1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:11,360 Speaker 1: Ephemeral is a protection of my heart radio. Since I 2 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: started working on this show, which was longer ago than 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:19,279 Speaker 1: I cared to admit, I've been asked a lot of questions, 4 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:25,119 Speaker 1: good questions, but sometimes hard to answer. The basic what 5 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:27,920 Speaker 1: do you talk about? The trick here? Why is that interesting? 6 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:32,160 Speaker 1: And the pointed why is it important? But let's slow 7 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:36,120 Speaker 1: down a second. If something is ephemeral, what does that 8 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: actually mean? I tell people what I'm working on, and 9 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: they're like, what, that's Sarah Wasserman who has made a 10 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: career out of answering questions like these. My name is 11 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,360 Speaker 1: Sarah Wasserman, and I am a professor of English and 12 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:53,960 Speaker 1: this other thing called material culture studies at the University 13 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: of Delaware, and I am finishing a book about ephemera. 14 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:01,960 Speaker 1: It's called The Death of Things. A good place to begin, 15 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: as you might expect, is to pull the word apart. 16 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 1: It comes from a Latin Greek combination word so epi, 17 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:15,320 Speaker 1: meaning of or on, as we have in Epicurius something 18 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: like that, and camera meaning day. And the word was 19 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: originally used to signify things that basically only lived for 20 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: one day. So the mayfly was the classic example in 21 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:35,360 Speaker 1: a single day or sometimes a long weekend, depending on 22 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 1: the particular species. The mayfly transforms into its adult winged stage, 23 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:46,839 Speaker 1: flies around, molts, mates, lays its eggs, and dies. Over 24 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 1: two thousand species of may fly make up the aptly 25 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: named order if Optera. In the most rigid connotation, ifemera 26 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: refers to paper, it's come to mean mainly printed material 27 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 1: that doesn't stick around for long. So we use it 28 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:11,240 Speaker 1: to think about broadsides, ticket stubs, brochures, pamphlets, flyers, envelopes, 29 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:15,160 Speaker 1: lottery tickets, paper dolls, maps, posted notes. You can drive 30 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: yourself crazy trying to make an exhaustive list of all 31 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: the printed material that passes through people's hands. That's the 32 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: textbook definition, right for me, someone who's interested in expanding 33 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:34,800 Speaker 1: that definition. I always think of it as an object 34 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: that is signaling its own imminent disappearance or destruction. So 35 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: it's an object that sort of announces when you encounter it, hey, 36 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:45,040 Speaker 1: I'm not going to be here for long. I'm not 37 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: going to be here in the nearer future. And that 38 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: makes it different than other kinds of objects that people 39 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: think about sometimes as being ephemera. It's really about that 40 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: knowledge when you encounter the object, that that it's short lived, 41 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: it's transigent. But there is an inherent paradox here that 42 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: I get stuck on. The thing isn't supposed to last, 43 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:12,559 Speaker 1: and yet in spite of or even because of its transience, 44 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,639 Speaker 1: it is given a second life. Is a mysterious piece 45 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:19,160 Speaker 1: of tape still ephemera if you put it in a 46 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:23,399 Speaker 1: podcast and push it out to the web. We don't 47 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:26,080 Speaker 1: have to think about contemporary media to answer that question. 