(Posted to my Fetlife blog two months ago)
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I'm about to shower and head over to shop at said bookstore for what will be the last chance I'll ever have to do so. Chicago, quite seriously, is running out of bookstores, the used bookstores dying even more quickly than the rest. Bookworks went out of business a few months ago.
There are the real reasons this is happening (namely, a local job market that treats the sort of people who would buy books poorly while rolling out the red carpet for every frat boy who passes, and soaring rents fueled by real estate speculation), but since we're all expected to believe that the "free market" can do no wrong, those reasons won't be discussed. No, instead we'll go on listening to people blather on about how bad paper books are for the enviroment, as if wood pulp were a non-renewable resource, about how books are "technologically obsolete" (as if the comfort of the reader had no impact on his ability to focus on his reading) and the few of us who will still dare to have so much as an ounce of common sense on the matter can go on wondering just how much more relevant "Fahrenheit 451" is going to become.
I mean, seriously, the stupidity heard on this subject boggles the mind. We're supposed to believe that books - BOOKS - are no longer needed, because the Internet and electronic media will do it all, as if we hadn't all experienced data loss incidents by now. Looking at the real books (not e-books) sitting on my shelves, I can see that if the publishers that produced them go out of business, I'll be sad, but ... wait for it ....
I'll still be able to read those books.
I'm not going to lose them because somebody hacked my computer, or I got malware, or somebody at Amazon decided that he personally disapproved of a title on my shelf and decided to recall all copies (even the ones already sold). Even if printing technologies change, I'm not going to be find myself unable to read or retrieve a book I own just because the technology needed to read it is no longer available, being withheld from public use by some corporate dweeb long overdue for a well-deserved swirly because "ha ha, neener neener, fuck you, he'll do what he wants." Paper and ink are durable, dependable and easily accessible, and electronic media are none of these.
Again, let's cut the (excrement). Who, reading this, has not had the experience of seeing online writing vanish because a mob of people chose to whine about it? Censorship happens in the electronic media every day. A paperless world would gradually become a more Orwellian world, because while paper and ink will go on being what they are, unresponsive the fashions of the moment, the electronic record can all too easily be deleted or tampered with. Just as in 1984, those thoughts, those historical memories that no longer suited the needs of those in power could be made to go away only with greater ease, because this could be done with the push of a relatively few buttons.
But having said that, I know that I'll get some contrarian in here arguing with me about this, as if Fetlife itself hadn't deleted a large chunk of its own site just a few months ago. "Yeah, but why would somebody do that." "Irrelevant, because somebody did it. This is a fact." "You're still not answering my question." "Oh, but I did, I just didn't do so on your terms." Without apology, I'm just going to delete those comments. But, by existing, however briefly, they might help make my point.
Why do so many people love the idea of the demise of the traditional book so much? Because the Internet is mostly trash, posted by people who aren't worth listening to, who don't really know anything about anything, and real books, written by real writers and scholars, have always been out there, making the fools on the Internet look as bad as they are, just by being there and being more worthy of being read than the contents of almost any website one will ever find. If the books go away, so does the hated, better competition, as we find outselves in a stunted, empty headed world populated by the likes of Pewdie Pie and Buzzfeed, in which maybe people might remember names like Einstein, Aristotle or Shakespeare, but as for who these men were or what they said, one opinion will be as good as any other, because the facts will have been lost along with the paper, the texts having been rewritten or fabricated to suit the popular whims of the moment.
I'll be bringing $60. It's what I can afford, today, in order to save a few pieces of civilization as it fades away, piece by piece. Maybe I'll have rice and beans toward the end of the month because of this extravagance (wouldn't be the first time), but chicken will still be there to be purchased, next month. The books won't be, so I'll set priorities and hope at least a few other people will do likewise. If it sounds like I'm saying that I don't respect the opinions of the sort of people who say that books are something that the world can do without, please do not misunderstand me. I'm not merely failing to respect their opinions, I'm deliberately choosing to not respect them, as people. I'm really, really tired of watching civilization circle the drain because G-d forbid that we should ever hurt anybody's feelings by saying that one point of view is more reasonable or responsible than another.
For G-d's sake - when the world one encounters starts looking like a mish-mash of the plots to a variety of 20th century dystopian science fiction stories because bad ideas never get challenged in anything more than a gutlessly toothless manner, maybe, just maybe we've been taking the exaggerated sensitivity and tolerance thing a little too far, in a strange way. Over on Youtube, just a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure (?) of dealing with a neo-Nazi in one of the chats who, on learning that I was Jewish (and not entirely European) started giving me death threats. When I asked the mods if they felt that this was appropriate, I was told that I should be more accepting of his point of view (namely, that I should be killed), because that was part of his belief system. Not long after that, I was put on time out, but the Nazi was left free to rant, by a mod who just couldn't (or wouldn't) understand why I found this objectionable.
There is sensitivity to be found, it's just reserved for the craziest, vilest and most stupid people around, while it is denied to those with reasonable concerns. Perhaps a better term for this would be "moral cowardice"? But ignorance can make this all seem far more palatable. Is your mod blissfully unaware of what happened the last time the Nazis had power, because she is unaware of anything that happened before Barack Obama was sworn into office for the second time? Then she might not see the issue. Ignorance is a dangerous thing. I shouldn't have to say that, but I do - ignorance is a dangerous thing. That stopped being a platitude when it creased to be widely believed. The disappearance of the written word moves us closer to a dangerous and depleted future in which ignorance will be a given.
If somebody can't see what's wrong with that, I don't know what to say to him. $60? I think I'll bring $80, even if Wikipedia is going to make the universities (and libraries and bookstores) obsolete in the eyes of some.
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I soon got a comment from a lady in California:
"I love the ability to turn actual paper pages, dog ear specific
references, highlight paragraphs, and pencil comments in margins. The
local reknown indy used book store in my city closed a few years ago,
and I still miss it. Is there something wrong with me in the fact that
my word reference book is an actual 20-pound (reduced print) OED and not
dictionary.com? I understand what you are saying, and I am in total
agreement."
to which I replied:
"'Is there something wrong with me in the fact that my word
reference book is an actual 20-pound (reduced print) OED and not
dictionary.com?'
'I understand what you are saying, and I am in total agreement.'
Thanks. I got a few more days of shopping in, because the lady who used to run Bookworks (also closed) was mistaken - Selected Works did not close down until yesterday. I was their last customer, ever and they gave me the store lei as a token of appreciation. The deals were amazing - 80% off - so I bought as much as I had the money and space for (pending the purchase of new bookshelves) and fleshed out the history section of my personal library.
I tried to get people over, but I just didn't have time to get word around. There were a lot of good books left on those shelves, headed to the Hyde park / Kenwood community book fair. The good news is that the University of Chicago (which is mostly a grad school) is down there, so a lot of those books will find good homes in which they will be read and appreciated. But I am distressed to think about what will happen to the ones that go unsold. Off to the landfill, I imagine. But maybe I imagine incorrectly. I hope so, because otherwise, what a waste.
Meanwhile, the number of clothing and furniture stores in this city seems to rise by the day. How often does one need to buy a new couch? People confuse me."
A month later, I heard from a member of our local community who I've met a few times:
"I did not know it closed. My current favorite used book stores are Ravenswood on Montrose and Afterwords on Illinois by State."
Always good to know about new stores. I'll have to remember to thank her. Yes, yes, I'm catching up. Maybe if I would have wasted less time trying to reason with the clowns on Youtube, I would have caught up a lot sooner. There's a problem - I'm active on so many different sites, that I don't have time to keep up with them all.