What an interesting post! I had no idea The Whole Earth Catalog was so influential.
One of my favorite living authors, Neal Stephenson, is involved in the Long Now Project, I think. He's also encouraging contemporary sci-fi authors to write more optimistic stories instead of all the dystopian ones publishers are currently churning out. He says that if we don't give young adult readers stories that inspire hope and innovation, we are hurting ourselves and our future. Makes sense to me.
Another fan of paperback books here. Their cheapness means I can take one to work and drop it in the mud or get egg salad stains all over it and that's okay. But "cheap" in this case doesn't need to mean "low quality"; a paperback with a sewn binding is of the same durability as a hardbound book and won't fall apart like perfect bound paperbacks are always doing.
My writing instructor at the University of Kentucky and fellow Eastern Kentuckian, Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip was published in the margins of one of the volumes of The Whole Earth Catalog.
Bookish Diversions: When the Internet Was Analog
What an interesting post! I had no idea The Whole Earth Catalog was so influential.
One of my favorite living authors, Neal Stephenson, is involved in the Long Now Project, I think. He's also encouraging contemporary sci-fi authors to write more optimistic stories instead of all the dystopian ones publishers are currently churning out. He says that if we don't give young adult readers stories that inspire hope and innovation, we are hurting ourselves and our future. Makes sense to me.
Another fan of paperback books here. Their cheapness means I can take one to work and drop it in the mud or get egg salad stains all over it and that's okay. But "cheap" in this case doesn't need to mean "low quality"; a paperback with a sewn binding is of the same durability as a hardbound book and won't fall apart like perfect bound paperbacks are always doing.
My writing instructor at the University of Kentucky and fellow Eastern Kentuckian, Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip was published in the margins of one of the volumes of The Whole Earth Catalog.
Did you hack my substack, Joel? I have been working up an article on WEC and its quirky inventor. You did a better job than I would have anyway.
Back in the day, I loved the Whole Earth Catalog. Thanks for the memory.