48 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: Let's take a classic example a stamp. Ironically, they're called 49 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: forever stamps. Doubly ironically, I think one of the very 50 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,000 Speaker 1: first forever stamps depicts an Iceberger polar ice cap that 51 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: is melting. But if you take the stamp right, Generally, 52 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 1: when people buy stamps, you use them once you send 53 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: your letter, and then it's done. Someone's going to throw 54 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: it out somewhere. It's not meant to be kept. But 55 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: of course many people have stamp collections. They're worth a 56 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:56,320 Speaker 1: lot of money, they have sentimental value. People collect them 57 00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:58,840 Speaker 1: in albums, they save them forever. You get your grandfather's 58 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: stamp collections, so on and so have you ever in 59 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: your entire life seen anything so beauty? I'm sorry, I 60 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:08,120 Speaker 1: don't know anything about steps. I'll give you another example, 61 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: me to innovation promotional shoot for Winnebago. The RV company 62 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: was going horribly wrong. The Winnebago concepts and engineering departments 63 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 1: have developed a multi functional bathroom privacy. I don't need 64 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: what the im reading frustrated salesman Jack Revney kept blowing 65 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,760 Speaker 1: his lines, erupting with anger, and swearing continuously on camera. 66 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:35,120 Speaker 1: Things got so bad that the crew cut together a 67 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:38,160 Speaker 1: tape of the most egregious moments. Thank you very much. 68 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Tony don't slam. The star reportedly in 69 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: an effort to get Rebney fire. Listen. I've got to 70 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:47,839 Speaker 1: give a clue here now. I don't want any more 71 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: both any time during the day from anyone that includes me. 72 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: This video would become known as Winnebago Man and would 73 00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:03,919 Speaker 1: become infamous for years. The videos survived within fringe cultural institutions. 74 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:08,440 Speaker 1: Individual collectors duped and traded it on VHS along with 75 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: other art. The clip would air, believe it or not, 76 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,039 Speaker 1: on public television. Flies in my head the vehicles like 77 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 1: the show with No Name out of Austin, Texas. We 78 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 1: had this all right, this, this is this is one 79 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:22,919 Speaker 1: of the all time favorites, and it really is this is, 80 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: this is the golden clip. Um, this is And in 81 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,680 Speaker 1: two thousand and six, a digitized version would be posted 82 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: on a then fledgling YouTube, quickly going what would be 83 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 1: called viral. Let us get stuff here. That could have 84 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: been the end of the story, but over the next 85 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:46,359 Speaker 1: few years, filmmaker Ben Steinbauer tracked down Rebney, now in 86 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: his eighties, and united the former salesman with fans he 87 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: didn't know he had at the Found Footage Festival in 88 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:57,719 Speaker 1: San Francisco. They documented the adventure in the two thousand 89 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 1: nine film, also titled WINNI begg a Man? So how 90 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:07,960 Speaker 1: do we chase the distance between those two poles? On 91 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: one end, the salvage raw tape of an obscure commercial 92 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: that I'm not sure ever went to air. On the other, 93 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,919 Speaker 1: a phenomenon that's been adapted, remixed, and viewed millions of times, 94 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: A unique work that could last physically and culturally for 95 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: who knows how long. If Winnebago Man is a modern 96 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,719 Speaker 1: example of ephemera, and I think it is, how do 97 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:37,039 Speaker 1: we reconcile that duality? It's not that ephemera just by 98 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: default are gone and lost to us. But I do 99 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 1: think it takes some effort. Because the things aren't meant 100 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:48,160 Speaker 1: to last. Someone somewhere has to decide that they're meaningful 101 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:54,240 Speaker 1: and resurrect them, or maintain them, curate them, disseminate them. 102 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 1: It's not just de facto going to come to us. 103 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:04,560 Speaker 1: Part of the reason it feels tricky to talk about 104 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,919 Speaker 1: ephemera is that in English, at least, we have an 105 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: underdeveloped vocabulary on this subject. And curiously so, given how 106 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:17,000 Speaker 1: into our stuff we are, we have a lot of 107 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:19,240 Speaker 1: terms that are very indistinct. I mean, I think when 108 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,240 Speaker 1: we talk about the objects in the world that we 109 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:24,720 Speaker 1: encounter that we use, we talk about stuff, is it, 110 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: how stuff works? Dot com? We talk about things this thing, 111 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: that thing, very undifferentiated, and then there's rubbish, trash, refuse. 