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Recently I’ve been reading Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age, and working on getting my hands on The Difference Engine, co-authored by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Simultaneously, I had been researching pens, and trying to build some context for the Vickies of Stephenson’s work. I should possibly point out that, during this time, I confused Stephenson and Sterling repeatedly. Because I was, you know, searching for one and reading the other.

Thus there are multiple threads to weave in this tale, but I shall attempt to simplify them, and stick to one topic at a time.  As much as is possible, anyway.

First, let’s talk about pens.  I use pens on occasion – I prefer writing with them to writing with a pencil, and being in school I frequently have to take notes.  Or tests.  Quizzes.  Exams.  You get the idea.  I need to write things down on paper, the old fashioned way.  Now, like most people, I go to the store, any store, a chain store where you can buy anything, and I buy a pen.  Except you can’t just buy one pen, you have to buy 20 pens, in a little plastic box or some such.  Cheap pens, the sort that you can open up and refill, except no one ever does because you can’t find refills, and even if you could, they’re the sort of pens you just lose or throw away and replace anyway, because they’re cheap.  Generic.  Junk.

I really hate cheap, generic junk.  My life is filled with it.  It could be books, it could be furniture, it could be anything that’s mass-produced, disposable, replaceable.  For now, it’s pens – just think of them as a metaphor for all of that worthless junk that’s just like the exact same worthless junk everyone else just bought that does the same thing.  So I decided I wanted to buy a good pen.  The sort of pen you want to refill.  The sort of pen you don’t just lose.

Now, this whole time, I’m reading Stephenson’s book.  One of the main characters in that story is a “Neo-Victorian” sort.  The book goes to great pains to describe how these “Vickies” live, some of the things they took from the original Victorian social aesthetic, some of the things they didn’t, some of the reasons behind those choices.  It stuck with me for some reason, probably in no small part because he used this as a commentary on our current situation, and the direction we’re headed in.  And I fairly well agree with him.

But he didn’t just talk about the Neo-Victorians, he also introduced a small group of people who make things by hand.  I suppose you first need to realize that in this book machines make things for you, on demand.  Whatever you want.  You go to some little screen, you tap on some icon, and a few moments later out pops the thing you just ordered up.  So, the whole concept of people laboring intensely, for hours or days on end, to create something as trivial as, say, paper – well, it just doesn’t make sense!  Again, Stephenson is a master, and has used this as a commentary on our current consumerist ethic, and where it is headed.

Now, I also mentioned Gibson and Sterling and their magnum opus, The Difference Engine.  This book is nearly the essence of the steampunk genre.  Which isn’t a fair statement, because steampunk itself is only loosely defined, and quite dynamic, but I’ve gone and said it.  Back to the subject, I’m looking for this book, and as I’ve said – I hate worthless, pointless rubbish.  Buying mass-market paperbacks, particularly 3rd, 4th, umpteenth printings, is rubbish.  I have a nook, a wonderful little e-reader from Barnes and Noble that fits in my bag and can carry hundreds, if not thousands, of mass-market paperbacks.  It would then follow that I would just buy the ebook version, right?  Except, you see, there isn’t one.  There are, however, a few well cared-for 1st printings.  Hard cover.  Signed.  Oddly enough, not much more expensive than an ebook, if one is looking carefully.  So, I proceeded to look.  Carefully.

And I stumble across Bruce Sterling’s Viridian Design Movement.  This movement has been dead for a little while it seems, but his final posting to the site contained a few remarks that hit me.  There is a lot of usefulness in his parting message, but I will reproduce for you the part most pertinent to this entry, though it is a part that has been reproduced elsewhere as well.  I’m hoping that, aside from adding context here, presenting it as much as possible will help get it “out there,” where others will see it.  You’re seeing it now, maybe for the first time?  If so, then it’s working, but I digress.

It’s not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.

Do not “economize.” Please. That is not the point. The economy is clearly insane. Even its champions are terrified by it now. It’s melting the North Pole. So “economization” is not your friend. Cheapness can be value-less. Voluntary simplicity is, furthermore, boring. Less can become too much work.

The items that you use incessantly, the items you employ every day, the normal, boring goods that don’t seem luxurious or romantic: these are the critical ones. They are truly central. The everyday object is the monarch of all objects. It’s in your time most, it’s in your space most. It is “where it is at,” and it is “what is going on.”

Remember my pen predicament?  How about those mass-market paperbacks?  Right.  And this becomes one of those “Eureka!” moments for me, this is what I’ve been working at for sometime now, without realizing it – and thus not fulfilling it.  Some people buy cheap things to economize.  Others buy luxurious things because, I don’t know, they’re materialistic?  Take the case of the $1000 rusted-out mid-80s full-size sedan rolling on $4000 20″ wheels.  This is perhaps an extreme example, but it illustrates the point.  How does $4000 in chrome improve your quality of life, especially when attached to a vehicle that will spend more time in the shop than on the road?  Perhaps reallocating some of that $4000 towards the purchase price of the vehicle would have been less showy, but it certainly would’ve had a more fulfilling result.

By this point I’m probably just senselessly rambling, so I’ll try to wrap it up with some amount of concision.  Instead of spending a lot of money on the things you want, and economizing on the things you need, the next time you go shopping – splurge on the stuff you use every day.  Look for things that are hand-crafted by artisans.  Comfortable.  Pleasing to use.  Good things.  Reliable things.  Things that aren’t disposable.  Sure, you might have to dip into the cash you’d been saving to buy that new 56″ flat screen TV, but ask yourself – do I really watch that much TV?  If you spend all day at work, writing, then consider spending $100 on a good, and I mean good, pen rather than on that new Blu-Ray player, which you know deep down inside you’re only going to use for a couple hours a week.  I dare you.

Update: It’s been a looooong time between the beginning of this draft, and now.  In that time, I have actually acquired a signed, first edition copy of The Difference Engine.

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