| The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows as little; and the whole bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. His note-books impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance-office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue—Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance" |
Today we purchase technology at a high cost, because technology not only affects our ability to survive in the natural world; it affects nature's ability to support us. Air conditioners roar through the summer, and refrigerants thin the ozone layer; cars carry us to jobs in congested cities, and auto emissions trap heat near the ground. Now we have more reason than ever to avoid the sun's rays and to seal ourselves off from the summer heat.
In cinema digital effects give substance to our fondest wishes, making film less a reflection of our complex natures than of fantasies that make us comfortable with our own prejudice. Plot too often sinks to the level of melodrama, dialogue to platitudes, and characters into depthless archetypes. Such art fails to perform art's highest function: not to reinforce but to challenge assumptions.
I say these things only by way of introduction; because, as you will see, my interests are decidedly low-tech. So you may (or not) be interested to know that I love the novels of William Faulkner, or am myself a writer of fiction, or that I enjoy hiking in the mountains, or that I am interested in the roots of Appalachian culture, its history, language, and music. But if you are interested in the homely pursuits of an obscure employee in the library of the University of Virginia, please proceed.
