I was just watching a video of someone organising their new house, going through the belongings of its late owner. Her things were all beautiful and had that ‘proper’ look i’ve come to associate with ‘old’ things.
You probably know what i’m talking about. Posing for photos, neat fonts and lines, thick covers and beautiful binding.
For a while i used to lowkey laugh at how the people of the past used to take things so seriously, but i think i finally get it, and agree – and think our current age is a little sad, despite the ‘conveniences’ we have.
Back then, some things were not as easily replaceable. Getting a photo taken was something of a big deal. You’d then have to store said photo carefully so you can show the next generations who they descended from etc.
And those things took up space and had a sort of permanence, so of course they’d warrant a little attention, if not some degree of beautfy. But that’s where the contrast is:
We live in an easily-accessible, quick to get and quick to throw, replaceable world. There is no need for permanence nor even physical space. Easy come, easy go. The recent trend of badly-taken blurry photos was something i once thought kinda cool or artsy, but damn, now it’s just kinda sad. We have so many and so easily taken that a couple hundred crappy photos doesn’t matter.
Recently i’ve been feeling very nostalgic about the past, for a time when we had to struggle and search to get things. I remember going through magazines and learning of cheat codes from word of mouth, then trying and recording them in a book. When the internet became more commonly used, slow connection speeds prevented us from easily accessing sites as and when, so we resorted to printing or copying by hand.
Downloading one song at a time, taking hours, going through box after box of Magic the Gathering cards, checking out the latest silly toys at the bookshop, checking the TV schedule and then feeling that pit of agony when i realised i’d missed a show. Pirated CDs at the pasar malam, then malaysia, demo versions of games we’d play again and again till every corner had been explored, every outcome experienced, every boundary tested.
The opening of the floodgates has been good in so many ways, but i don’t think we actually needed it. Perhaps economically (or for businesses) the gains were the greatest, but the common man could’ve used that degree of mystery and effort.
When things come easy, they feel cheap and less precious. And for that i miss the old world.
I miss a time when there was so much that was unknown, so many unexplored areas – it filled me with an excitement and longing that was even more potent than the actual discoveries or experiences.
Perhaps that feeling will be within reach again, when deep space travel becomes a thing. Maybe then we’ll have a hundred worlds of mystery to explore and mine, out of reach of the web and its spoilt treasures, disconnected and magical.
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