232 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
232 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
From mv@liisa.pp.fi Sat Mar 28 04:18:49 1998
|
|
X-Delivered: at request of bin on uncle
|
|
Received: from liisa.pp.fi (liisa.pp.fi [193.66.64.231])
|
|
by uncle.ssc.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id EAA28440
|
|
for <gazette@ssc.com>; Sat, 28 Mar 1998 04:18:44 -0800
|
|
Received: from liisa.pp.fi (liisa.pp.fi [127.0.0.1])
|
|
by liisa.pp.fi (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id OAA02340
|
|
for <gazette@ssc.com>; Sat, 28 Mar 1998 14:17:26 +0200
|
|
Message-Id: <199803281217.OAA02340@liisa.pp.fi>
|
|
X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97
|
|
To: gazette@ssc.com
|
|
From: "Martin Vermeer" <mv@liisa.pp.fi>
|
|
Reply-to: mv@fgi.fi, mv@liisa.pp.fi
|
|
Subject: Tale
|
|
Mime-Version: 1.0
|
|
Content-Type: multipart/mixed ;
|
|
boundary="==_Exmh_20628104160"
|
|
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 14:17:22 +0200
|
|
Sender: mv@liisa.pp.fi
|
|
Status: RO
|
|
|
|
This is a multipart MIME message.
|
|
|
|
--==_Exmh_20628104160
|
|
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
|
|
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
|
|
|
|
Hi,
|
|
|
|
some material, this time of the "far-out" variety. I hope you can use it!=
|
|
|
|
|
|
Martin
|
|
-- =
|
|
|
|
Martin Vermeer mv@liisa.pp.fi mv@fgi.fi =
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--==_Exmh_20628104160
|
|
Content-Type: text/plain; name="tale.html"; charset=iso-8859-1
|
|
Content-Description: tale.html
|
|
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
|
|
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="tale.html"
|
|
|
|
<HTML>
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
<META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-=
|
|
8859-1">
|
|
<META NAME=3D"GENERATOR" CONTENT=3D"Mozilla/4.04 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2=
|
|
=2E0.31 i486) [Netscape]">
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
<BODY TEXT=3D"#663300" BGCOLOR=3D"#FFFF99" LINK=3D"#0000EF" VLINK=3D"#511=
|
|
88E" ALINK=3D"#FF0000">
|
|
|
|
<H1>
|
|
A tale in writing</H1>
|
|
I suppose most of you are like me, every evening watching the tv, and on
|
|
friday going out and renting the latest DV's from the corner store. Every=
|
|
body
|
|
does that; after work, you want some fun and don't want to think too much=
|
|
,
|
|
and those stories are quite good, actually. Of course they all look the
|
|
same, after a while; I suppose that's what you get when one company is
|
|
controlling all production. But at least it's safe for the kids to watch.=
|
|
|
|
You know what to expect for your money.
|
|
|
|
<P>Now the other day, a couple years ago, a funny thing happened to me.
|
|
A friend -- I won't tell you his name -- put this thing into my hands.
|
|
A small rectangular thing, you could put it into your pocket. No power
|
|
chord; funny. And you could open it, just like that. Inside, sheets and
|
|
sheets of white paper bound together; and on those sheets, small black
|
|
marks, thousands of them. You could open the thing -- a <I>book</I>, they=
|
|
|
|
call it -- at any point; it is random-access, just like a video disk, if
|
|
you know what I mean. Not like those oldfashioned video tapes that you
|
|
have to reel to get to the point you want.
|
|
|
|
<P>Now the most fascinating thing about this <I>book</I>, and those black=
|
|
|
|
markings: they <I>mean</I> something! Some people actually look at them
|
|
and get the meaning straightaway, turning page after page, taking in a
|
|
complete story as if they were watching it from the DV screen. I looked
|
|
at it with amazement. It was really baffling -- there were just these bla=
|
|
ck
|
|
signs on the paper, rows and rows of them, <I>letters</I> and <I>words</I=
|
|
>
|
|
and <I>sentences</I> -- and as dead as doornails. But the moment someone
|
|
capable of taking them in, looked at them, they turned into a living stor=
|
|
y,
|
|
with really living people talking back to the person looking at the book!=
|
|
|
|
You know, I got all worked up about it, when the reality of the thing was=
|
|
|
|
finally penetrating. Some of those words even referred to <I>non-existing=
|
|
</I>
|
|
things. Boy, this was <I>wild</I> stuff!
|
|
|
|
<P>I wanted to learn this too. I told my friend, and he said "you want
|
|
to learn to read? Sure!". That's how I started learning to read books.
|
|
It wasn't easy, mind you. It was a lot of hard work, and took me many mon=
|
|
ths
|
|
before I would be able to understand the meaning even of simple <I>text
|
|
</I>(sorry for the jargon). Several times, I would quit in desperation.
|
|
But suddenly it started to make sense, and things would miraculously come=
|
|
|
|
to life before my mind's eyes -- without any television screen, just me
|
|
and my mind. A new universe opened itself to me!
