Inevitability

It's like fingering through an epilogue. Things that we know have become more and more fickle.

I love reading books. I even inspire to write one myself. And as much as I appreciate the advancement of technology and its practicality, I'm kind of sad when I witness and read about how book stores start to go under one by one. First, it was the book retailer Borders closed its branches here, and then the spacious fixture at our family's hang out Vivocity Mall, Page One. In Singapore, where most immerse themselves in their small confinement of their iOS and Androids, showing off their latest reading gadgets is more important than holding a real book. It has slowly becoming the thing of the past. Maybe soon books will become obsolete like those scrolls or sacred manuscripts. I would miss that new book smell, or the cozy ambiance of being surrounded by books, and the wonderful art of book covers.

It was only last Saturday, I watched You've Got Mail for the umpteenth time.

It was one of my favorite movies. My bag of chips. I made a remark to Jon that Hollywood doesn't make this kind of movie anymore. And although it's not his first time watching it, this time Jon really paid attention and actually appreciating some aspects of the story.

The premise of elephantine book chain retailers (resembling Borders and Barnes & Noble) overtaking the smaller 'mom-and-pop' type of bookshops, brought me back to the time of enjoyable visits to the Barnes & Noble's branch near my Jamieson house in Portland. Although I didn't always buy the books, the experience was something that I would not want to miss. They have these 'vintage' book plates that always halted me from going home empty handed. I still have a few boxes of them.

Oh how things have come full circle.

In the movie, Kathleen Kelly (played by Meg Ryan), owner of the fictional children book store "The Shop Around The Corner" reminisced,

"People are always telling you that change is a good thing. But all they're really saying is that something you didn't want to happen at all... has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store, did I ever tell you that? It's a lovely store, and in a week it will be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon, it'll just be a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it's a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something. I know because that's the sort of thing I'm always saying. But the truth is... I'm heartbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died..."

This movie was released in 1998. And less than a couple decades later, the chain retailers that supposedly make sellers like her miserable, suffering the same fate. It only feels like yesterday when I was charmed by the brick-and-mortar stores...

And how about this virtual grocery shopping in Korea? The idea is good and innovative. But with all these conveniences, I'm afraid that people will become more and more individualistic, cocooned inside their own homes, while everything is catered to them. As much as I don't like crowded aisles, grocery shopping is part of our family's pastime. All these innovations have their perks, claiming to make our lives more practical. In the meantime, people become more and more workaholic and individualistic, just so that they can afford such perks. Before long, there's nothing else to enjoy but a banal existence. Another example is on another of my favorite rom-com The Proposal.

The opening scene showed Sandra Bullock, playing a successful workaholic, exercising in the seclusion of her own house by riding a bike with a huge screen of pretend forest in front of her. When she's faced with the real task of bike riding through the real woods, then the skill that she thought she has, rendered useless. It's just like when I thought playing race car in the gaming arcade would make me capable of driving a car. And although I'm not an outdoorsy person and practically inactive, once in awhile, amidst the heat, humidity and annoying bugs (among other things), I can appreciate the change of pace in my day-to-day life. The virtual world is good, when it's applied to gaming console, I suppose. But not as a replacement of the real experience.

Are we at the last page of an era already?