The great transatlantic dust jacket con-job

16 June 2007

I’m irate.¹ When I buy my godless propoganda, I want it garish and in-your-face so that I can sit on the bus on the way to work and read it and all around me can see that I think religion is a bunch of hokum, and that I don’t give a flying shit who knows it.

I’ve bought a few books recently, in hardback, and have been completely disappointed by the dust jackets on offer over here. Take for example Dawkins’ The God Delusion:

The God Delusion, US dust jacket

In the USA the cover is silvered: shiny, alluring to the eye (for the same reason that they put mirrors in lifts (elevators) no doubt). It screams “notice and read me! Take me home! I’m valuable!”.

In the UK, we have this:

The God Delusion, UK dust jacket

It’s a little classier, yes, but otherwise it’s completely lifeless. Who is going to notice that? It’s the sort of cover that wouldn’t look at all out of place on the bookshelf of someone whose collection consists of nothing but Readers’ Digest novels². My copy of TDG, in it’s best upper-middle class accent, drolls “yes, well, I wouldn’t really want to put you out, but, if you must read me…” Who’s going to throw me the evil eye from the other aisle of the bus on seeing that cover?

Then we come to my most recent purchase in the domain of nontheistic literature, Hitchens’ God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything:

God is not Great, US dust jacket

Look at that baby! Bright fricken yellow, an eye-rending ophthalmic-test style title in a trendy modern typeface — how in-your-face is that? Who, on the daily work-bus wouldn’t notice it? Nobody, that’s who.

Actually, that isn’t the book I bought: oh no. What I bought was Hitchens’ new God Is Not Great: The Case Against Religion:

God is not Great, UK dust jacket

The what? The Case Against Religion? Nononono! I want to know How Religion Poisons Everything! Hitchens writes “religion poisons everything” within the text of the book, so why change the cover? I’m quite sure that if Hitchens wrote “Well, yes, one might now see how this is the case against religion” at the end of a chapter, it carries quite a different message.

And, one might notice, the dust jacket for this book (which may or may not have the same bloody guts as it’s transatlantic cousin) is not too far removed from the offensive UK cover of Dawkins’ title: again, it’s dark and broody, with plenty of red and again a serifed typeface. The people on the bus will think I’ve been reading the same book for months!

Perhaps publishers think that we Brits can only read something if it’s covered in serifs. Or perhaps they think that we need to pretend to be more reserved in our treatment of religion, just in case the commuting hip, young vicar with his Starbucks chai and Bench knapsack is looking. We wouldn’t want to offend his sensibilities, would we?

Fuck no: I want my atheism raw, unfiltered, without affectedness and as full of life as it can be. If I wanted to suck the marrow out of it, as with anything, I’d join a fucking cult.

Yes, this is a rant, and contains swearing. If you’re offended by such language, stop reading now. [↩]
not that I have anything against Readers’ Digest, I even have some of their books myself, but I have many others too [↩]

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2928 Responses2007-06-16+00%3A29%3A07nullifidian to “The great transatlantic dust jacket con-job”

tobe38 on June 16th, 2007 1:22 am

I noticed the different UK subtitle on GiNG. I agree, it’s tame. Fortunately, I bought my copy off amazon.com, so I’ve got the sexy vibrant poisoning yellow version!
nullifidian on June 16th, 2007 1:34 am

Indeed. I had it in my wishlist, so I didn’t notice the cover initially. I think I might have to invest in the “alternative” version too.
Greg on June 16th, 2007 3:42 am

The “God Is Not Great” subtitle (and cover) switch is a damned shame. Maybe you can replace the dust jacket with pages ripped from an inexpensive periodical devoted to adult photography, or maybe the “I has a hymen” photo!
TW on June 16th, 2007 10:06 am

I agree with you on God Is Not Great, but I actually prefer the UK cover of God Delusion.

The US one subdues the book title (as it does with Hitchen’s book, but in a different way) and obscures (IMHO) the nature of the book. You may as well be reading an autobiography…

:-)
panj on June 16th, 2007 10:16 am

I agree. I think “The Case Against Religion” weakens the impact so I orderd a US copy which is taking a long time to arrive.

I still do not know if “Monastica Toxicum Totus” is a correct translation of Religion Poisons Everything.

panj
nullifidian on June 16th, 2007 11:47 am

panj wrote:

I still do not know if â€œMonastica Toxicum Totusâ€ is a correct translation of Religion Poisons Everything.

Indeed. You don’t want to end up like Brian and having to write it out correctly 100 times on the walls of the city. :-)

As it happens, I read recently in The Independent that the “corrected” Latin in The Life of Brian wasn’t actually correct.
Bruceinthe7th on June 16th, 2007 12:16 pm

I agree. How about Francis Bacon’s “Study after VelÃ¡zquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X” for Hitchens’ book. Or even better, “Figure with Meat”.

I’m rather surprised that Hitchins permitted “The Case Against Religion” to be used.
The Exterminator on June 16th, 2007 8:01 pm

Well, the U.S. version of The God Delusion tends to fade beside other books, because its color doesn’t stand out — particularly when it’s on a shelf with only its spine showing.

God is not Great looks like a big yellow book about something “GREAT.” It’s not until you get close that you can even read the other words in the title. And worse, bright yellow is not a “serious” color, a subliminal clue that the text should be taken with a grain of salt, like a kids’ book. I do agree that the American subtitle is more powerful; but it’s more confrontational, too — and, perhaps, less likely to encourage a purchase by believers. So then we’re left with yet another volume preaching atheism to atheists.

If it were up to me, both books would have stark black covers with raised white lettering and perhaps a splash of red somewhere. I think the Brit version of The God Delusion comes close. It looks “important,” and it seems to have gravitas.