Historians will know us by our unsolicited flyers
August 6, 2018 2:08 PM   Subscribe

18 Cartons of Ted Nelson's Junk Mail. Preserved.

Motherboard provides a smidge more context.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? (16 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Holy shit.

I've been collecting print ephemera for decades. I don't have a big collection but I thought it was diverse and interesting. I've just learned that I'm a rank amateur. A piker. A nothing.

Holy shit.
posted by ardgedee at 2:39 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


That's Ted for you... talks up a storm with those wooden teeth. But say you're looking for the Xanadu-roonie, try and find him. (Apologies to Stan Freberg)
posted by aurelian at 2:52 PM on August 6, 2018


Fantastic! I love print ephemera. In fact, I have a whole lot of it that has not yet crossed the line between "ephemera" and "trash," which is why I don't have room to be a collector.

Once I found a blow-in card from the '80s offering me a deal on US News and World Report. I still regret not sending that in.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:59 PM on August 6, 2018


FYI, Ted has a YouTube channel. He's... well he's still talking about Xanadu (among other things)
posted by gwint at 3:01 PM on August 6, 2018


Jason Scott has been killing it lately. Between this, the work on archiving old Apple ][ games, and handling other random things that pop up like saving the Baltimore Sun clipping archives from being destroyed, he's an insanely busy dude.
posted by JoeZydeco at 3:05 PM on August 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


Wow, this guy's got a collection on par with Ea-nasir.
posted by Quackles at 3:13 PM on August 6, 2018


So much WYSIWYG DIY printing in the 1990's, oh geez it takes me back to when that was a revolution. 5 years later everything was getting poorly formatted for the web and it feels like we lost something.
posted by Kyol at 3:14 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


I read this as Ted Danson, which led to a tiny letdown on clicking through.
posted by Kwine at 4:08 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]


Small quibble with the post title: Maybe our flyers are unsolicited, but Ted Nelson's were not — as the Motherboard piece says, he actively signed up for various mailing lists, and some of the items in the archive are clearly letters responding to inquiries he sent about stuff.
posted by beagle at 5:18 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


meta-hoarding?
posted by es_de_bah at 5:40 PM on August 6, 2018


This late 1960s catalog in a literal plain brown wrapper could be an FPP all by itself. It's full of naughty books about ladies, men, nudists, and ... Chinese cooking? Psychology? There are perfectly decent books scattered in the columns, possibly for legal reasons.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:50 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


Fans of The Americans will be happy to see the catalog for our old friend, the Mailmobile!
posted by Catblack at 8:16 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


catalog in a literal plain brown wrapper

Ah, the life of the copy-editor.

"33. FORBIDDEN MASTERPIECES OF EROTIC LITERATURE. Illustrated privately printed for private circulation. Not for sale. Free with order. "

"45. 101 INTIMATE SEXUAL PROBLEMS ANSWERED... Because it is one of the most important books we have ever offered, it is sold at no profit! 50¢"
posted by Twang at 9:20 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


Why have I clicked on a link to look at junk mail? I feel a curse coming on.
posted by filtergik at 3:41 AM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Why have I clicked on a link to look at junk mail? I feel a curse coming on.

I can't find an exact quote, but Megan and Rick Prelinger have been saying for years, and it strikes me as true, that a huge amount of the fine-grained detail about the evolution of technology, design, manufactured landscapes, urbanism, and the cultures they produce resides in ephemeral trade literature and advertising.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:39 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


In other Jason Scott ephemera news, he's posted the FAXTOY archives. So much shitposting by fax.
posted by scruss at 5:53 PM on August 7, 2018


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