“Confounding Machines” and Making Things Simple: Frightening on Many Levels

“Confounding Machines: How the Future Looked,” The New York Times, Sunday, 28 August 2005, Section 4, p. 12. Cited as coming from a 1915 interview with D. W. Griffith. This piece suggests things we must be concerned about.

The time will come, and in less than 10 years, when the children in the public schools will be taught practically everything by moving pictures. Certainly they will never be obliged to read history again.

Imagine a public library of the near future, for instance. There will be long rows of boxes of pillars, properly classified and indexed, of course. At each box a push button and before each box a seat. Suppose you wish to “read up” on a certain episode in Napoleon’s life.

Instead of consulting all the authorities, laboriously through a host of books, and ending bewildered, without a clear idea of exactly what did happen and confused at every point by conflicting opinions about what did happen, you will merely seat yourself at a properly adjusted window, in a scientifically prepared room, press the button, and actually see what happened.

For the complete article search the archives of The New York Times, http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/advancedsearch.html. The index does not provide a full preview, but intuition suggests that the piece entitled “Five Dollar Movies Prophesied” by Richard Barry and dated 28 March 1915 (pg. SM16, 1) is probably the one. To check this out, consult the corresponding microfilm. Check the resources and search options noted at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/nytimes.html. The full text is also available on the Web and easily retrieved by a Google search. Read it at http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/12_nyt03.htm.

For a biography of Griffith, search the American National Biography http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/anbio.html. And for some insight into his filmmaking and political views search America: History and Life http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/am_history_life.html. You’ll find not less than 46 citations -- and after reading some of the abstracts alone -- have a good idea of what Griffith believed about a host of things and even the context of his beliefs. A recent article of Griffith interest is: Eric Niderost, The Birth of a Nation," American History 40, no. 4 (October 2005): 60-67, 78, 80. For books do a subject search using the subject heading: Griffith, D. W. (David Wark), 1875–1948.