112 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: There's obsolescence which BCR is right for you, obsolete object, 113 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 1: the outmoded object, and all of those terms I think 114 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:48,240 Speaker 1: are related and intersect in interesting ways. The stamp, at 115 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 1: some point it becomes trash. You might also argue that 116 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:56,280 Speaker 1: they're becoming obsolete. Who sends letters anymore? The particularity of 117 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:02,120 Speaker 1: ephemera is that they're not really meant to leave a remainder. Generally, 118 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:04,720 Speaker 1: unless someone is doing some work of saving them, they're 119 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: lost to us. That's different from something like trash, which 120 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:13,000 Speaker 1: we throw away. I mean, there's that a way. We're 121 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:14,720 Speaker 1: not meant to see it. We put it somewhere. We 122 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: don't really know where it goes. We have a suspicion 123 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: that it's going somewhere that's probably not good for the environment, 124 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 1: but it's still around in some form biodegrading. Maybe the 125 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: obsolete is something that if you have a box of 126 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,640 Speaker 1: VHS tapes or c d s and they're taking up 127 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: space and you don't know what to do with them, 128 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:37,120 Speaker 1: you are encountering the physical remainder of the obsolete that 129 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:43,480 Speaker 1: sticks around in a way that ephemera doesn't. When a 130 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:47,280 Speaker 1: bego man, in a way is reconstituted trash. The tape 131 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,079 Speaker 1: was bound for the cutting room floor, which is actually 132 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: an outmoded term, since you don't generally cut the physical 133 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:56,880 Speaker 1: video tape when you edit it. The ported YouTube version 134 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: retains the artifacts of its obsolete VHS origins, and as 135 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 1: it gets remixed and re remixed, it's picked up some 136 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:12,240 Speaker 1: digital artifacts along the way. Studying ephemera is a way 137 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:17,160 Speaker 1: of touring our history. There are so many incredible objects 138 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 1: that are keyed to particular moments in history, like a 139 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 1: World's fair, you know New York nine World's Fair. That's 140 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: a big one, or World War Two memorabilia, These moments 141 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:32,960 Speaker 1: where the objects can teach us about our own history 142 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 1: and make meaning for us. In Chicago, tears of joy 143 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,320 Speaker 1: mingled with cheers as a minion, people saying and danced 144 00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: in the streets. Narrative meaning affective meaning, different kinds of 145 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: meaning that you can maybe get at better through a 146 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:50,480 Speaker 1: depiction of these objects than just you know, a plot 147 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: point or straight history. Let's say you've done a podcast 148 00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 1: episode on no longer available or obsolete form of television 149 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: broadcasting I have, but more on that later. So let's 150 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,679 Speaker 1: say there's a museum exhibition on that form of broadcasting, 151 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:11,720 Speaker 1: and you can go to the museum and you can 152 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:13,920 Speaker 1: see all the equipment they use, and they have the 153 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: stage set up, and they've done a recreation. You are 154 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:21,280 Speaker 1: a dandy crowd the museum in trying to recreate this 155 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:25,200 Speaker 1: and trying to make it available to visitors to experience. 156 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000 Speaker 1: You get a sense of the thing, the object, you 157 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:31,720 Speaker 1: know what it is, what it was, but you don't 158 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:36,040 Speaker 1: get a sense of its disappearance. In effect, by resurrecting 159 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:41,240 Speaker 1: and recreating it, they don't recreate the disappearance, which is 160 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: obviously the thing that I think can be really poignant 161 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:49,959 Speaker 1: and meaningful. Sarah's thesis is that narrative storytelling in fiction 162 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:56,280 Speaker 1: or elsewhere, functions especially well at this difficult task because 163 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:59,520 Speaker 1: it's not giving you the object itself. It's giving you 164 00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: a descript and of it that you you know, you 165 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:04,080 Speaker 1: have to read, You have to imagine. There's an imperative 166 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:09,880 Speaker 1: to narrate the object and its disappearance, and it's vanishing, 167 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:13,240 Speaker 1: and it's loss that I think other forms have trouble 168 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:19,120 Speaker 1: getting to Winnebago Man the movie four grounds this aspect. 