Ah de Boekerij
Onlangs nog geschriften tegen gekomen waaruit blijkt dat ik al lang een notie van een gecombineerde boekerij en diversen voor ogen had, nog lang voor ik als proefproject in de late jaren 80 de Livrerie Pharmacie startte, die, weliswaar in diverse en soms minimale vorm, tot vandaag is blijven bestaan...
Het is mij ook weer ingevallen/opgevallen dat een van de inspiratiebronnen, de Apotheek Oey te Amsterdam was – zonder deze ooit te kennen... alleen van horen-zeggen, van enkele kaartjes geproduceerd door de Fingerpers... maar toch een essentieel invloed... hoe kan dat zijn? Juist ‘niets’ is van blijvend aard...
Tjen Sit Oey was in die tijd van ons genomen door een ongeval veroorzaakt door een monsterautomobiel... zijn dramatisch heengaan heeft er misschien mee te maken... in elk geval was ik verheugt om te zien dat zijn zoon René een mooi en informatief website heeft gemaakt... die ik hier even mee inlink...
Always was a sucker for nice books, and dismayed at the amount of books being thrown out, burnt, ripped and manhandled... even the grimy cheapo paperbacks, riddled with disease and probable infections, dog-eared and sticky with unknown substances still solicited my sympathy, for which I have been rewarded in the form of a quaint book-wall full of golden oldies... right back to the ‘pocketsized’ GI-issues to be read on board landing craft or glider bellies before the onslaught... Not to mention the classic covers that have become iconic over the years... and here and there a title that made it into the big league, being reprinted in hardback bound & dust jacketed luxury gift wrapped...
Of course the large tomes of serious reading and lavishly illustrated cultural monuments, also thrown on the skip in the rain without a second thought.. Rarities and even leather-bund antiquities... one could not fathom the mentality that would discard such things – yet, they were thrown out by the academy, making shelfspace for more recent publications more suited to the current syllabus... but could one help oneself? No way... they had to be destroyed... lest some enterprising passer-by might make a profit at their cost – while themselves not having the time or manpower to make the effort.
Rather destroy than give away.
This was at a time before the resurgence of artist-books and coveted book-object got back in vogue... at a time when everyone was sure the future was digital, and we would be reading noughts and crosses (or lines) all the while, paper being obsolete, as well as stories with a beginning and an end... and, with them the shelves and the housing that go with it... libraries were becoming coffee-corners and places to hob-nob about whatnot and all. Gone the rows upon rows of books, the dust, the lost tomes and forgotten letters between the pages...
Don’t get me wrong, I (albeit reluctantly) replaced my typer with a keyboard long ago, and in the beginning also was enthused to an extent, embracing the limitless possibilities... but, and the but is getting heavier, not at the cost of the other... the old, the quaint the dusty, messy material degrading, ripped and torn lignite browned and silverfish infested book... reams of paper and rolls of parched papyrus, and all that...
Now, after having destroyed quite a bit of the old stock, the realization returns that not all is well in digi-land... that the promised stability of hardware and systems is not quite what was promised, and that all that toil has to be repeated at an ever-increasing rate of mutation just to keep up with the latest version of compatible software... it’s a trap and always has been.
So, even though getting on and my back aching more frequently than before, I refuse to throw them out – digitized yes, for practical reasons, but still based on the real thing- the musty pages, the torn cover and creased inner flap. Everything from the stencilled pamphlet to the gilt-edged coffee-table edition, the musty paperback and the leather-bound one-off... consorting amiably together in a maelstrom of incoherent natural order, by chance, by fluke, by misadventure...
(here an essay I wrote for the Van Eyck application ages ago – not convinced myself of the new book tendencies..)
