Sir George Clausen, Study of a book for 'The English People ...', ca. 1925-7
Books are great; there is certain finality to books, especially after an author is dead. We can quote a dead author without worry, the dead authors can’t be yapping around how it wasn’t what they really meant or confusing people and saying they changed their mind altogether. With a live person no such luck. A live person can change his mind even in mid sentence. A live person can change his mind in response to a question, depending on what he or she ate for breakfast, etc. A total mess in other words. The culture demands dead-stable quotes and treats live humans pretending they are already dead.
Let’s say Sonia Sotomayor is going through a confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. A dork found out she said something on the record ten years ago. Never mind that Sonia is here in front of you and she can say she didn’t mean it. The supremacy of quotes is vital for our national interests, the key to the continuity of our civilization. Once we can’t quote anymore it’s a total chaos, the lawlessness of the original opinions. That’s why America get mannequins for presidents, the only person who can be a president is either one who has the discipline to never express what he really thinks or feels or never thinks or feels anything worth expressing. This very culture is perpetuated by the print journalists, the NEXIS Google hounds. This culture is the foundation of every religious institution built on dead quotes by dead people. Hey, book burning got a bad rap, but you know, every time they burn them books, they don’t really mean you should stop reading books altogether, they mean read our books and quotes, not the quotes we are burning. It’s time for the final fix, let’s burn all books and quotes without discrimination or preferential treatment. Long Live Alexandria!
Image licensed courtesy of Picture Library of the Royal Academy of Arts
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