Fifty Cultural Perturbations

Placed Upon the Skin it Should Burn and Thrill

Hold the device in your hand, and see what we mean. The electricity jumps and the fingers react, jolting back and forth without you being in control. This is what it means to be in control. And you are not the one in control.

But relish the opportunity, and learn to enjoy it. The device knows that it is unique, and acts with such impunity when it touches your skin. The pages scan back and forth quickly, and the touchscreen doesn’t respond to your commands. The words cut in half by static-like digital vectors of unreadable grey noise. Don’t try to read the text. Just feel the feeling on the skin. You are the page.

All books will one day be like this. You’ll be used to it, and so will your acquaintances. You will give these books as gifts. You will react with joyful surprise at receiving such a thing. There will be no more notice or alarm placed upon such an event than any other of the numerous forgotten things that occur to any person during the day. And then, you will forget that you ever knew about it before anyone else, because the point of knowing such a thing will have become entirely irrelevant.

Another Perturbation
About Fifty Cultural Perturbations