On 13 May 2001, Iggy Drougge wrote:
> But they're really just old utensils. Da Vinci's sweat and saliva most
> likely was no more brilliant than that of any other renaissance
> Italaian.
Iggy, he (Da Vinci) touched them. I'm sorry you can't understand it the
way I do, and that's fine. Maybe I'm weird (ha ha :) But I think you are
missing something big here. Either that or your emotion chip was removed.
> And I'll argue that the reproduction is equal in every sense. Why
> would the copy be less tangible to anyone else than the original?
And that's where you are completely wrong. The style or technique or
color or brush strokes may be off. There may be some nuance of a copy
that does not have the same effect on someone observing the painting. The
most important feature of the portait is the subject's faint smile. It
was just so done to have people wondering just what was on Mona Lisa's
mind for centuries. A copy may not capture that effect.
> Da Vinci painted the original Mona Lisa. Since then, innumerable
> reproductions have been made, but they're all Mona Lisas.
No, they're all copies of THE Mona Lisa. BIG difference.
> Why? Does historical context lie in the dust and grease?
Of course. And the scratch marks, the tool indentations, etc. In other
words the story of the machine. A new replica won't tell any story other
than "Hi, I'm new."
Here's an analogy. If we were able to clone Iggy and accelerate the
growth of Iggy Serial Number 2 to where he was the same age as you are
today, would he be just as good as you? Hell no. He wouldn't have YOUR
story. He wouldn't have ANY story. He'd be a clean Iggy. He would look
like you and sound like you, but he probably wouldn't act like you because
the way you are has been shaped by the last N years of your life. Iggy
Serial Number 2 will have accumulated no experiences, so he has no stories
to tell. I'd hate to run into him at a party :)
> Tacitus is no less Tacitus whether printed in the 90s AD, the 1920s or
> last year. It still remains his work.
Absolutely, but wouldn't it be very cool to hold an original Tacitus (who
the hell is he?) scroll from 90AD?
I once had the privelege of entering the Bodleian Library in Oxford,
England, one of the most prestigious libraries in the world. I remember
going through the aisles and seeing all manner of tomes, some of which
were hundreds of years old! I actually got to hold in my own hands a book
from the late 1400's and leaf through it. Can you imagine that? A book
over 500 years old in my own hands. I don't even remember what the title
or subject matter was, but that wasn't important. The most exciting thing
for me was being able to hold a book that had been read by countless
others before me going back to almost the time when the printing press was
invented!
For some people, the feeling of antiquity is quite a profound one. Have
you never felt this?
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Sun May 13 2001 - 21:23:18 BST