Sean Jones KCWalking round the Duomo I was struck again by something that I used to think about when I was digging Roman sites in Colchester - what really touches us from across the intervening centuries is not the magnificence of the structures, but the hand-scratched graffiti. /1
Of course, Dante’s poetry is sublime, but there is even greater joy in rummaging in the footnotes to understand his score-settling and indulgence in grudges. /2
I love the old photos of my family, but I always find myself looking in the background for a glimpse of the old cars, the vanished shops. Holiday snaps designed to capture a grand building are now more interesting for the fashions on display on those walking past it.
BashStKid@SeanJones
I like that sort of thing too, as nobody tries to make a narrative from the ephemera around them, it’s just there, unedited wider context for whatever the framing and original meaning was supposed to be.
Without being too McLuhan about it, maybe Twitter and other digital remnants won’t be like that - all that will be left are the final edited highlights, with more hostile deletions than Pravda.
@BashStKid That does sound likely