Man, I wish I could still read sheet music

Gleick. 310-323. 373-412.

310-323.

• Okay, when I think meme I think of Saracastic Willy Wonka or Kevin Hart pictures with big white words written across them (included below for your amusement).
  
  
  
  

When I think of memes, I do not think of chain letters. I was very intrigued to find out the history behind the first chain letters and that I wasn't the only person in the 7th grade being fooled by them. The description of the chain letter on pg. 320 says "a meme motivating its human carriers with promises and threats" and if you turn back a page to 319, it is mentioned how chain letters were sent in ways such as written letters, photo copies, email, typewritten letters, and through the use of carbonic paper. This highly fascinates me because I feel like if it would've taken any more effort than a copy and paste, then I wouldn't have participated. I remember always getting chain letters talking about things like "If you don't send this to 12 or more people..."

• you'll die in X hours/days
• illness will come to your mother
• you'll lose a large sum of money
• instagram will shut down your account
• you won't get into heaven

Or things like "If you DO send this to 12 or more people..."

• you'll live forever
• your wish will come true
• you'll win the lottery
• you'll be the most popular kid in school
• your crush will like you back
• you won't die

In all honesty, up until sometime during highschool, I continued to resend these chain letters. It wasn't necessarily that I believed what they said was going to happen, but you know... better send it around just in case.

373-412.

I feel like I rambled a little bit up there (but that's the beauty of a blog, sometimes it's nice to get a glimpse into someones ramblings and into how their brain works) so i'll shorten this up a bit and finish off with a little text to text comparison.

• On page 378, the Lighthouse of Alexandria and all it's wonderful texts are being talked about and then it's mentioned that the library itself burned down. The text says that there is no way of knowing how it burned down, but it is likely that it was an act of power. I think it's interesting how this is the second time, in two different books (see Manguel), that burning books as an act of power is mentioned. This just goes to show that books are in fact knowledge and knowledge is in fact power. Multiple examples of authoritative figures burning books are given-
• The Romans burning the books of the Jews, Christians, and the Pagans
• The Christians burnt the books of the Pagans and the Jews
• The Qin Dynasty burned he books of China "in order to erase previous history"

And it kind of drives me nut to think about where the book mentions how we only have less than a tenth of Sophocles' plays, second or third hand works by Aristotle, but I also regain a little bit of my sanity when page 379 talks about the work people did to retrieve what they could of those texts from all over the world, it's peaceful to know that books are something important to people.