Time Travel

If I was to travel back in time to tell people about the future of books I would want to explain the importance of proper preservation and conservation. Countless collections have been lost from natural disasters and war in ancient and medieval times and if by going back in time could help change that it would be pretty great.  My problem, however, is trying to figure out what time period I would go back to.

Each era has individual and unique circumstances to book loss and the impact it has had on the history of the book. After thinking about it for a couple of days I decided the time period I would choose to go back to is the 3^rd century in Alexandria Egypt. It was in this time that the Royal Library of Alexandria was constructed. This library is well known as a symbol of the “destruction of cultural knowledge” because the library endured several fires and acts of destruction over many years.

If I could go back to this time I would explain the importance of protecting the type of literature within the library from natural disasters as well as war and why it is essential for the people of the time to focus on ways to ensure the safety of books. By explaining the importance of conservation and preservation it could potentially have an impact on the amount of books that could be saved over the years leading up until the 21^st century.

And here is a little video of Carl Sagan briefly discussing the library: 

Future of the Book and Ancient Egyptians

I am sorry it took me so long to get this post up, I spent a lot of my weekend dealing with a fractured radius.

Alright on with the post!

If I could go back to any time period, I would go back to ancient Egypt. It is my favorite period of history and I learnt a bit about ancient Egyptian literature during my undergraduate degree. The literature of ancient cultures like the Egyptians encompasses a wide variety of topics and genres, including everything from love poems to mathematical treaties. Due to the nature of the mediums used for publishing literature during this time period, such as papyrus and tablets, only a small percentage of ancient Egyptian literature has been successfully recovered by archaeologists. Yet the myths, cattle transaction records, and poems are available for readers all around the globe in translated books and online.

Therefore what I would tell them about the future of books is how the advent of the internet provides hitherto unprecedented freedom and access to knowledge and books. Wherein anyone can search up a book title and most likely purchase an online copy or have it shipped to their door. Yet I would emphasize that the purpose of books and literature has not changed so drastically as to be unrecognizable by ancient Egyptians.

For instance, books and literature in modern culture can be used as symbols of status, just like texts containing funeral spells in ancient Egypt. Similarly modern self-help books remind me of the wisdom text in ancient Egypt, which discuss the best ways to live and improve your life.

What I am trying to express is that however books change a thousand years in our future may be as incomprehensible to us as the online book, EReaders, and next day shipping would have been to the ancient Egyptian. Yet no matter how much the mediums involved in publishing and reading change, there are literary topics that have a weird universal potency.

I would tell the ancient Egyptian about the internet and EReaders because I think it is astounding that we can look back thousands of years into the history of literature, and the human race, and through books identify underlying themes that surpass changes in technology, and that connect our lives to those of our ancestors.

Thank you all for a wonderful blogging semester!

10: The Future Back Then

In 2001, this movie “Black Knight” starring Martin Lawrence was released. I’ve never seen it, but I know that the idea is that this guy who works at a medieval theme park finds some magic medallion and travels back to 14th century England. I don’t know why, but ever since I saw that trailer, every couple of months I will spend a minute or two thinking about how I would not like to time travel. All I can think about is how stressful it would be to try and accomplish the most basic tasks like finding food and shelter or to communicate with people. I think most of my time spent in a different era would include a lot of sighing. How would I even find the people who might be interested enough in the topic to talk to? What if I decided that I would like to go back to Ancient Greece and tell Socrates that I know he’s not really into writing things down, but that he should really consider it because Plato’s going to put words in his mouth either way, and instead of being zapped directly into Socrates’ house, I find myself instead in a field in central Greece with no means of getting anywhere? I would probably immediately abandon my task.

Obviously all of this is not relevant to this blogging question, but I have actually found it so difficult to think of a time period I would like to go back to. Maybe I would want to go back a few years before Gutenberg and beat him to the punch, or visit William Morris and tell him he’s doing it all right, or tell the women at Cuala Press that I want in… I guess I would be more interested in experiencing a different period of book history rather than being the harbinger of … well, death seems too strong. A harbinger of something though.

I think I ultimately agree with Polina. Maybe I would go back just a couple of years and pat my younger-self’s head, and tell myself that everything is going to be okay, and that we’ll get through this tough time together.

This video of a medieval helpdesk is not necessarily relevant, but still pretty great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Question 10- Time Travel and the Future of the Book

If I could travel back in time, I would visit Ancient Greece. Primarily, somewhere around the fourth century BCE, since I would wish to see the sights in their original glory while I am there. Presuming that I am able to converse in the native language, the really important aspect that I would tell the people about the future of the book is that reading and writing substantially increases as a form of communication and information. I would tell them that in the future nearly everyone can read. I believe somewhere near 84 percent of the world population is literate, which would be significantly higher than the past. The people may be shocked to hear such facts and it would be interesting to gauge their reactions. Every year this number increases as books and literature are progressively becoming important tools in developing and educating young minds. The act of reading is also not limited to scribes and bureaucratic vocations; people read constantly for entertainment and learning. 

I suppose the biggest difference I would tell them is that books are a new invention. No longer do we use clay, wax, and wooden tablets; we refine trees into thin sheets called paper and we bind these papers together to form a codex or book. Words are imprinted on these pages with ink (oils and dyes). Apart from this traditional book, the people of the future are continually bombarded with advertisements and textual forms of communication daily as well. While emails, blogs, and social media may not be considered books, the information that is shared seamlessly and instantly in my world would be fascinating to express.

In addition, as a final remark before I departed, the reason I would tell them all these facts would be to encourage the historians and authors to continue writing, to record as much information about their society and ideas as they can. In the future, thousands of years later, their writing, stories and accounts will be discovered and studied. I would stress the importance of words; they are tools to understanding their culture. These symbols shall provide us with the most direct interpretations, thoughts, and events of their world.