Doing It Old-School

A little while ago, my brother found an honest to goodness vintage typewriter at my grandma's house.  And today, I was finally able to get my hands on it.  I set it on the kitchen table, the aroma of dinner's baked potatoes melded with the smell of ink and paper.  I inhaled deeply and brushed the tip of my finger reverently along the keys.  Tentatively, I pressed one.  "Click!" it responded.  I smiled and inwardly squirmed with delight.  I pressed a few more keys.  Soon, the timpani of clicks and bangs filled my ears as I poured my mind out onto the page.  Then, I reached the end of the line.  I held my breath in reverent anticipation.  I pulled the lever, "swish," and then... "DING!"  I knew then what was the most beautiful sound for a writer's ears.  A timeless moment later, I reached the end of the page.  Triumphantly, I pressed the caps button.  My fingers hovered for a moment, then typed "THE END."  But I knew deep in my heart, this wasn't the end, this was just the beginning.

A Fine For Personal Contact?

The other day I received notification in the mail to renew my driver's license.  Pretty standard stuff, but one thing that jumped out at me was a statement that issued an additional $5 fine for renewing it in person at the DMV.  Now I understand that the DMV can be as crowded as Charon's boat across the Styx, and they want to try to make it more manageable, but this is touching on a much larger issue in society.  Increasingly, society has become more and more dehumanized.  We live in the era of online banking, online job applications, online friends (Facebook, anyone?).  Gone are the days of going to the bank and interacting with a human, and telling them, "Hello, how are you?  Have a wonderful day!"  No longer are job applications personal and one on one.  Now, your application is just another computer document, with no face or personality to associate with it.  You and your application are reduced to facts and numbers by a disinterested employer.  Facebook has ushered in an era where a friend is just a number and a post.  Now friends chat in little boxes on a glowing screen, where a conversation over tea or a phone call could have been scheduled just as easily.
        I understand why this impersonal contact is so appealing.  Human interaction can get messy a large chunk of the time.  Misunderstandings and prejudices can be rampant in human dealings, but I will argue that a lot of these flaws in communication are a result of this online trend.  Like all things, communication requires practice.  If you spend most of your day living online, how can you expect to have good communication skills?  I believe that if people made an effort to talk to their fellow citizens and to connect with them, even if on the most basic level, many of the social injustices of our time will be obliterated.  Even just one kind word or a smile can change a life.  It's hard to change lives like that online. 

Brideshead Revisited

Evelyn Waugh's perhaps greatest work is a Catholic response to modernism, a depletion of truth, beauty, and goodness.  This modernist society, the "World of Hooper," shows a lackadaisical society, woefully misplaced in the pursuit of goodness.  The main character who manifests this recalibration of ideals, Charles Ryder, is, as Anthony Blanche declares him, an artist.  But even Charles is lost in his search for truth and beauty in his art.  Anthony, along with Cordelia, the truth teller, aids Charles in his search for true beauty.  They straight up tell him when his art lacks truth and beauty, even when the rest of society faints with saccharine delight over his artistic mastery.  It is only when he finds ultimate truth in the Catholic Faith that he finds true beauty through art.  There is a correlation between truth, beauty, and goodness.  Truth helps man find beauty, and vice versa.  Flowing from truth and beauty, goodness is ushered into society.  Through the example of Charles Ryder's search for truth and beauty, we can revolutionize society through a revitalization of truth, beauty, and goodness. 

Welcome To My Humble Abode!

Welcome to Book Bound!  Here I hope to collect my musings, style, recipes, crafts, and art.  I follow in the shadows of giants, the great people of literature and fine arts.  Their words are my inspiration.

 

~Marissa