|
|
|
|
<P>Through my friend, I met other people who had gone through the same
|
|
experience. What struck me was, how friendly and helpful -- and <I>civili=
|
|
zed</I>
|
|
-- they all were. They didn't look down on me for only recently having
|
|
joined their ranks; no, they helped me, provided me with books to read,
|
|
and gradually I became versed in the ways of this new culture, and made
|
|
a habit of reading books all the time. If only I could explain the experi=
|
|
ence,
|
|
of real people from near and far, coming to life just from dead marks on
|
|
paper, no electricity, no display screen involved, no nothing... just the=
|
|
|
|
miraculous working of the unaided human mind...
|
|
|
|
<P>My family was worried about me; they witnessed with growing concern
|
|
how my previous voracious appetite for digital video cartridges all but
|
|
disappeared -- those are really, and I mean <I>really</I>, mediocre and
|
|
devoid of imagination once you get to know books -- and I would withdraw
|
|
with these weird, archaic-looking rectangular paper objects, spiritualist=
|
|
ic
|
|
stuff that sane people would not have anything to do with... I tried, wit=
|
|
h
|
|
little luck, to explain to them what had happened to me.
|
|
|
|
<P>Now, reading has become a way of life for me; I sometimes withdraw to
|
|
remote places, with just books as company. On one occasion I climbed a
|
|
tree to read a book while sitting up there; damned uncomfortable, but I
|
|
just wanted to show to myself that <I>it could be done</I>, as book=
|
|
s
|
|
have no power cord etc. Since I've found out that this is rather typical
|
|
behaviour for newbie reading geeks. Or, I go out and meet my reading frie=
|
|
nds,
|
|
and discuss at length all the things of common interest. There is no end
|
|
to it really.
|
|
|
|
<P>A funny thing about the reading subculture is that you can get a discu=
|
|
ssion
|
|
going about the most far-out and irrelevant subjects. I remember a heated=
|
|
|
|
debate going on over many evenings on <I>where the page numbers</I> (the
|
|
sequence numbers added to the pages in a book to more easily refer to the=
|
|
m)<I>
|
|
should be put</I>: bottom right, bottom middle or top right! One would
|
|
imagine that better uses for one's time could be found... and then there
|
|
are books containing, in addition to text, pictures. These are a sort of
|
|
hybrid between "real" books and digital video's. I have been told that
|
|
they may help to spread the reading art to a broader audience... others,
|
|
however, especially the veteran reading subculture members, are disgusted=
|
|
|
|
by this, saying that it contaminates the true and noble art and is a conc=
|
|
ession
|
|
to commercialism -- meaning, of course, Universal Digital Video Inc.
|
|
|
|
<P>One thing I also learned, was that books, or texts, are somethin=
|
|
g
|
|
you can produce yourself. You can put black marks on paper -- <I>writing<=
|
|
/I>,
|
|
they call it -- until you got the equivalent of a book made all by you.
|
|
Then, when people read your book, <I>you</I> spring to life before <I>the=
|
|
ir</I>
|
|
eyes, and you can tell them whatever you want -- without even appearing
|
|
before a camera! Imagine.
|
|
|
|
<P>Not that producing <I>text</I> is easy! I know, because I tried it.
|
|
I still do it to keep a record of my experiences, for later (I have since=
|
|
|
|
learned that many people do this). But the things I have tried to <I>writ=
|
|
e</I>
|
|
for others turned out rather awful. It takes skill and training, lots of
|
|
training, to produce something worthwhile! That's what experienced writer=
|
|
s
|
|
have told me. They also kindly offered to help me develop my skills. Perh=
|
|
aps
|
|
someday...
|
|
|
|
<P>All this has been now several years past. You may have noticed, from
|
|
the above, how helpful people in the reading subculture are towards newco=
|
|
mers;
|
|
they really go to great lengths to help you, <I>if you are prepared to
|
|
learn</I>. They have little patience with intellectual laziness. And you
|
|
know something: I too, quite automatically and selfevidently adopted the
|
|
rules of the subculture, and I too find myself instructing newcomers in
|
|
the noble art and its cultural premises. And I <I>am</I> writing texts
|
|
that are read by people, about things existing and non-existing, about
|
|
people living and dead and imaginary, in the comforting knowledge that,
|
|
by my writing, all this <I>does</I> exist, and all these people <I>do</I>=
|
|
|
|
live, in a very real sense. Figure that. It is indeed better to give than=
|
|
|
|
to receive!
|
|
|
|
<P>As a final word, I have referred to the community of reading people
|
|
-- literates, they call themselves -- as a subculture. Numerically this
|
|
is true, but I find it unfortunate. They should be the mainstrain culture=
|
|
!
|
|
Think, however, of the effort required to teach the <I>whole population</=
|
|
I>
|
|
the art of reading! This would be obviously quite unthinkable. Imagine,
|
|
a fully literate population! Bullshit. So, a subculture it will undoubted=
|
|
ly
|
|
remain, and I have been fortunate and privileged to have been able to joi=
|
|
n
|
|
it. You can too -- you only have to <I>want</I> it hard enough.
|
|
|
|
<P>Welcome to my world!
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<ADDRESS>
|
|
Martin Vermeer</ADDRESS>
|
|
|
|
<ADDRESS>
|
|
mv@liisa.pp.fi</ADDRESS>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>Any similarity to real circumstances in the real world is wholly and
|
|
fully intentional.
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
</HTML>
|
|
|
|
--==_Exmh_20628104160--
|
|
|
|
|