Welcome back, my friends, for Series Three of the
Millennium Museum!
It’s a bittersweet beginning, though: Series 3
begins and Summer Vacation ends. In fact, if I’ve got my dates right, you
should be reading this sometime around…Labor Day.
…And you know what the end of Summer Vacation means:
It’s time to go “Back To School!” I
have to admit, I feel your pain. Another year of the same old story from last
year. More books, more homework, more projects…more, more, more.
That’s why I, Mr. Millennium, took the liberty of
making sure you’re prepared this year. These books should get you through your
studies nicely:
As
its name implies, this book selects 1,000 pivotal figures from 1000 CE to 2000.
Notable names include Lady Murasaki Shibiku, writer of The Tale of Genji,
which is considered the world's first long-form novel; civil rights leader Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (history note: 2013 marks the 50th
Anniversary of the March on Washington, at which Dr. King gave his “I Have a
Dream” speech); “test-tube baby” Louise Brown; and scientist Albert Einstein,
among many, many others.
This
book fits in with the “preserving history” remit of most Millennium Artifacts.
When I first took a look at this one in the Oak Lawn Public Library, it was the
first thing to get me noticing the overall theme. It was in the children’s
reference section, which means that each person listed gets a highly sanitized
“potted biography” of a few paragraphs. Not surprisingly, it’s also geared
heavily toward Western culture.
A
condensed encyclopedia, this volume looks to the issues that the new century
might bring. It covers a wide range of topics, including law, the environment,
technology, medicine, communication, politics, education, and countless other things
that will come to light in the near future...and the implications those
advances might have on society.
I
personally count this as a Millennium Item because it deals with the 21st
Century's seemingly infinite potential (well, as of 1998). The horizon out
there looked to be wide, open, and clear; the possibilities unlimited, for good
or bad. Macmillan saw fit to condense its earlier, two-volume Encyclopedia of
the Future into a single “instruction manual” for the road ahead. It's both a
way to prepare the future's children for whatever lies ahead, and a means to
spark imagination and discussion.
“Children”
is a recurring theme in a lot of 2000 marketing, come to think of it...It makes
sense, really, because a child's innocence is in this context symbolic of the
adult's desire to finally “get it right” this time around.
Before
we talk about this one in any detail, let me apologize for its shocking physical
state. I don’t remember the details, but I think it sustained damage in
shipping. Long story short, we got it like that, and we bought it brand new.
Anyway:
This is a multi-disc set comprising every single issue of National
Geographic from its inception in 1888 to December 2000. It’s dated now, but
should still be useful for school projects. I myself never used it, because
reading the magazine on a computer screen just isn’t “right” for me. When I had
to do research papers for school, I made a point of printing out the stuff I
had collected from databases. It was more convenient than reading on a screen,
looking at passages, and typing up quotes…I could look at the printed copy,
find a passage, go “Ooh, that sounds good,” and highlight/circle/write in the
margins. The same sentiment applies here: I feel that it’s better to actually
have the magazine in your hands, because you can just rifle through it and find
inspiration.
Earlier
this year, I had another National Geographic issue from December 1998,
entitled “Making Sense of the Millennium.” In fact, I think the National
Geographic Foundation stamped each of the magazine’s issues from 1998 to 2000
with a special stamp.
The
Foundation was one of a few very big organizations with a significant stake in
the Millennium Celebrations, as its mission is to preserve not only the
beautiful natural world around us, but also the history and culture behind it.
Throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, the ever-looming specter of
“Westernization” was on everyone’s mind, and National Geographic served as
a check against that threat by showing us that yes, other cultures were not
only alive, but thriving. Personally, I hope that, as an amateur historian,
this is still the case…
When
I initially started writing the entry for this book, I was about to brush it
aside as a “shameless reprint” of the original 1996 edition. Fortunately, a
second trip to Oak Lawn’s library and a closer, objective look at the book
proved me very wrong. It is far more than just a reprint, for it contains a lot
of new content. The most significant update is a breathtakingly beautiful
48-page introduction displaying all the latest developments in science and technology.
The International Space Station, the Internet, genetics, and environmental
science are but a few of the entries. I took a picture of the table of contents
section so you can see what’s inside it.
The
big question is this: What makes this a Millennium Item, besides the “2000
Edition” label? The new section, obviously, is the biggest indicator, but the
brand new introduction serves to give readers a tantalizing glimpse into the 21st
Century…and wonder what might be in store in the decades to come.
 |
| Hmm...That's actually a horrible picture. Silver paper is a nightmare to photograph. |
Also,
the outer dust cover is in silver; the previous edition’s was white. As I
mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records Millennium Edition and Millennium
Quartet entries, the color silver is something of a running theme in
Millennium merchandise.
For
once, I have no idea why silver was associated with the 2000 celebrations, but
I can think of a few possible reasons. First and most obviously, silver is a
“futuristic” color. In classic depictions of the future, people are often
depicted wearing silver clothing, and spaceships were often finished off in
silver. Indeed, that Madame Alexander Millennium Doll from a few weeks
ago perfectly illustrates this.
Less
obviously, silver is an elegant color that denotes high class, which ties in
well with Monopoly 2000 Edition…in fact, the deluxe collector’s edition
of that one came in a silver box with a vacuum-formed lid. (One day, I shall
have it!) I myself believe that silver is an elegant color because just about
every other color seems to look good alongside it.
My trip to the Oak Lawn Public Library, from which
most of this week’s material comes from, proved so fruitful that I have too
much material for one week!
With that in mind, I’m going to end this Back to
School Special here and create Part 2 next week. It’ll be like when Elton John
made “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” into a double album: there was too much stuff
for just one record.
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