Subject: RE: uncollected stories
From: Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Date: Sat Mar 31 2001 - 15:17:15 GMT
Department of TRUE CONFESSIONS (& Stream-of-Consciousness Ramblings
concerning the effects of new technologies on literacy)
This first confession may result in my summary extradition from the
bananafishbowl. In my filing cabinet, I've got hard copies of ALL the
uncollected stories. Stored somewhere in the hard drive of this computer
are an infinitely confusing collection of zeros and ones (Mattis will likely
tell me that this misinformed understanding of programming language is
positively pre-Cambrian....) are cyberfiles of exactly the same stories.
Ahem. I confess that I've not yet found the time to read them--either from
the printed page, or from my 'puter screen. To be honest, I probably could
have found the time. I just couldn't find the urge.
(In fact, I seem to remember expressing this dilemma openly in the
bananafishbowl, and wondering aloud whether I'd do better to read "An Ocean
Full of Bowling Balls" or re-read "The Death of Ivan Illych".... Scottie
suggested the latter. He was right.)
Actually, to confess the absolute truth, I did read some of the uncollected
stories many years ago, in bound copies of the magazines within which they
were originally printed. (Will's right about what these sometimes
unexpected journals--Good Housekeeping, Cosmo, and Mademoiselle, to name
just three--reveal about Jerry.... Maybe this is REALLY where we ought to
start looking when we want to get a grip on JDS and "women".... But I
digress.) A few of them I really liked. Others didn't do much for me at
all. Then I read "Hapworth"--sitting, cross-legged, four floors below
ground, in a dusty library stacks. That was the night that I decided I
never had to read anything about the Glass family ever again. But I cherish
the memory almost sensually. The smells, and the textures.... Isn't it
interesting that I can remember almost nothing about the story, aside from
some sort of spirtual/intellectual hypoglycaemic reaction in the pit of my
stomach?)
Ultimately, it's hard to get depressed about the effect of computer
technology on the way we lead our lives. Once it was said that movies would
destroy the theatre. Then television was going to wipe out the cinema...
Books aren't going to disappear. I'm not certain that lying on a couch
flipping pages is any 'healthier' than sitting for hours on end and staring
into a cathode tube. But I do know that the cathode tube makes it possible
for me to connect whenever I want with friends as diverse as Scottie and
Suzanne--neither of whom would ever have entered my consciousness without it.
So, here's to BOOKS!.... And here's to the INTERNET!.... And here's my vote
for re-reading "Catcher" when you're old enough to have a more mature
understanding of characters like Ol' Spencer, and Mr. Antolini, or even Horwitz.
Cheers,
Paul
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Apr 10 2001 - 13:24:06 GMT