpress.

I hear you scream, “But . . . but . . . how do you explain the moving pictures? And the scurrying, biting books?” Well, as we see with Colin’s camera, for a picture to actually move it must be developed using a magical solution. So, in this case, after the Linotype-Hell completes printing all the thousands of pages (which will have taken only a couple of hours — I’ve seen how those machines work, they’re fantastically fast), the printed sheets are sent back to the wizarding-publisher, which will imprint — using magical ink, I daresay — all the moving images. For fancier books, for example, the Monster Book of Monsters, the book is charmed.

This wonderful collaboration between wizards and Muggles allows books (and newspapers and magazines) to be printed quickly, revised every year if need be, and most importantly, at a low price.

So there you go. Another mystery solved.
_________________________________________________________
[*] Ed. note: What follows is an “autobiographical” note provided by the author: “pepoluan is a muggle-born wizard who, quite unusually, acquired his wizarding skill some time after graduating from university. Thus he never enjoyed the delights at any wizarding school, and required lessons with personal tutors from the Ministry of Magic. This anomaly, however, gives him unique insight on the liaison between the wizarding world and the Muggle world.”






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(EID 46 - REV 0 By Stefano_Draems)
February 20, 2014

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