169 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,959 Speaker 1: Whatever happened to this character would occurred in the twenty 170 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,680 Speaker 1: year gap between commercial shoot gone wrong and Internet sensation. 171 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 1: If narrative helps us see the whole picture, the moment 172 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: and the loss of the moment simultaneously, well what do 173 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:46,880 Speaker 1: we do with that knowledge? One art by Elizabeth Bishop, 174 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:53,760 Speaker 1: The art of losing isn't hard to master. So many 175 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: things seem filled with the intent to be lost, that 176 00:11:56,520 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 1: their loss is no disaster lose some thing every day, 177 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:05,720 Speaker 1: except the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. 178 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 1: The art of losing isn't hard to master. Then practice 179 00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:14,000 Speaker 1: losing farther, losing faster, places and names and where it 180 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:17,760 Speaker 1: was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. 181 00:12:19,559 --> 00:12:22,960 Speaker 1: I lost my mother's watch, and look my last or 182 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 1: next to last, of three loved houses went. The art 183 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 1: of losing isn't hard to master. I lost two cities, 184 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:35,800 Speaker 1: lovely ones and vaster some realms. I owned two rivers 185 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 1: a continent. I missed them. But it wasn't a disaster. 186 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:44,280 Speaker 1: Even losing you. The joking voice a gesture I love, 187 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:48,120 Speaker 1: I shan't have lied. It's evident the art of losing 188 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: is not too hard to master. Though it may look 189 00:12:51,200 --> 00:13:03,559 Speaker 1: like righte it like disaster. Elizabeth Bishop published one art. 190 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:09,760 Speaker 1: I think she really gets at the way that the 191 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:13,680 Speaker 1: written work can do more than just give us an object, 192 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:16,120 Speaker 1: give us a historical object, but give us the loss 193 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:19,679 Speaker 1: of that object. It's like the poet saying to herself, 194 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:22,080 Speaker 1: if I write it, if I write about this loss, 195 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: I turn it into something that isn't disaster. Although clearly 196 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:29,559 Speaker 1: it is right. I mean, it's so it's filled with 197 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:38,320 Speaker 1: so much pathos. What happens when you take that loss 198 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:42,560 Speaker 1: and the cycle of production, consumption and disposal that creates it, 199 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: and ratchet it up to eleven. That's the recipe for 200 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:53,760 Speaker 1: America in the twentieth century. We Americans in the twentieth 201 00:13:53,880 --> 00:13:58,679 Speaker 1: century become I don't know what to call it, ephemerad juggernauts. 202 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:01,439 Speaker 1: Making has been on a companying sound effect to all 203 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 1: of American history. Listen to the heartbeat of a great industry. 204 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:11,200 Speaker 1: We are the pioneers in many ways of technologies for 205 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 1: creating disposable goods, everything from I don't know, paper plates 206 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:20,400 Speaker 1: and plastic cups to paper tablecloths and hygiene products. The 207 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: wide variety of fabrics that pour out of textile mills 208 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:25,920 Speaker 1: plays a great part in your daily life, a far 209 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:28,960 Speaker 1: bigger role perhaps when you realize in your home and 210 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,640 Speaker 1: in every home rich your poor, from coast to coast. 211 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:34,440 Speaker 1: Susan Strasser is a great book called Waste and Want 212 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:37,920 Speaker 1: that chronicles this consumer history of Americans in their obsession 213 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:41,640 Speaker 1: with disposable things that happens in the twentieth century. Hey 214 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,400 Speaker 1: in the American way of doing things as produced and 215 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:47,960 Speaker 1: is producing a better living than anywhere else on earth. 