BOOKS « In Which I Always Imagined That Paradise Would Be A Kind Of Library »
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 9:20AM 
Computer Carrels
by MOLLY LAMBERT
Library Photographs from Curious Expeditions
There's a Bruce Springsteen song called "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)." Bruce looks better now than he did in 1990. (Doesn't everyone?) The song is about cable and how 57 channels are not enough to satisfy us. Of course now with the internet there are 57 million channels and yet sometimes, bafflingly, there can be nothing on.
As a kid I used to fantasize about watching television all night long, until it went "off." I assumed there was a manual operator who had to press a button to end TV. As an adult I have lived this fantasy many times over, as I'm sure most of you have at one time or another. Long before the advent of DVD box sets or torrenting sites, I longed to immerse myself permanently in the state of watching television. Of course I learned that TV never really does go off, it just turns into informercials for a few hours.
The internet doesn't turn into informercials *yet, but even with the ready availability of Surf The Channel and Hulu and YouTube, a seemingly endless supply of entertainment, there are times when we hit the wall. This New York magazine article speculates about whether over-stimulation makes us smarter or the opposite.
I know that before I had the internet, I watched TV, and when I couldn't do that, I read magazines and books. Distraction is nothing new. How useless the new forms of distraction (twitter, facebook, et al) is still up for debate. The author of the NY Mag piece decides that Wikipedia cannot be useless if it taught him about the Boston Molasses Disaster. If you've run out of internet, read Alex's google shares.
For those of us who enjoy libraries (and if you read This Recording, you probably do), Wikipedia is like endless rows of stacks. And there are always more videos you can watch, more articles you can read. But you still reach your limits. No matter how many channels or webpages are available, you build up a tolerance. Or you get eyestrain.
But as the internet continues, there will be more outlets. More online magazines (none as good as This Recording). New ways to dispense movies and television and images as well as the written word. Words won't get left behind. Text that is typed on a computer is every bit as authentic as something scribbled in a notebook or tapped out on a typewriter. There is no hierarchy of mediums.
"Jennifer's Body" puts a crimp in the plans for my horror comedy "Victoria's Secretions" about a girl whose vagina lubricates poison; Megan Fox thinks she’s a role model for strong, young women. The Transformers star, who recently likened herself to a prostitute, wants to help teenage girls “feel strong and intelligent and be outspoken.”
Fox also called herself a "bull dyke" this week with reference to a time she gained some weight. I wish she would stop being such a 3rd wave feminist and get on board with the 9th wave. It's feminism in the ninth dimension. Seriously Megan, I want to like you. You're so ridiculous. Get on my level ho!
Confessions of A Bookplate Junkie
How To Find Images On The Internet
THE JUKEBOX IN HEAVEN IS STOCKED WITH PRINCE
"Jack U Off" - Prince: (mp3)
"Let's Work" - Prince: (mp3)
"Annie Christian" - Prince: (mp3)
Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She also tumbls and twitters.
library, molly lambert
Reader Comments (1)
Thank you for linking to my site (ephemera) in this very well presented post. I'm glad you deemed my site worthy of inclusion.