32/100: April 12, 1977
This vignette is one in a series of 100 days detailing what happens at my local library.
In the era of upgrade culture, old technologies are routinely traded in for newer, shinier, more streamlined versions of themselves. We take for granted that the new must replace the old rather than coexist with it.
The library is one of the few locales that rejects this attitude. Here, the legacies of antiquated relics are preserved alongside cutting-edge appliances. The only thing this place refuses to make room for is the either / or mentality; this is a space for both / and.
This point is reinforced by the man sitting to my left. He’s looking through old newspapers on the microfilm reader. An all but obsolete technology, microfilm is what we used to use to store large amounts of information in small amounts of space before the Cloud was a thing. At top capacity it could process 10,000 images — peanuts compared to what microchips hold these days, but pretty venerable at the time. The images live on 35mm or 16mm reels — pop the reel in the reader and voila — pint-size photos are projected to legible dimensions. They’re a fun way to read old newspapers, but most people opt instead to scour the internet in this pursuit. Not this guy.
At present, he’s reading a page from the classified section of the New York Times, dated April 12, 1977. It’s mostly adverts for movies and a couple of Broadway shows. An endorsement for Annie sits next an image of Sly Stallone in the boxing ring — what will become the iconic Rocky poster we still recognize today.
To turn the page, you have to hand-crank the film; the original tap-to-scroll. There’s also a close-up of young Sean Connery, accompanied by the caption when’s the last time you saw a really good movie? The Bruce Lee knock-off Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger is there too, as is Network — winner of 4 Academy Awards, it appears.
All of these films were actually released in 1976. A movie from the previous year still running in theatres in April may sound inconceivable today, but there was less turnover back then, less content. Perhaps more substance. People read longer books, watched longer movies, had longer conversations. It was before we as a society learned to be in a hurry.
1977 was just around when remote controls and VCRs hit the market. Before this, viewing was still an act of leisure over which we had very little autonomy or choice. Once we were given the tools to run our own shows — to get whatever we wanted whenever we wanted it — this is when impatience and insipidness began to creep in, and never left.
I wonder what this guy is looking for. In fact I wonder if he’s looking for anything. Wouldn’t it be nice if he were just reading an old newspaper for the sake of reading it, unfettered by the chore of finding something specific, just enjoying what’s on.
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