Comments | lachrymose: Variables

lachrymose

Variables

Mar 27, 2002 01:42

Despite our better efforts, ink on paper is a poor medium for preserving records, its lifespan astoundingly finite as the ink begins to fade the very moment it is set on the already-withering paper. Other forms of physical record fare no better, many of them disintegrating, most fading into obscurity or obsolescence. Time itself seems forgetful. I ( Read more... )

Comments 17

bakatenshi March 27 2002, 02:01:25 UTC

I wonder.

but god, I hate math.

(The comment has been removed)

Re: Just leigh down. bakatenshi March 27 2002, 02:21:14 UTC

everything is funny to everyone
a joke is found in every word of drama.

What is life? The moths say Laughter, Laughter! ex_relativit21 March 27 2002, 04:34:13 UTC

Oh, of course.
Everyone's afraid of intensity, nowadays.

a_me March 27 2002, 02:40:05 UTC

so equally wonderful and destructive it seems to find fading scrawled ink.
a mess of memories
sometimes neatly tied and secretly stored in a box.
sometimes lost to the sharp snatch of the wind in a busy street.
sometimes sometimes laid perfectly where they stay to be found.

bloodcicle March 27 2002, 06:32:47 UTC

That's why I keep a diary on slabs of stone.
Hey, it worked for Moses.

primroseport March 27 2002, 07:16:32 UTC

Something funny: Britain has this great big book, the title of which I can't remember, written in some other century about all things British. I guess it's a book of British culture, state of affairs, etc. Well, In 1980-something, Britain began the new version of this book, only in an electronic medium, with media of all sorts--pics, sounds, etc. What's funny? Now that the new version is almost done, it's absolutely obsolete. It can't be read on any commercial machine.

The old book? Still perfectly usable in some old important library somewhere.

nuh-uhhhhh. scythrop March 27 2002, 07:36:40 UTC

We have 800-year-old handwritten things at work that are as clear as the day the ink dried, as well as 10-year-old digital files that have suffered bit rot and are unsalvageable. (There's also technical obsolescence to think about.) Quality ink on durable paper, stored properly*, will outlast any digital or magnetic storage medium.

*Sub-commode storage of archival & museum manuscripts & artifacts has been highly discouraged by most preservation experts for at least the past 20 years.