Transposing "A Treatise on Fortune Telling" to the Newspaper Medium
Ultimately, a newspaper’s primary goal is to convey facts. A text created for determining one’s fortune inherently does not adhere to this objective. Nonetheless, newspapers—even well esteemed publications such as The New York Times—have published items that resemble a modern-day version of a pre-19th century fortuneteller’s guide, even if the text is merely a customized measure of one’s workplace toxicity.
Evidently, it is possible (to a certain degree) to transpose a primitive book for fortune telling to a newspaper medium, with the drawback that readers will not view it with the seriousness and attention that it had received at the time of its creation. Most newspapers are secular, describing relevant, worldly events. When papers such as The New York Times publishes quizzes—items as close to “fortunes” as can be found in such a newspaper—they are typically for leisurely enjoyment, appearing in a Saturday or Sunday edition. While a professional and skilled fortune-teller originally read the Treatise on Fortune Telling, such a text would now be skimmed in newsprint by a skeptical, educated, contemporary audience. As this Boston Globe story conveys, fortune telling is not considered a talent, as it likely was at the time of the Treatise’s creation.
In addition, while little inference needs to be made after reading a newspaper story—a medium that conveys facts plainly and accurately—understanding the Treatise on Fortune Telling likely requires much thought and foresight after reading the text, a skill that a modern-day audience would neither have nor appreciate.
Moreover, the unique aesthetics of the centuries-old fortune-telling guide would not be preserved if it were portrayed as a newspaper. The Treatise is a handwritten manuscript; its most striking feature is the carefully painted animals (it is based on the Zodiac system that consists of twelve animals) and gods that flank the handwritten text.
The artistic significance of this hand-made medium contrasts the aesthetics of a modern newspaper, which is printed—reflective of technological advances and a contemporary requirement for mass production. While the Treatise on Fortune Telling appeared to have been a unique book, placed in the hands of very few, newspapers—each one identical due to printing technologies—can be found at the doorstep nearly every person in the nation each morning. If this fortune-telling pamphlet were printed as a newspaper, it would lose its sacred nature due to the large-scale reproducibility of newsprint. Moreover, the hand-painted pictures on thick paper—images that make the Treatise a work of art—would now be merely printed with ink on thin paper, easily torn and smudged.
However, it is important to note that although newspapers still have a modern-day audience, they are perhaps as old as the 17th century. Therefore, although newspapers fulfill modern-day needs for mass circulation, the obstacles that would prevent the Treatise from thriving in the form of newsprint are not related to the age of each text, as the Treatise was published before 1844; the newspaper may therefore be an even older media than the Treatise.
Not only would the mode of publication of this fortune telling text be changed if it was adapted to the newspaper medium, but its layout would become altered as well. In its original form, the Treatise resembles both a book and a scroll—its pages can both be turned like a contemporary book, or they can be laid out across a surface. It is most easily read as a pamphlet, with several panels visible simultaneously. It is difficult to even image how the text would be read as a newspaper, which has a layout that is universal regardless of the city of publication. Perhaps the Treatise would be published in sections; phrases such as “Continued on page A3” may be necessary. It would also be impossible to print the entire Treatise in one edition of a newspaper; it would likely become a series over many days, weeks, or even months for the entire text to be published. This would destroy the practicality of the fortune-telling text, as it is not to be read from start to finish, but is used as a guide; every part of the text is equally important, and thus cannot be revealed piecemeal.
Perhaps, in some ways, a modern audience would handle the Treatise on Fortune Telling in a similar manner as a newspaper as it has currently been treated in its original medium. For example, Harvard historians or librarians have covered pornographic images in the text with pieces of thick paper. Newspapers also practice similar forms of censorship.
The New York Times, one of the most respectable newspapers in the nation, chose not to print images published by Charlie Hebdo, a French satire publication that faced an attack on its staff last year. Even in 2015, liberal newspapers still declined to publish images that may be deemed offensive to its large audience of readers. Thus, just as the original Treatise in its present state contains pictures that are concealed, the text would likely face similar censorship in the newspaper medium.
Ultimately, the hand-painted pictures are an essential feature for interpreting the Treatise on Fortune Telling; the images, along with the text, were necessary for a fortune teller to determine one’s future. Similarly, images are often a necessary in a journalism article for readers to fully understand the significance and context of a news story.
The image of President Obama, the nation’s first African American president, standing with his wife and children enhances the historical context of the news story, and the celebratory nature of the event. Moreover, the image of the monstrous titanic about to sink, smoke billowing in the air, adds a layer of terror to the story that text alone could not convey. In the case of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, it is difficult for readers to understand the offensive implications of the drawings that the newspaper published without actually viewing them.
Therefore, although newspapers would eradicate much of the utility and aesthetics of the original Treatise, it would preserve its quality of images interacting with text. In both media, images and written words complement one another, giving the text as a whole a purpose.