Cultural Disappointment

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 02:20:49 GMT

While I'm at it, I think the depletion of culture is something to worry about too. I feel for Mark Frauenfelder and his foray into the hopeful but lost culture of the Flintstones. I have a few of my old Golden Books still, and keep them near my old editions of Shakespeare and other poetry. Their was an innocence that still went with these books, a culture of innocence now lost on most.

I think that is why his story moved me: I too have purchased those special items on eBay with rapt expectation of a superior reminiscence, a great joy of connecting to the past, and then being disappointed by my emotion being cooped by a counterfeit artifact, that is true enough, but not the one expected, and almost always the one that is a crass take off on that memory itself.

On the good side, I was in Half Price Books recently (if you can't find me, look there) and I restored to my bookshelves the original Star Fleet Technical Manual, in great condition (and in First Edition) that I had sold in days of lesser financial security. I had that feeling when I found that book on the shelf, and knew that I could keep that real connection to the days before computers when even science fiction futures were planned on drafting tables by people with pencils, gum erasers and too much time on their hands.

Here's to hoping Mark finds something else to connect with soon. It is the season. Best wishes my friend!

The Future of Information Work: Books

Cultural Disappointment