a work of fiction?

so i just started reading Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel . i literally just started (i am only on page 14) but i am loving this excerpt where Henry, the main character and an author, is trying to get a Flipbook published:


"Where do you see the book being displayed?" asked the bookseller, as he chewed on his food with an open mouth. "In the fiction section or the nonfiction?"

"Ideally both," Henry replied.

"Not going to happen. Too confusing. Do you know how much stock a bookstore handles? And if we have to worry about turning the book every which way so the right cover is facing out, we'll never see the end of it. And where are you going to put the bar code? It always goes on the back cover. Where do you put a bar code on a book with two front covers?"

"I don't know," said Henry "On the spine."

"Too narrow."

"On the inside flap"

"Cashiers can't be opening the book up, looking for it everywhere. And what if the book is plastic wrapped?"

"On a little wraparound band."

"They tear and fall off. And then you don't have a bar code at all- a nightmare."

"I don't know then. I wrote my book on the Holocaust without worrying about where the fucking bar code would go."

ah, the constraints of corporate culture on the creative process. sounds awfully familiar...