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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Double Fold

















I just finished Double Fold by Nicholson Baker and I am going to have to conclude that it is worse than what I previously thought (the vanishing books in my local library).  I recommend that my readership read Bakers book and start trying to collect these books from libraries all over the place and save them from the dump.  From what I am gathering, we (society) are creating an Easter Island type of scenario with libraries (the island) by microfilm, and digitizing and discarding the originals.  It is not clear that the substances that microfilm, and CD ROM are sustainable or any more durable than the paper copies!
All my life I have observed my fellow humans throwing out the old and outdated in order to bring in the new.  Just last week some neighbor put out an oak kitchen table by the dumpster.  Next to that was the box that the new kitchen table from target had come in.  I scratched my head.  How could someone value a made in China particle board flimsy kitchen table, over a valuable antique?  I realize we are living in a disposable society...or so the powers that be would have us believe.  Perhaps the Mayans just ran out of paper before they could finish their calendar.  Those people on Easter Island should have got online and just ordered more trees before they ran out.  And what of the tower of Babel?  Perhaps there is more to that story than a simple paragraph can explain.  I say, grab those discards dear readers and if you have to, line every wall and available space in your house with them.  Use them as insulation!  By the time the rest of the world figures out that the plastic replica's of the book, is not the book, and not readable without artificial light and fuel to purchase the material and light....it will be too late.  We have already used up half the oil in the ground, and the other half is not going to be that easy to get!  All this stuff, cell phones, computer chips, microfilm....not sustainable when you consider that we have used half the oil and tripled the population on the planet.  Don't throw your paper copies away, and make sure you watch the discard bins in your own local library.  It would not be the first time so called humanity has went down a false path and lost valuable artifacts along the way.

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