Paper! What is it good for?
Enlarge, if you dare!Well, here we are in beautiful New Jersey, and it's so beautiful I can't believe it. Deep green canopy, poignant cut grass, people in shirtsleeves instead of hoodies. Yes, I feel guilty enjoying the spring here without paying the price all winter, but no one has stopped me on the street and asked for my ticket, so I guess I'll just enjoy the moment. Still, to those of you who have endured the cold winter, I salute you.
Now I have to deal with the paper problem. For over twenty-five years we have had a publishing company and we have accumulated hard copies. I've been a writer long before there were computers, and I have lovingly created bound journals. So did Virginia Woolf. I noted long ago that every time she had a bout of despair, she also seemed to have just endured a physical move or relocation. Coincidence? I wonder.
I have packed and unpacked pencils, Sharpies, Post-its, every kind of envelope, my collection of New Yorker covers that I used for lining envelopes -- it was so nice when I wrote letters. A pretty envelope was a special treat, and the covers were just too nice to look at once and throw away -- and perhaps you can begin to appreciate the extent of the problem here. LP records in their paper sleeves; every drawing my children and now my grandchildren ever made -- find me the parent who can throw them away! That person doesn't exist.
You may wonder why I bring the problem here to the electronic complaint window, but I really do need advice. What should we keep, and why? I was reading about a fascinating woman who died recently. She was known as the Red Duchess, and she catalogued and preserved her family's vast library, perhaps one of the largest and oldest in Europe. Some of her documents have the potential to rewrite history, thanks to her care.
Now, granted, this library was a bit older than mine by about 800 years, but still. A library is a library and paper is paper. If the power goes out, digital impulses die, but paper remains. And could the power go out? Gee ... ya think?
But folks, we didn't have this problem just a few short years ago. The day you dragged a computer into your life and plugged it in, you hit a fork in the intellectual road that is just getting wider and wider. Do you back up? Do you ever look back? Do you carry all that paper out to the dumpster and never visit the landfill? Or do you buy a hundred Stor-All boxes and indulge in alphabetization?
Just wondering. It's what's on my mind as I create the latest paper product, otherwise known as the May 2008 issue of UFO Magazine.
Nancy Birnes
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Nice piece, if I may. Melancholy if hopeful that paper is not yet dead and indeed a reminder that it was paper ultimately providing for a paperlessness that never seems to actually arrive.
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Hi Mrs. Birnes,
So glad to know you and Dr. Birnes finally made safely it to the North East! Welcome back! How does it feel to be back in New Jersey? It was in 1979, that you graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University,wasn't it Mrs. Birnes? Have you been back at your former university to see what's new on campus? And yes, the weather has been just amazing lately, what a vast difference from the dreary cold winter of recent months.
In response to your questions/dilemma about paper. Well. growing up in a computer-infested world, unfortunately, I belong to a generation which unfortunately knows no other life beyond the laptops and desk computers.
I believe that there are advantages for using a computer and that depend closely on the intended use. Given a few potential uses, here are some of my thoughts.We need them for writing (well,obviously) as entry is quick,editing and restructure is easy,there are a selection of tools to produce various kinds of output (html,text,books,pdf documents),storage is inexpensive and doesn't take too space (compared to paper or print, therein lies the answer to storage problems) and so much easier to search or navigate through documents.
The other advantage that I can think of is computers make it so much more convenient for us to organize. Once a document is in electronic form it is easy to store and many, many documents can be stored on one computer in much less space than in a file cabinet (sorry). It makes it that much easier to search through files.
And last but not least,the research factor. Without my faithful computer I wouldn't have made it through college. Access to the Internet has become invaluable as a research tool where I am able to easily gather huge amounts of information and store/catalog it. And most importantly I was (and still am) able to interact with other researchers to create/gather more research on a particular subject matter.
At the end of the day I do realize that computers are not a panacea for everything. I am also aware however, that there are many things for which a computer does not add significant advantages,like the fact that it can never really replace the personal touch of the human kind.
One can program a computer to accomplish feats of a technological nature. But no one can program a computer to be empathic,a computer that will respond kindly and acutely to the frustration of everyday life. And yes, that includes the conundrum of trying to figure out what to do with all that paper....
I will suggest that you go with the storage box idea. That is what I would do. Your only alternatives are throwing it all out or spending the next 1000 years scanning it into a computer. If you throw it out you will then need things that you threw out even if you haven't needed them in the past 20 years.
Welcome back indeed. Yes, it is beautiful here this time of year. After winter and spring pops in it's like being reborn. All the green grass and trees with bright blossoms of red, pink, purple, white and yellow. Wow, and all that pollen.
I forgot all about the pollen...ah yes,pollen, aaaah choooo!!...
Please excuse me.
Hello dear Nancy!
In my case what I will do is to keep only the family art and the hard copies.
Computers have their pros and cons (and we should always have a portable backup of everything we've worked on) however, at this point in time the benefits of technology are huge (unless armageddon comes and electric service is gone as we know it). Another thing to consider is that...lets say, if I have a program I want to keep and I stored it in a 5 1/4 old floppy disk, just to make sure we keep transferring all our valuable info to newer devices.
Best,
Marla
I am so glad I started this discussion. Also, I only posted one photo of one portion of the problem, so get ready for more. At some point, even the youngest and strongest of you will yell Uncle! And why Uncle? Did everyone have an Uncle Freddie who tickled?
Here's the seesaw: On the one hand, the paper stuff has extreme sentimental and one-of-a-kind value to it. In fact, I love sites on the internet where folks have scanned in old book covers and docs. You can spend an entire afternoon on the floor with your shoeboxes full of fractured photos.
On the other hand, the internet is here and I am glad. I have thrown away several encyclopeiae, which I now regret, by the way. One was from 1919, and every photo in it was free for the reproducing. But then again, the whole set took an entire bookshelf and was left out on the street at the end of an estate sale. We dragged it home, back when we had a home. Eventually I left it for the new occupants, who have since moved to NYC.
And so it goes. At least I have the memories, which weigh next to nothing, heavily.
Wow that is a lot of paper Nancy but I know how you feel and some things are hard to let go of. I would put them in those boxes used for old business paperwork. Ok good luck Nancy and don't hurt your back!
John's Detectors
On the subject of sentiment. Ah yes, what I regard as sentiment, I have been accused by a family member (or two, maybe ten, I don't keep count) as being a hopeless...pack rat. But with all my heart I believe that sentiment is one way of holding onto all the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. And yes, I believe in that respect,I am,sad to say,guilty. As a young child, my family moved around a lot and my Mom would throw away stuff that she feels would "lighten" the load in the U-Haul trucks. I often look back at my childhood years being my happiest and the stuff Mom threw out were symbols of that time period.
And that's okay I guess because all I have left now is memories and eBay!
* * * * * * * * *
"Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart. "
~ Thomas Fuller
"One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place."
~Emily Dickinson
Every man's memory is his private literature.
~ Aldous Huxle