[watch this video] The periodic table table (and fic libraries and carved books)

[unjapanologist]

Theo Gray, element collector and many other things, constructed a table with a hand-carved wooden tile for every element in Mendeleev's periodic table. Each tile hides a sample of the element inside the table. It's a beautiful piece of work, and I love how it shows that there are real, physical, interesting things behind that perfectly boring grid full of letters I was presented with in high school and forgot as quickly as I could possibly manage. Maybe I'd have tried harder to take an interest in chemistry if the periodic table had been presented as this intricate ordering of actual materials that look and feel absolutely fascinating. Most of the video is Gray showing off his collection of element samples, and oh, I wish I was in that room right now and could touch all that stuff. (New thing learned today: tungsten is an incredibly heavy element, and one actual use of tungsten powder is sprinkling it on wax in dog's ears so the ears will lie flat.)


Theo Gray: the periodic table table (via Open Culture)

And of course a "periodic table table" is just a really cute idea. It makes me think of grabbing some old cabinets from the library and making a "fic archive archive" of printed and bound editions of all the fic in my bookmarks. There would be typewritten cross-referenced index cards in catalog cabinets, and there would be Dewey decimal, and the classification numbers would be stuck to the jackets with tape that's peeling off after many loving readings. Everything would smell of paper, and I would stroll through the stacks and caress the spines of my old favorite Snarry epics and be the the most well-content woman in the world. (I thought for a minute about what a collaborative print archive/library of all the fic ever written might be like, but it would never get past the planning stage. We'd never agree on whether mpreg belongs under 305-Social groups, 618-Gynaecology, or 299-Other religions.)

Speaking of books and gorgeous things: these books carved with surgical tools are ingenious and stunning. (via cofax7)

Comments

[foxinthestars]

I actually have a hardcopy of one of my fics (Harry Potter a/u book 4.5 novella with Sirius/Remus overtones) that my ex printed up and perfect-bound for me. I also once made a bound copy of one and planted it in the public library as a glamour bomb; no idea whatever happened to it.

[unjapanologist]

Oh, that sounds gorgeous!

I love the idea of putting fic in public libraries so much, I want to organize a guerilla fic-planting organization.

[foxinthestars]

If I was to do it now, I might also be tempted to print up one or more copies, put a "free" sticker on them, and plant them next to the canon in a big-box bookstore.

[unjapanologist]

:D

There could be all sorts of stickers. "Free" and "Sequel with more porn!" and "The version without 429 plot holes!"

[angrymermaids]

Eeeee I love elements. Unfortunately I turned out to be a complete failure at chemistry in school, but I maintain sort of a casual, armchair-type interest in elements and their properties and stuff like that. As well as other science things. I like biology but I'm not very good at that either.

A couple of Christmases ago, my brother got a book with pictures of all the elements in physical form, plus info on what they're used for. It's pretty awesome.

[unjapanologist]

I'm much, much more interested in chemistry now than I used to be in school. The class was so boring that I actively resisted learning anything in it. Biology was awesome, though.

[angrymermaids]

My science classes were all pretty interesting, but there were just those concepts that I couldn't wrap my brain around, no matter how many people explained them to me. They were like "but it's just like cooking! You like cooking!" but in the end, it... wasn't like cooking.

[unjapanologist]

Yeah, there was lots of that. Sometimes I really think that you can will yourself not to understand something. Vectors - I decided early on that I hated vectors, and they never made a lick of sense of me no matter how many people explained them to me.

[kimboo_york]

(I thought for a minute about what a collaborative print archive/library of all the fic ever written might be like, but it would never get past the planning stage. We'd never agree on whether mpreg belongs under 305-Social groups, 618-Gynaecology, or 299-Other religions.)

ILU. That is all. *GROUPHUGS*

[unjapanologist]

*HUGS ALL AROUND*

I had to look up the numbers because it's been so long, and it struck me how woefully unsuited that system is to classifying fic. This should be fixed. Fic decimal system? 100-gen, 200-slash, 300-het... Okay, no, we'd never agree on that either.

[angrymermaids]

Maybe the Library of Congress system would work better than the Dewey system? *strokes imaginary beard*

[unjapanologist]

Hmmm, don't think so. I do believe we need a revolution in classification systems if we really want to order our shipping output in a rational and comprehensive way.