216 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 1: We also have planned obsolescence. The famous one is the 217 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: light bulb. The light bulb companies figure out, hey, if 218 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:56,280 Speaker 1: your light bulb burns out sooner, you're gonna have to 219 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:58,160 Speaker 1: buy a new light bulb sooner. So we're gonna make 220 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: some more money on that. And that's still very much 221 00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:04,680 Speaker 1: present today. If you're looking at your iPhone ten and 222 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:06,920 Speaker 1: you know that the iPhone eleven is around the corner, 223 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:13,760 Speaker 1: we're still in that market mindset of planned obsolescence. If 224 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: the first half of the century was about maximizing means 225 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,520 Speaker 1: of production, the trend of the second half has been 226 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 1: away from physical goods and toward the digital. So we 227 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: create all these technologies to have cheap paper goods of 228 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:31,720 Speaker 1: all different kinds, the new paper towel that actually attracts moisture, 229 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: even like clothes made of paper that you can throw 230 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,880 Speaker 1: away after one where it feels different too. In the 231 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:40,760 Speaker 1: second half of the twentieth century, we start to move 232 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:45,360 Speaker 1: away from paper and print, take you towards everything being 233 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,840 Speaker 1: seemingly immaterial as it becomes digital, how would you communicate. 234 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 1: Most people don't have hard copy printed photo albums anymore. 235 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,280 Speaker 1: They have digital photo albums, so they just have their 236 00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:00,840 Speaker 1: photos on their phone. What digital technology like this drive 237 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:03,280 Speaker 1: into your local photomac could be a thing of the past. 238 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:06,320 Speaker 1: And so there's a way in which the long history 239 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,880 Speaker 1: of consumer society in America is really a trend from 240 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:13,120 Speaker 1: the solid, the durable, I'm going to have a sweater 241 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:15,560 Speaker 1: that I mend and re mend, and I'm a steward 242 00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:18,720 Speaker 1: of this object to the opposite poll, which is something 243 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,920 Speaker 1: like Snapchat, where it's designed to just go away instantly. 244 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:27,120 Speaker 1: It's a it's a really strong arc in our consumer history. 245 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:32,920 Speaker 1: Pick your poison, if it's Facebook or Flicker or a 246 00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:35,240 Speaker 1: Google drive, where you start to wonder, Okay, this thing 247 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 1: seems immaterial, and yet I can never delete it. We're inundated. 248 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: We're flooded by this immaterial, seemingly immaterial data about ourselves. 249 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:49,240 Speaker 1: And so we have this new activity in the twenty 250 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:52,800 Speaker 1: one century, which is something like self curation. You know, 251 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:55,000 Speaker 1: there was the court case not long ago in Europe 252 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,200 Speaker 1: about deletion and Google. People had to fight for the 253 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 1: right to be able to delete things from Google. On 254 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:07,600 Speaker 1: the one hand, everything seems immaterial, all the objects seem 255 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,679 Speaker 1: to have disappeared, from our hands. But they're also, in 256 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:16,720 Speaker 1: certain ways ever more enduring. You know, one thing that's 257 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:19,040 Speaker 1: been great as a as a researcher of this topic 258 00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:21,040 Speaker 1: is I can access a lot of the ephemera I 259 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:23,040 Speaker 1: want to work on online. Oh I want to see 260 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:26,080 Speaker 1: an inverted Jenny stamp from the nineteen thirties. Okay, I 261 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:28,280 Speaker 1: can look that up online. I don't have to go 262 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:33,520 Speaker 1: to a physical archive. But I wonder if we're losing touch. 