Language barriers --- financial barriers

[franco at RZ.UNI-LEIPZIG.DE]

I have not seen von Glasenapp will myself, so this is just hearsay. I  
was once told that he wanted his estate to provide scholarships for  
poor students of Indology, but his will was „perverted“ by the  
colleagues who were responsible for its execution in order to  
establish that series.



Quoting Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at GMAIL.COM>:

> A small note on Birgit's thoughtful contribution:
>
> On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 7:36 AM, Birgit Kellner
> <birgit.kellner at univie.ac.at>wrote:
>
>> ...
>
>
>
>>
>> What I am wondering specifically in connection with Indological studies:
>> whence the "enormous cost of publishing books an all types of 'oriental'
>> topics in the so-called developed countries", as Michael Hahn puts it? Why,
>> for instance, does the set of Oskar von Hinüber's "Kleine Schriften" that
>> was recently announced cost 178 Euros? Do the publishers take such great
>> care with editing, layout and design as to justify such a price? (The
>> technology required to typeset books in Asian languages can no longer
>> justify such prices.) And if not: Why do authors decide to publish with
>> publishers when they know exorbitant prices will be charged for their books?
>> Is it because the publication with a major established publisher is believed
>> to make more impact than a cheaper publication with one that is lesser
>> known? Is it the publisher's reputation that people hope will also reflect
>> on the reputation of their books? Is it the expected professionality of
>> distribution, is it a hope for fame? Is it just habit, a lack of knowledge
>> that other possibilities might exist?
>>
>
> What Birgit delicately does not mention (apophatic discourse?) is that of
> course with the exception of the introduction and Table of Contents, and
> sometimes index, in these Glasenapp volumes, the entire thing is no more
> than a photoreprint of already published materials (sometimes, in the case
> anyway of Weller's work, for example,  in barely legible copies). In Japan,
> we find  the mere binding of computer printouts. The recent volume on the,
> if I recall correctly, Samyuktagama, from Sankibo costs 8000 yen, about 70
> Euros or so, for a paperback volume that could have been distributed by the
> author in *exactly the same form* (in pdf, allowing readers to print and
> bind it themselves) entirely freely. Why? (All the more so for fancy LaTex
> stuff...)
>
> It may be that we need to work at changing the culture of value, that we
> need to break the link between big-name publishers and scholarly value.
> Heaven knows, each and every one of us could come up with an extensive list
> of just bad books published by 'reputable' houses...
>
> I would like to emphasize that, like many of us, I *love* books, as physical
> objects among other things, and I am *not* arguing for doing away with them!
> But when you've got publishers publishing books with huge subventions from
> funding bodies, and still charging outrageous prices, (and I confess I am on
> the board of one such series), this is just, as we say to our kids, "not
> OK." Maybe, as again Birgit says, the/a way to start is with funding bodies.
> Already they stipulate from time to time exactly how much 'skim'
> universities may take from grants. Maybe we should ask them to require free
> or 'reasonably priced' publication of all works for which they pay in the
> first place? (Then, how to define 'reasonable'?)
>
> sorry--the small note became not quite so small...
>
> jonathan
>
>
> J. Silk
> Instituut Kern / Universiteit Leiden
> Postbus 9515
> 2300 RA Leiden
> Netherlands
>
>



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