Hi all,

Today I met someone who wanted to borrow my copy of Dances on Draxghr. You know, the physical one.

I went ahead and lent it to them, even though I’m worried about whether or not they’ll take care of it. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ease of preserving copies of books; as you may or may not know, we have several databases throughout our part of the galaxy that overlap with another entirely different system, so that if one goes down information will still be stored in another system that works. However, as unlikely as it is, there’s still the possibility of both systems failing, or being shut down. Then we would still lose everything stored on them. It would happen so fast.

So how sturdy is a physical book, versus a digital one?

I’m curious. I know it’s likely that the digital version will win out in the end, unless our systems fail (I sure hope they don’t), but seeing what this acquaintance does with my copy of Dances on Draxghr may give me some new ideas.

Signed,

IT

So I finished reading the physical book. You know, the copy of Dances on Draxghr? It took a while, but today, I turned the page–turned the page!–to the final lines and finished the entire thing.

One of the biggest things I noticed while reading was how bare the text was. I think a lot of us take this for granted, but the incorporated sounds, images, and videos in books on our tablets are not at all present in a printed copy of a book. I mean, you can put pictures in, but how would you even print a sound? I found that a lot of times where things were easy to picture while reading on my tablet, they weren’t easy to picture when reading a physical book. I’m wondering now if we’ve started relying too much on sound and image embedding, as both readers and writers. Don’t get me wrong! Donetta Behar is still the best writer out there, past present and future. But sometimes it felt like descriptions in the book were vague, or sounds, or feelings, because they knew they’d have something else to make the reader picture them…I don’t know.

This is an idea I need to think more on.

Signed,

IT

After reading more of my physical copy of Dances on Draxghr, I have to say…I don’t think I feel particularly different. The story is the same, the characters are the same, they’re just being presented in a different format. I think the only difference is that I’m attached to the book the same way I’m attached to my tablet, which contains basically everything important to me. I’m trying to imagine owning a lot of books, a room full of books. Being this attached to so many different objects seems overwhelming.

Either way, I will continue reading, and see if the book will give me any more insight.

I spoke more with my new acquaintance (the one with the reconstructed printing press). He talked a lot about an ancient occupation called a ‘librarian’, which I think is pretty similar our archivists who keep watch over the rarer files, or the files you have to pay money to see. Only, on Earth a long time ago, none of the book the librarians kept watch over cost money to read. You could spend all day in a library (as they were called), just reading and reading. Isn’t that amazing?

Signed,

IT

Hi, all! So I know what you’re all eager to know–have I heard back yet from the illustrious Donetta Behar on whether or not I can make a physical copy of her book? The answer is YES! I’ve never been so happy to see a message notification on my tablet. THE Donetta Behar. Wow!

It turned out that getting permission was the easiest part, unfortunately. I searched for a long time trying to find someone who could print me a book. I was lucky enough to cross paths with an old friend (another fan of Behar’s) who had a cousin who knew an AI who was business partners with a person who had access to a friend’s printing equipment. The equipment is reconstructed from the old days on earth, a few millennia after the time that Fahrenheit 451 and those episodes of the Twilight Zone take place, and this person has only used it once to test that it works. I think they’re a collector of items like this. Either way, I paid them what must have been a month’s wages and then watched as my book was created. I was struck by a few thoughts as I observed the process…I’m attached to the book now (it’s sitting by my bed in my quarters), but would I feel as strongly about it if I hadn’t gone through all that effort to acquire it? I wish there was a way to recapture the feelings of people on Earth long ago, buying books and filling bookshelves (imagine that, a piece of furniture specifically for books) but physical books aren’t sold in stores anymore. The closest I think I could get would be to create a book and give it to a stranger who hadn’t asked for it, but that just wouldn’t be the same.

I haven’t had the chance to actually read the book yet, but I’ll be sure to get back to you once I’ve started reading it.

Signed,

IT

I keep finding myself assuming that certain characters are AIs without meaning to. For example, in “The Obselete Man”, I kept on thinking that the librarian was an AI–his story seemed allegorical for the recent struggles AIs went through to gain rights–before I realized that this character, Wordsworth, was just a human man. Throughout studying the works of ancient Earth, it’s been difficult to place myself in the shoes of the characters. So much of the conflicts in the stories feel like products of another time and another species that I’ve never heard of. It helps to think of earlier works as building blocks; through layers and layers of past fiction, Donetta Behar was able to put together the masterpiece that is Dances on Draxghr. And someday, Dances on Draxghr will be the building block for another work (though I doubt it could reach the level of mastery that DoD has reached). By thinking that way, I’ve come to realize why the characters in these stories are so bent on preserving books; books are building blocks of their society and culture that they can hold in their hands.

I’ve decided that I want to make a print version of Dances on Draxghr, and see if that changes the experience at all for me, or if it will make me feel something different (besides the usual ecstatic joy). I’ve contacted Donetta Behar to ask permission…hopefully I’ll hear back soon.

Wish me luck!

Signed,

IT

Something amazing about Fahrenheit 451 is that you’d think that with the amount of books that were burnt throughout the story you’d grow desensitized to it, but no! Every time they mentioned books burning I just thought about how horrified I would feel if it was anything from Dances on Draxghr. If I had to hide that series from my friends and neighbors I would do it in a heartbeat. I guess that would make me the keeper of the series if I ever joined up with the people living outside the city.

I should probably explain what’s so dire about burning books in Fahrenheit 451. You know how to read something, you download a file, and you’re good to go? Well, imagine each single one of those files are a separate big stack of paper. And in the time that this book was written, those big stacks of paper spread all over the place were the only sources of that file. Pretty inconvenient, huh?

Going back to the end of the story, there’s another thought that’s coming to me…would Dances on Draxghr be considered valuable? We all know that Dances on Draxghr is a book series with high cultural value, but I’m really curious about what books would be thought of as “useful” to remember by the people outside. I didn’t recognize a lot of the titles that were listed, but after looking it up I saw that a lot of them were considered classics from a long time ago on earth. If a book wasn’t considered a “classic”, would anyone bother remembering it? And who decides which books are “classics”?

Thoughts, anyone?

Signed,

IT