263 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:39,400 Speaker 1: I mean to use that word conscientiously with the materiality 264 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:42,480 Speaker 1: of a lot of things, and we lose something in 265 00:17:42,520 --> 00:17:48,040 Speaker 1: that process of translation. I have students tell me things like, oh, 266 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:50,159 Speaker 1: I didn't really grow up drawing on paper, I just 267 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: grew up drawing on an iPad, you know. My I 268 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:56,480 Speaker 1: stop and pause and think, Okay, what does what does 269 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:00,720 Speaker 1: that mean? What gets lost if you didn't hold crayons 270 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,879 Speaker 1: or eat paste or uh, you know, have to crumple 271 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:05,760 Speaker 1: your paper turn it over to the other side. And 272 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,360 Speaker 1: I don't want to be so conservative to say everything 273 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:10,200 Speaker 1: is lost and it's terrible and we should go back 274 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:13,640 Speaker 1: to the way things are. But I am deeply committed 275 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 1: to thinking about the differences and and just making sure 276 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:21,320 Speaker 1: that we understand them at the very least, try to. 277 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,080 Speaker 1: If these things that were quote never supposed to last 278 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:35,439 Speaker 1: paradoxically continue to exist, is death somehow cheated. More to 279 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,399 Speaker 1: the point is interacting with ephemera and experience that consciously 280 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:46,520 Speaker 1: or subconsciously connects a person with their own mortality. Ephemera 281 00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:48,800 Speaker 1: I think are especially moving because they seem to have 282 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:52,399 Speaker 1: their own life cycle. They're made, they're born, they enter circulation, 283 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,159 Speaker 1: they live, and then they die. We think of things, 284 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,600 Speaker 1: We think of matter as being the opposite of mortal. 285 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:01,639 Speaker 1: We think of it as being enduring. We think of 286 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: it as being stable and inert. And ephemia have this 287 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 1: kind of time scale, this temporal dimension that makes them 288 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:13,119 Speaker 1: seem mortal like us. I think that's part of the 289 00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,040 Speaker 1: reason that authors find them meaningful. They can become proxy 290 00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:19,760 Speaker 1: stand ins for humans or nations or communities. To make 291 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:25,440 Speaker 1: that more concrete, take an example, New York World's Fair 292 00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:30,880 Speaker 1: Tomorrow was actually built on the Valley of Ashes, as 293 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:35,200 Speaker 1: Fitzgerald calls it. In the Great Gatsby gate Way, five 294 00:19:35,359 --> 00:19:38,919 Speaker 1: million dollar one land, they transform what is basically a 295 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:44,439 Speaker 1: dump into this bright, shining, gleaming future city and everyone 296 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:46,119 Speaker 1: goes I mean really everyone in a way that we 297 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:51,240 Speaker 1: can't comprehend today. Everyone goes from come countment, visiting by 298 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:55,480 Speaker 1: every mode of travel, every means of transportation. They arrived 299 00:19:55,560 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 1: to view the marvels of the greatest exposition in history. 300 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:00,640 Speaker 1: You go and you say, oh, this is the world 301 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:02,439 Speaker 1: of tomorrow, this is the world as it could be. 302 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: There are all kinds of problems with the vision that 303 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:09,119 Speaker 1: gets staged. I mean racial problems, nationalistic problems, colonial issues, 304 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:13,159 Speaker 1: all sorts of things, but in that particular instance, people 305 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:17,639 Speaker 1: knew that it wouldn't be there. The fair was a 306 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:23,080 Speaker 1: temporary installation, like a carnival set up in Queens. It 307 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:26,399 Speaker 1: was open for two seasons from April to October and 308 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:31,000 Speaker 1: closed permanently as most of the participating countries sank into 309 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:36,199 Speaker 1: another World war. That experience, knowing that it's going to 310 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,760 Speaker 1: be gone feels exhilarating but melancholic for a lot of people, 311 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,919 Speaker 1: and so the souvenir craze, you know, the souvenir boom 312 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:46,040 Speaker 1: is huge around that fair because people want to take 313 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: something with them so that when the fair is gone, 314 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,240 Speaker 1: when they're no longer there, but also the buildings are gone, 315 00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:56,320 Speaker 1: they have something to remember it by the Paris here 316 00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:59,119 Speaker 1: and the Trial On were the two iconic buildings, and 317 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:03,520 Speaker 1: they get sort of one on everything rises above all 318 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:07,600 Speaker 1: else and the circling helocline that leads even the parts 319 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:12,399 Speaker 1: there's exhibits democracity is a pathway to the future. One 320 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:14,720 Speaker 1: of my favorite souvenirs is after you came out of Futurama, 321 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,960 Speaker 1: which was General Motors vision and sort of model city 322 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:19,439 Speaker 1: of the future, you would get a little button that 323 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:23,200 Speaker 1: says I have seen the future. Sensational is the Futurama 324 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,399 Speaker 1: that projects you into nineteen six the highways and a 325 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:29,479 Speaker 1: rise and show you know that you have this item, 326 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,240 Speaker 1: this object that's going to commemorate this event. It almost 327 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:36,120 Speaker 1: feels like it's shoring up against that feeling of mortality. 