A word on serendipity

I was thinking about the first response that came to me as we discussed the digitization of archiving. I don't wish to get into my past Blog entry's shit on digital vs. analog signals and warmth and tone and bits and such. Instead, what interested me was the LUCK involved.

I was reading an essay last night in The Believer on Fielding Dawson. Some of it can be found here:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200612/?read=article_fox

What struck me was the place where Dawson was inspired, the place where he met his working contemporaries. Black Mountain College. It intrigued me the minds that worked at this place. Many of whom knew Dawson and came up in the essay.

I investigated it considerably and though about applying for grad school there, in the past, 50 years back. Daydreamed.

Then I got the email from Bleu about researching Jonathan Williams. I knew the name rung a bell and it sent me back into my study of Black Mountain.

It seems that the most inspiring connections - the most alluring luck - in the world of literature comes from serendipitous chance. Not through hyperlinking.

There's something to be said for time spent nose-deep in books and the quest that comes with discovering new information on paper. Algorithmic searching never seems to provide the satisfying response that a more labor-intensive libraric quest might.

No?