Sherry Chandler » medium is the message
medium is the message
At the Guild Fair last weekend Virginia Petty had a booth where she sat patiently making intricate baskets out of a variety of fibers. I was taken by one basket which was the melding of an old pair of jeans into a fibrous paper , which she had also made. It reminded me of a class I took some 30 years ago which tried to induce in spoiled boomers the discipline necessary to examine and to classify literary artifacts from the 16th and 17th centuries. One object we looked at very closely was a home-made book painstakingly assembled from a variety of different papers. The book was only 20 pages or so but there were at least five and maybe as many as seven different papers collected. You could see differences in the rag fibers and one fellow with extra-sharp eyes noticed one page had a gilded edge. Paper was so expensive that it was hoarded and reused.
Our culture is grossly ignorant of just how rare and precious some common items once were. We may regain some respect for the precious when oil production peaks, if it has not done so already.
The Latin word liber may refer to freedom, a child [who is free of responsibilities] or a freedman, who is free of his servitude. It also may refer to the loose or “free” inner bark of certain trees, upon which the early Romans were wont to write with ink. Therefore liber also came to mean “book.”
I recall having seen an article a few months ago which described the recent excavation of the trash heap of a Roman garrison in the wilds of Britain. Drafts of several letters home were discovered, written, if I recall correctly, on bark. No doubt they were abortive attempts to describe how grateful the locals were for having been provided with such a golden opportunity to reform their barbarian ways.
Possibly related posts:
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Leave a comment