Updike Covers Book Covers

While TAP is admittedly two issues behind in reading the printed New Yorker, one article which was posted online this week seemed worthy of a quick read ahead. "Oh my, he's still alive? - well, good for him" was the first thing that came to mind when noting that John Updike had written a piece on the art of cover art, entitled "Deceptively Conceptual." After the initial shock of being reminded of Updike's near-biblical longevity, TAP was fascinated with the idea that modern "computer-generated" covers were cold and cluttered. Perhaps it is a modern aesthetic born of a rearing in the cold and cluttered actuality of today, but TAP finds great warmness in the contrast between cover art today, that evokes Rothko rather than Raphael, and the texts themselves, if only that the dearth of humanity on the covers illuminates the presence of it inside. Maybe it's just that Updike fears that the quickly dulling shine of his own words, and those of his nearly extinct contemporaries, becomes more obvious when wrapped in chromed and machined covers that nonetheless seem more alive that what's inside. Regardless, TAP picked up "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" solely based upon its cover, so there.