328 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:41,800 Speaker 1: Susan Stewart talks about the souvenir as an object that 329 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,399 Speaker 1: you need when an event is no longer repeatable. So 330 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:48,359 Speaker 1: if you go to your Ariana Grande concert, you want 331 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,600 Speaker 1: the ticket stuff because you're probably not going to go 332 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 1: to another Ariana Grande show where you're certainly not going 333 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,520 Speaker 1: to go to the one in Philadelphia, and so you 334 00:21:55,560 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: need an object because it's not repeatable. Men any ephemera 335 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:04,320 Speaker 1: are doing that work. They're kind of saying, I was there, 336 00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:08,040 Speaker 1: I saw this thing. It's gone now, but I save it, 337 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: and that allows me to project myself into the future, 338 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:14,280 Speaker 1: to project myself into the past, to stave off that 339 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:19,240 Speaker 1: encounter with death that might be implicitly happening. In the 340 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:22,679 Speaker 1: intro to Sarah's upcoming book, she lends a warning to 341 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:26,520 Speaker 1: those embarking down this path. Once you're looking for it, 342 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:31,320 Speaker 1: everything seems to be stamped with a half life. I 343 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:35,080 Speaker 1: start to wonder, like, is everything just becoming ephemeral? Is 344 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: everything immaterial? I do think it's a kind of condition 345 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,879 Speaker 1: of being in the world. Some things just don't stick around, 346 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,760 Speaker 1: and things that we don't necessarily think about. So, you know, 347 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:51,840 Speaker 1: in the early twentieth century, you can look at these 348 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:57,119 Speaker 1: records where urban planners tell architects what the lifespan of 349 00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:01,000 Speaker 1: a building should be. So a hospital should die, let's 350 00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:03,639 Speaker 1: use that word, sooner than a bank, because the hospital 351 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:05,560 Speaker 1: has to adapt to technology. But the bank should make 352 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:07,399 Speaker 1: people feel secure that their money is going to be there. 353 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,440 Speaker 1: So even our buildings, our city scapes have lifespan. So 354 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 1: I do think it's baked in. But I do also 355 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:17,560 Speaker 1: think that we have encountered it and baked it into 356 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:20,440 Speaker 1: our experience, even more in this country in the past 357 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 1: hundred years or so than than some other places. Drink 358 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,480 Speaker 1: the fact that it is baked in that if femorality 359 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:37,439 Speaker 1: surrounds us in immeasurable, unpredictable ways, suggests perhaps that the 360 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:40,240 Speaker 1: best course of action may not be to draw exhaustive 361 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: lists of disappearing objects, but to think of this as 362 00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:49,200 Speaker 1: a lens for viewing the world prescription glasses we learned 363 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:55,640 Speaker 1: to see only as we practice using the eyes. If 364 00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:59,640 Speaker 1: you recognize that things don't stick around forever and yet 365 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,520 Speaker 1: leave some kind of trace, sometimes that's a physical trace, 366 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:07,240 Speaker 1: sometimes that's an emotional one, a historical one. I think 367 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:09,240 Speaker 1: many different things happen. I mean, I think one is 368 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,960 Speaker 1: that there's a kind of different relationship to environmental concerns. 