The Meaning Behind Pulp Fiction and the Briefcase

First of all, up front confession: this isn’t my theory.  I’m a redditor and this is from fellow redditor ‘maxwell_stupid’.  Like any theory, I’m sure one can pick holes in it, but this is damn interesting, made me look at the movie in another light and given Tarantino’s love for music and hidden meanings I felt like he was onto something.

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Going Digital

I think I’m at that in-between age where I grew up as computers were getting common so I’m familiar and comfortable with them, but I am also old enough that I’ve had my share of cassettes, VCR tapes and of course CDs and DVDs.

Over the years I had built up quite a collection and eventually it consisted of solely CDs and DVDs.  They filled up shelves and shelves and frankly began to get overwhelming.  Especially as I spent the last several years moving several times.  With iTunes and the like taking over I began burning most of my media to HDs.. then all of my jewel cases and DVD boxes were thrown out and only the discs kept in sleeves.  Now my wall spanning collection fit neatly in a few small file boxes and disc books and I could set them aside and have easy access to them on the computer.

This applies to photography as well.  An avid film shooter and developer for years I was fast and ready to jump into digital picture taking and processing.  I might fill another post up on this one day, so I’ll move on..

This brings me to the real reason for this post: Books.

As e-books have grown that has been the one area I held back on in going digital.  A few months ago I bought a kindle though and haven’t looked back.  Again one big reason was packing up for a final move across the country.  I probably had more book boxes than all my other boxes of stuff combined.  Also in flying and driving back and forth a couple times now and packing a few paperbacks away, even that takes up quite a bit of room when you just take a carry-on with you.

Books have always been a different beast for me.  Yes there is the argument I see about holding a book in your hands, the smell and feel of it and all that applies for me (mostly in HC form).  But I’ve always viewed books as decoration.  To me it tells guests something about me, just like a piece of art or pictures hanging on the wall.  I like having bookshelves.  Moving all that really helped push the meter on that feeling enough for me to break down and get a kindle.

I also have so many books that it’s not very feasible for me to constantly add to it.  I think I’m content now to focus my collection on just buying HC’s of favorite series and authors and buy the rest on kindle.  Honestly I like reading on the kindle a great deal more than paperbacks and probably holds equal to reading a HC.  The drawbacks to lugging it around help offset that “feeling” I mentioned earlier.  Plus it’s really nice to be able to pull up an app on my ipod and always have access to a book in my pocket as well.

Now this post isn’t really here for me to market the kindle for amazon, any e-reader would fit the bill in my examples.  It’s more about the last straw for me of going digital.  Movies, music, books and comics… I now prefer to have digital versions.  What surprises me most is how surprised some are at the growth of e-books.  I always felt I was a pretty odd example (sure there are plenty others out there with my feelings toward books, but not a majority).  Most of the readers I am friends with aren’t “book collectors” like I am.  They are content to check out books from the library to read their favorite series.  They are content to wait for the paperback, buy well used books, trade them away once done, etc.  Nothing is wrong with this, but I think it makes for a pretty easy environment for digital media to move into.  When the biggest argument for hardcopies is liking the “feel” of a book, that isn’t much competition. 

I come across articles talking about how print is dying (same thing we see about how digital is killing music and movies).  So my point is that a lot of people were not so attached to these books that they trade and borrow and resale to begin with.  Other than not being able to decorate my walls with books, I’m not seeing much of a difference in my ability to read or my enjoyment from it other than digital making it easier.  In everything I’ve gone digital with… music, movies, photography and now books I end up buying more and getting more enjoyment from it than when I had only the physical media option.