Wednesday, August 25, 2010

What's your story?


When I stumbled upon this site, I squealed with joy. Out of Print takes iconic book covers (like The Catcher in the Rye) and prints them on super soft t-shirts (mimicking the feel of a well-read book). How exciting to find one product that appeals to two of my fancies: books and vintage (read: expensive) t-shirts!


Speaking of classics, I just finished Fahrenheit 451 (also available on Out of Print's site), Ray Bradbury's cautionary tale of censorship and the dangers of willful submission. Part sci-fi (think mechanical dogs and giant televisions that interact with you), part social commentary, the novel predicts the potential consequences of emerging technologies and the tendencies of people exposed to these technologies to abandon questioning and imaginative thought for an anti-intellectual lifestyle in which "facts" are fed to you (via Seashell radios small enough to fit in your ear and voyeuristic television) and books are outlawed, a message that resonates today even some 50+ years after its inception.

In closing, my favorite quote from the book: "We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?"

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