Casualties of Modern Technology (12 of 12)-Paperback Novels

We conclude our long-running series on Casualties of Modern Technology with an ode to the paperback novel. Though it still exists as a media and entertainment form, the paperback novel is increasingly being voted off the island in favor of electronic reading gadgets, such as Kindle and The Nook.

It was a common practice for the cover of a paperback novel to be tied into a film if one was being made of the novel, as was the case with Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (pictured). My late grandmother in South Carolina actually gave me a copy of this novel with the the image of Jack Nicholson, but I have no idea what has happened to it.

There also have instances when a film became a book as was the case when Steven Spielberg penned his very own novel version of his 1977 film "Close Encounters of the third Kind."

In some incarnations, the paperback novel was known as an airport novel, which were usually fast-paced novels that a traveler could read while flying Air France from Chicago to Paris.

Earlier editions of the paperback novel were the dime novels, which originated at the outset of the 20th century; some of these works were actually sold for fifteen cents.

Quote of the Day/Week- Warren Beatty

Today, we conclude our month-long quotes from Oscar-winning film directors with a quote from Warren Beatty, who is better known as an actor.

Beatty won the Oscar over Steven Spielberg ("Raiders of the Lost Ark") who subsequently won a Best Director Oscar for "Schindler's List" for the film "Reds"
(1981).

Beatty, who was established as a rising star in Hollywood, cemented his place in Tinseltown with "Bonnie and Clyde" (1968) which also made him a bona fide international star.

The actor who was also known for his great off-screen affairs with some of the industry's most gorgeous actresses, including the French actress Leslie Caron, made his directorial debut with "Heaven Can Wait" (1978, which he he co-directed with Buck Henry). In the film, which also starred another Beatty flame in Julie Christie, he played an aging quarterback for the the then-Los Angeles Rams.

At the time, many people in the media observed how the character resembled Joe Namath, who had recently retired in 1977 when he was quarterback for the real life L.A. Rams.

Here is Beatty's quite ironic quote:

"For me, the highest level of sexual excitement is in a monogamous relationship."