Tuesday, January 11, 2011

1/7/11-- Think Of The Children

Oh, the inevitable oblivion faced by things made of paper and wires. I'll miss you, CDs.* (I will not, however, miss cursive. I know how to write my name in cursive, and that's all I've used it for for the past 6 years. Silly lying elementary school teachers, no higher education requires cursive. I don't even remember which way to slant the paper. Cursive is what italics are for.) I'll tell my kids fond tales of you, but they shall scoff, as we have in our parents' faces when told tales of record players and typewriters and things that now only serve to look cool and retro.

Seriously, though. The servers/check-out database/whatever it is that allows libraries to work their magic were down, so I stood at the counter for an extra minute and a half as the librarian filled out a detailed little card with my information on it. It struck me as a type of nostalgia. Is it possible to be nostalgic for a time period I haven't lived through? A simpler time, where people read newspapers and went outside and looked up information in books and, you know, all that.

On a more superficial note, I miss those 1950s nerd glasses. Yes, John had a pair, yes, they've experienced a resurgence in an ironic, hipster sense**, but I just really like them unironically. Preferably worn with a suit. Mm, classy.

Footnote: Take a look at the last one in that list especially. Yeah.
2nd footnote: Case in point-- before I could find a decent example, I found THIS. It's a sweatshirt. This is not what I'm talking about. Buddy Holly shows us how it's done right. This blog has become very link-y.

Postscript: This blog has been both started and finished by Rena, who started this draft during Draft January. I'm not claiming deep personal attachment to this post, but this was already kind of finished; so, having spent my free time today conjugating irregular Spanish verbs in the future tense, this post is convenient. Like microwavable noodles. Minimum effort, yet still with some content. Stir and enjoy.

1 comment:

Alex said...

This article, combined with a futuristic/dystipian book I just read called Matched, makes me undeniably sad.

I don't want technology to make us lazy and ignorant and track-able multi-taskers. I want to write letters and read novels and know how to read a map and be able to hide from people. And it kills me to think about these realities but I guess every generation has gone through similar "improvements." Look where we are now.