“What a lot of people don’t appreciate these days is that as recently as the first half of the last century, what they called literature was a very, very different thing to the thing we have now. Almost no resemblance at all. Quite apart from questions of legality, health and safety and so on, there wouldn’t be any point in revisiting the vast majority of those First Era texts—believe me, we’ve been through them with a fine-tooth comb and the functionality just isn’t there.”
Their guide, who’d introduced himself as Murphy, spoke as he walked and without looking back.
“We don’t have that much source material left, obviously, but it’s evident from what we do have that neither the risks nor the potential benefits were understood. We know that literature was readily available in a multiplicity of media. Mass produced, widely consumed. That consumption, however, seems to have been left entirely to the vagaries of entertainment markets.”
He shook his head.
“Very much an Arts thing, for them. Of the numerous commentaries that survived the Disaster, none make any reference to specific applications. Remember that Spirituality® at that time lingered on in the public sector. And there does seem to have been a connection; we know that consumers habitually sought some sort of emotional uplift from literature. Solace®, if you will. It isn’t easy for us to imagine now that Solace® would have been difficult to access elsewhere. But there you go. Markets evolve. Back then it was, as I said, very much one of the old Arts.”
