Book cover clichés: have you spotted recurrent designs?

Certain themes and stories seem to be packaged with a particular aesthetic. Have you spotted this trend? Share your examplesWhy is it that books about Africa always look the same? A recent article on the blog Africa is a Country demonstrated that "the covers of most novels 'about Africa' seem to have been designed by someone whose principal idea of the continent comes from The Lion King" - reducing it, no matter the subject, geographical area or writer, to an acacia tree and a sunset. This followed a Twitterstorm triggered by a tweet from SimonMStevens:Like so many (wildly varying) writers on Africa, Adichie gets the acacia tree sunset treatment... (@AfricasaCountry) pic.twitter.com/zMQtirfrQ9.@SimonMStevens @AfricasaCountry See also soulful-black-woman-with-colourful-smudges e.g. UK pb eds of Adichie's bks. pic.twitter.com/bt7kUcaP06There is a peculiar phenomenon in English-language publishing in Southeast Asia: a ubiquitous genre perhaps best thought of as Asian sleaze. It spans fiction and non-fiction, but the cover generally features a partially clothed woman with long black hair, either in silhouette, or viewed from behind. The title is usually something along the lines of Bangkok Velvet. The author is always a white man. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]

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