Pictures and Monograms
March
20
“Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we’re still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. We put display our framed photographs, our parchment diplomas, our silver-plated cups; we monogram our linen, we carve our names on trees, we scrawl them on washroom walls. It’s all the same impulse. What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simply attention, of any kind we can get?”
At the very least we want a witness. We can’t stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.
— Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin)
why indeed? i guess, it’s our way of saying i was here. i lived. i did these things. i am leaving these marks because this will remind future generations of my existence long after my bones have turned to dust
Sorry I want to quote The X-Files again, but there’s this one scene where Mulder and Scully were taking too long staring at each other, and another guy said: “Take a picture, it will last longer.”
That sums it up pretty nicely, I think.