There’s a strikingly raw and human quality to pre-code Hollywood movies that all but died at least until the late 1960s

Even film noir of the 1950s kept walking the line without actually crossing it (the bad guy always had to get punished, the women suffered consequences for being daring)

I wonder how many creative gems evaporated, never to be cut or admired by the public during the censorship era

@cypnk The number repeatedly given for the proportion of silent films lost to time is 90%. Fifty years worth of seminal culture, the birth of a new form of collective human literacy, gone like a forgotten rumour. I also mourn how virtually all we know first hand of Ancient Greek history boils down to barely more than 2 historians, the loss of Alexandria’s gem...

Given that virtually none of the new infotech has a horizon beyond ten years, the future for our now looks as grim.

@Shufei It’s a very small drop in the bucket, but I encourage everyone to print their own zines whenever they can. We’re leaving fewer and fewer hard copies of our lives, but with every small distributed breadcrumb, there’s at least a chance something will survive

@cypnk Yes, a good suggestion. And zine and such are fun, too! Analogue, human readable media are so important for continuity!

There was a project years ago called the Long Now, I think, which was talking about making and popularizing Norsam Disks (ultra compressed microfiche like polymer or synthetic crystal media). But I’ve not seen them do anything further toward that, sadly. Norsam is still so expensive... 🙍🏽‍♀️

@Shufei @cypnk
Earlier this year I found (well, was forced to finally reclaim from my parents' attic) a box of music zines from the 90s. That's a funny time -- not strictly pre-internet, but pre-file sharing. All you'd know about a band would be from these zines, the reviews and interviews.

@priryo @cypnk It was a funny time, right before the web kicked off. A few of us did have file sharing, but so slowly: dialup with Usenet, IRC, BBS’s... Larger files by tape or disk. I remember the first MP3 I heard. It blew my mind, so much better than RealAudio!

You collect music memorabilia, periodicals? If you go back to the 80’s, they would sometimes put actual single songs on square paper records in magazines. I’d love to see and hear that again!

@Shufei @cypnk
I don't think of myself as a collector, but since I hoarded this stuff at a specific time, maybe I'm in denial :) I lost interest in zines when you started to see professional-looking ones with sponsorship from shoe companies and the like. One of the last I picked up had 2 contact email addresses, one for advertisers to use.
I blame under-employed designers that hadn't learned how to sell wordpress themes :p