Posted by Tyler Cowen:
Bring your library to life:
Brad DeLong explains [1]why life will never be dull. Here is just one
bit:
As long as I think of these as "texts," they are dry and boring.
But there is a key to making them exciting: to remember that they
are not texts: they are people--people urgently trying to talk to
me, to tell me something very important that they think I
desperately need to know...
When evening comes Niccolo Machiavelli enters his personal library.
There he talks to his friends--his books, or rather those who wrote
the books in his library, or rather those components of their minds
that are instantiated in the hardware-and-software combinations of
linen, ink, and symbols of Gutenberg Information Technology. They
are 'ancient men' who receive him 'with affection,' and for four
hours he 'ask[s] them the reason for their actions; and they in
their kindness answer me; and... I do not feel boredom, I forget
every trouble, I do not dread poverty, I am not frightened by
death...'
References
1. http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/adam_kotsko_is_.html
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