Vinyl

This is a bit more than nostalgia for a past technology.

My dad had listened to vinyl long after the invention (and intervention, if you asked him) of CDs. He told me once that it all came down to sound quality, "the texture of the sound" is the phrase he used, though I have no idea what that really means. He liked the objects themselves liked to hold a record in his hand, place it onto the turntable, position the needle into the groove. He used to lie on the couch in the living room with his headphones on, eyes closed, hands clasped on his chest, listening. He sometimes bought two copies of a single album, one to play, the other to store, to keep in its finest form.

From Michael Murphy A Description of the Blazing World this small excerpt encapsulates in a tiny space the theme of duplication that is the motor of this novel's exposition. And it is no coincidence that the duplication is connected to the figure of the father.

And so for day 814
06.03.2009