What would you have bought – an air pump, or a printing machine? What can you read? Does the idea of ‘writing’ automatically lead to the idea of ‘book’? Do you worship books? But, also immerse them in rivers? ‘Who’ has written the divine texts, & why? Do you (still) read aloud? Does the nature of support (say, clay tablet…) determine the writing style (…cuneiform)? Are media effects deterministic? What made paper cheap? What made/makes it to books? Why did the printing press not take off in Goa in the 16th century? Can there be complex societies without writing systems? Did print revolutionize both the Word and the Image? Why are full old books now often dismembered? Do ur-objects exist? Do books ‘want’ to be edited and ‘re-read’? Was copy always an antonym of original? Does writing have to be read to be effective? Can you play Bach just by reading an early 18th century music sheet? Are machines making impossible books possible again? Will physical books always remain a highly political object? Will we be able to read against the grain in the future? &, will writing/reading always be there (even if books disappear)? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from book history & literary studies (Prof. Swapan Chakravorty, Presidency University, Kolkata), art history (Dr. Yael R. Rice, Amherst College, Amherst), & heritage conservation (Anupam Sah, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai). Listen in...

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