Boulevard of Token Reams

Posted on 19 May, 2023 by C.L.

What connects Barry Humphries, a little-known deco artist, AI, yours truly and the future of scholarship? My computer cache, in a way, because I’ve watched or read so many clips and pieces of Humphries talking about culture since he died that YouTube recommended a few videos about modernists. One featured Melbourne linocut master Ethel Spowers. Her ‘Gust of Wind’ (1931), made me smile. After my fin de siècle PhD examination, a printing shop churned out three copies of a thesis bound for binding, embossing and shelving. After collecting them, I tripped on a dogeared doormat as I exited and submitted all 1500 pages to the footpath. I’m grateful to an algorithm for the tips and memories but worry that only its descendants will be dropping ideas by 2123.

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6 Responses to Boulevard of Token Reams

calli says:

19 May, 2023 at 5:21 pm

Heh. I’m old enough to remember carbon paper. And roneos and Gestetners.

I sniff at your…print shop…sheets. 😛
C.L. says:

19 May, 2023 at 6:09 pm

Oh thanks, Calli.

IIRC, the following year all theses also had to be submitted electronically.

I never printed and bound a fourth for myself and have never owned a copy.

I never want to see it again.

I recommend to passers-by the linked Humphries contribution to BBC 4’s Desert Island Disks. His erudition is amazing. The man who played Sir Les may be the most cultured Australian who ever lived.
jupes says:

19 May, 2023 at 6:20 pm

The man who played Sir Les may be the most cultured Australian who ever lived.

Gold.
calli says:

19 May, 2023 at 6:51 pm

The man who played Sir Les may be the most cultured Australian who ever lived.

Worthy of a comb binding in my opinion.
Ragu says:

20 May, 2023 at 7:13 am

What was the subject of your dissertation?
C.L. says:

20 May, 2023 at 7:16 pm

I can’t remember, Ragu. 😀