As most of the Western world has noticed by now, there’s a book been released about the presidency of one Donald Trump – called Fire and Fury. Those on the right are aghast that free speech in America means lefties can publish alleged truths about righties. Those on the left consumed the text to reaffirm their convictions that the man should be convicted.
Me? I don’t care. To be clear: I don’t care about the book; I do care that someone I didn’t elect (as I don’t live in the US) has so much power over my life. So the content might be true or it might be not. I am in no position to judge so I don’t – at least not on this issue.
Why mention the thing at all? Well, I read an interesting take on the whole affair which boiled down to the front cover design: why was it so rubbish?
Perhaps the idea was to find something fresh to say, which was controversial, about an already controversial book. Dunno. But I actually disagree with the article. The stark, simplistic design perfectly echoes the content. It screams out: I am a non-fiction book about politics. The picture of Trump supplements this idea by honing the message about politics to a simple phrase: Donald Trump. What more does it need to do?
I have just been figuring out what the front cover of Powder is going to look like. The tale is crime fiction and focuses on the business of drug dealing: cocaine, heroin and the like. And I also wanted to add an air of mystery and not make it a white mountain reminiscent of every scene of the de Palma version of Scarface.
That’s all.
