the death of the conversation

The ever great Stuart Baily has reinvented

himself no more dexter sinister and now the

serving library. Here's an extract from one of

the essays by Bruce Sterling:

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MEDIA

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This is Jacqueline Goddard

speaking in January 1995. Jacqueline was born in 1911, and she was one of the 20th century’s great icons of bohemian femininity. Man Ray photographed her in Paris in 1930, and if we can manage it without being sued by the Juliet Man Ray Trust, we’re gonna put brother Man Ray’s

knock-you-down-and-stomp-you-gorgeous image of Jacqueline up on our vaporware Website someday. She may be the patron saint of this effort.

Jacqueline testifies:

After a day of work, the artists wanted to get away from their studios, and get away from what they were creating. They all met in the cafes to argue about this and that, to discuss their work, politics and philosophy ... We went to the bar of La Coupole. Bob, the barman, was a terribly nice chap ... As there was no telephone in those days everybody used him to leave messages. At the Dome we also had a little place behind the door for messages. The telephone was the death of Montparnasse.

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