Books carried totemic symbolic value beyond their textual content.
Evidence
In societies such as this, clinging to the edge, as they saw it, of the known world, books were valued for their totemic value as well as for their texts. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 379
Categorization
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 379
- XREF: connects to: Widespread book ownership drove the aristocracy to abandon books as status symbols — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 28; Libraries began to prize books for physical attributes over content. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 502; Books are best constructed as flexible collages of movable fragments. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1077 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Libraries began to prize books for physical attributes over content.
#corroborates(0.85) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 502 - Widespread book ownership drove the aristocracy to abandon books as status symbols
#expands(0.75) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 28 - Writers unfreeze antique feeling stored in physical objects of history
#expands(0.75) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1148 - Cultural symbols carry no fixed meaning; meaning shifts with the social field
#expands(0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1012