369 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:17,040 Speaker 1: If we recognize our attachment it's ironic, our attachment to 370 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:20,919 Speaker 1: disposable objects, we can think about what that's doing to 371 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,439 Speaker 1: the environment more. But I guess I'm also interested in 372 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:28,840 Speaker 1: recognizing that total loss, the complete erasure of an object, 373 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: and total presence as an I possess it, it's mine forever, 374 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,080 Speaker 1: that they're both kind of fantasies. I think we do 375 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,159 Speaker 1: have something like a more realistic or realist relationship to 376 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:41,800 Speaker 1: the world. I think that that teaches us that temporary 377 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: formations and temporary objects can can be meaningful. I think 378 00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:50,520 Speaker 1: that it maybe helps us understand that we don't need 379 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:55,159 Speaker 1: to cling so tightly. It's a kind of anti nostalgic 380 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,359 Speaker 1: position to realize that that some things change, and things 381 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,440 Speaker 1: aren't ours necessarily in the way that we think they are. 382 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:05,119 Speaker 1: To begin with. The fiction that I'm interested in is 383 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: really good at reminding us of how important it is 384 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:12,800 Speaker 1: to to let go of things. You know, the trial 385 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:14,320 Speaker 1: and in the Paris heere that I mentioned from the 386 00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:18,600 Speaker 1: World's Fair. When the fair closed, they stripped off the 387 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 1: plaster and they melted down the steel for bullets. It's 388 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:27,680 Speaker 1: an amazing moment that fiction Eel Doctor's book World's Fair 389 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:31,119 Speaker 1: helps us remember that these things that were icons of 390 00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:34,200 Speaker 1: the beautiful, gleaming future just around the corner, in fact 391 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:38,920 Speaker 1: went into the most literal manifestation of the war effort. 392 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:45,240 Speaker 1: Stories like that remind us of how flexible and fluid 393 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:48,879 Speaker 1: the material world around us is, and that we two should, 394 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:55,560 Speaker 1: in response, maybe try to be fluid and flexible thinking 395 00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:59,879 Speaker 1: about disappearance and thinking about it as meaning making and 396 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,280 Speaker 1: something to sometimes celebrate and something that's really interesting and 397 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,679 Speaker 1: there should be podcasts about it. You know that that 398 00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:09,280 Speaker 1: that actually can teach us that disappearance is a part 399 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:45,280 Speaker 1: of our history and how it moves forward if Ehemeral 400 00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 1: is written, assembled by me, and produced by Any Reese, 401 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:53,399 Speaker 1: Not Frederick and Tristan McNeil, with technical assistance from Sherry Larson. 402 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 1: Special thanks this episode to Master of Introductions David Weinstein, 403 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,320 Speaker 1: and to Sarah Wasserman. Please always bring along a home. 404 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,399 Speaker 1: Follow her on Twitter at Sarah L. Wasserman and at 405 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:11,320 Speaker 1: her website Sarah Wasserman dot com. This track and much 406 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 1: of the music in the episode came courtesy of the 407 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:18,840 Speaker 1: artist mon Plazier. Learn more at Loyalty Freak Music dot com. 408 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,359 Speaker 1: You'll find links to all this and more at ephemeral 409 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:44,760 Speaker 1: dot show Next time on Ephemeral. There are currently thousands 410 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:47,960 Speaker 1: of television networks, but once upon a time there were 411 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:53,720 Speaker 1: four NBC, CBS, this is the Colombia Broadcasting System, ABC 412 00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:01,280 Speaker 1: and Dumont. There's a treasure plature, a moment of leg 413 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,960 Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of money in staving programs in 414 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,360 Speaker 1: the forties and fifties that they duman television at work. 415 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:12,880 Speaker 1: One of the big selling points of television is it's 416 00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:17,280 Speaker 1: live in our TV. You're watching something as it's happening. 417 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:19,960 Speaker 1: Well bother you want to take this Trob loyal life, 418 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,440 Speaker 1: Its prepared nineteen thousand seven, ten meals there. He is 419 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,480 Speaker 1: beautiful a night. It is hardly forgotten today, but it 420 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: doesn't deserve to be. I don't I joke, got a 421 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: little story about Dumart Brand visit us in the world, 422 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:48,960 Speaker 1: wind and in act with us and social media at 423 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:57,080 Speaker 1: the ship. It's on about podcast and I media. It's 424 00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:03,840 Speaker 1: not that I media Apple podcasts are wiever years A 425 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 1: you favorite Hills