SECOND-HAND BOOKSHOPS - ANTEROOMS OF MUSEUMS OF LITERATURE

Memories proof that every past moment started as today are incorporated into the idea of history that the past is materialised in some way and for this reason it often calls upon documents that can be virtual, but are more compelling and more real if we can present them as artefacts. A story about a halberd can be gripping if told through the skilled pen of an expert, but the impression of a halberd and its use in war will be all the more convincing if this weapon is presented to you as an actual object and proof of a materialised past. In a time when the present is poor with respect to recognised values, when we are witnesses to a situation where we change our furniture several times during our lifetime, when the “lifespan” of, for example, a car or a television set is barely ten years, and when most home appliances barely survive after seven years, when school textbooks become “redundant” after one year, when we are conscious of the fact that many plants and insects that were common in our childhood have now become rare indeed, the idea of longevity or temporal nature of things obviously promotes our concern that the relationships of duration or keeping should be brought into harmony. We have mentioned the speed of the process of obsolescence, and if we remind ourselves that even production promotes the idea of a limited duration, it is clear that the present is becoming all the more brief and all the more fragmented. The tendency to introduce domestic animals to zoos so that today’s children can see them “live” is not a bizarre extravagance but a reß ection of the true state of affairs