Armageddon, the metric system, and you.

Posted by Tara on 05.22.2012 at 12:36 pm

Tara Gilchrist manages the Antiquarian, Rare, and Collectible department, and shares this recent find.

Old books don’t have to be rare, scarce, or pricey to be evocative and meaningful. They just need to connect you with an idea or a feeling that’s important to you.

For example: the other day, while sorting through a box of books, I came across this:

Suddenly, I was back in the fourth grade, pinned to my desk in fear, choking on the smell of chalk, lead, kid-sweat. We were about to learn THE. METRIC. SYSTEM.  Only smart people who spoke foreign languages used this system! (If you spoke anything other than English, you were smart, of course.) It would be difficult! And if we didn’t convert—we’d perish!

That’s the impression we were given. The story we were told. And look at the cover of this book: tell me it doesn’t feel like Armageddon all over again. Prepare now, all ye foolish Americans, or face your doom! The title page offers no mitigation for this apprehension:

Obviously, this whole process would be a spiky, uphill climb.

Mr. Frank Donovan of the Beard and Pipe Brigade (author):

tried to make his message friendlier by 1974:

Even so, this cover feels like a pyramid; rather like something the Aztecs would build to offer a blood sacrifice. As for the back cover, well, don’t you hear strains of the Dr. Demento ditty, “They’re coming to take me away HAHA / They’re coming to take me away HOHO HEHE HAHA.”

I didn’t make it. I didn’t convert to the metric system. I think only doctors and drug dealers actually made that transition. We should have just “done it”- made pounds, gallons, and miles obsolete in one swoop- no converting- a “new normal.” If that had happened when I was in the 4th grade, I’m pretty sure I’d know the metric system by now. Why do we desperately clutch to our old ways of measurement? Even Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State charged with devising a national standard of weights & measures, couldn’t get this done.

These two old books aren’t worth serious money. But they sparked discussion in our section for a week; made me panicky (and remember the fourth grade); had us talking about how Americans think about themselves & their place in the world; wonder what would be different today if we had successfully converted to the metric system; made me laugh over the disastrous cover designs; inspired a blog post… they’re worth something to me.

My point is: you don’t need deep pockets to collect books. Find your passion (or your fear), your interests, and just… begin.

What are you collecting right now?

3 Comments » | Tagged Ask the Dust: Notes from the Rare Book Section, Antiquarian Books, Collectible Books, Dr. Demento, Rare Books