Undeniable intangibles

CD's and mp3's are to vinyl albums as airplanes are to trains. These are aspects of scale which don't have to do with size, but a graduated series denoting levels of simplicity and speed. I argue that a vinyl album sounds and feels far better than their digital counterparts not just because of the sound itself but also because of the fact that we can see and understand what's going on as the sound is generated. They don't leave us behind technologically. If a belt drive on a turntable breaks we can rig up a new one with a long rubber band. If we hear a pop in the middle of a song we can work to gently clean the impurity off with a little fluid. This intangible element preserved a sense of pride of ownership, a sense of stewardship. You could tell a lot about a person by looking at his record collection, totally aside from the music they contained. Back when CD's began to take over I remember the vinyl die-hards talking about the "warmth" of music played back on records which resulted from the fact that the full sound was recorded on the disk and not just a tinny-sounding sample. They were absolutely right. Because record albums are so simple technologically, they are more approachable, more participatory. In other words more humane. Is it any wonder they seem to be making a comeback?

Likewise with trains as compared to airplanes. Because they travel more slowly, trains seem to be at one with the landscape and the small towns and large cities they criss-cross through. People develop real feelings for trains because they exist at a more human scale. In spite of their shear engineering muscle there's a sense that trains are a kind of humble servant, like an old friend. In contrast airplanes have become a kind of brutal taskmaster. In a plane, gone is the sense of history, rumination and unfolding geography. Maybe because it preserves these things, train travel seems to do a better job of preparing a person emotionally and spiritually for arrival at their destination. Perhaps in the same sense that the needle of a record expresses every detail of the music, a train doesn't abbreviate the terrain or the necessary richness of the journey. (Maybe jet lag is the body's attempt to make up for in dreaming, what was lost in wakeful experience). Instead all that remains in airplane travel is the schedule, the evaluation of service, amenities, etc. What a shame. Who knows, maybe train travel will make a comeback, too.