Asymmetrical Information

David Macaulay, Motel Of The Mysteries (1979)

check:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040115/0948210.shtml

I loved that book!

Our sixth grade history teacher read it aloud to us and it has stuck in my mind ever since. The only downside was - reading that book made me completely unable to take any archeologist or paleontologist very seriously. Because no matter what they say - they are only guessing.

This is a really cool demonstration of the power of collective knowledge. Just an interesting anecdote demonstrating the power of the blogosphere.

Wonderful! I've always wondered the same thing. When I was a little kid, I read an excerpt from that book (I believe) in a Reader's Digest at my grandparents' house. I remember it being a hilarious parody of a future archaeologist uncovering a toilet, and theorizing about how the ancients (20th cent. Americans) worshipped it. That's got to be the same book, right? But I never could remember who wrote that.

I'm still trying to recall a story I read 35+ years ago about an inventor whose best inventions were conceived when he was on a bender, forgets what their function is, then has to figure out what they are supposed to do when he sobers up.

I think the guy's name was Gallagher? Hey, I don't claim that it was great literature but it did help ease me down the path to a lifelong love of reading.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395284252/ref=ase_techdirtcom/102-9164038-6410519?v=glance&s=books

Mr Buck -

I do believe you are thinking of a short story /
tale / thingy called "Toilet Ritual Among the
Naciroma". Probably closer to 40 years old now
than 20.

A couple of follow up thoughts:

1) I happened to be able to find this because I remembered the joke name the author gave to the love-shack motel: The "Toot 'N' C'mon." That was enough for G__gle.

2) AI's comment spam filter chokes on my detroit.freenet.org address and the word "G__gle" (referring to a popular web search tool).

Mike, I think that was "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" (note the clever backward spelling!), from the _Worm Runners Digest_ and reprinted in one of the Year's Best SF collections in the 60s. The Gallegher stories were by Henry Kuttner writing as "Lewis Padgett"; one of them that I remember is "The Proud Robot."

Mr Smith,

Two errors in five words ... I'm getting dyslexic in my old age! Thanks for the
corrections.

Are you talking about this essay? That's a funny essay, but definitely not what I read in Reader's Digest in the mid-1980s.

It's Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay, and it's still in print!. The Amazon link even has page images for your reminiscing-b efore-buying pleasure.

Interestingly enough, Macauley's book is required reading in the Winterthur Fellowship. As a result, my wife owns it.

I've heard that MIT uses Macaulay's _The Way Things Work_ as a introductory engineering text.

Joe, you have your inventor's name right. The story you're thinking of is one of a series written in the 1940s by SF legend Henry Kuttner. "The Proud Robot" is one of the best-known of them. They've been collected in a book with that title, alternately issued as "Robots Have No Tails."

Here's a second huzzah for MaCaulay's The Way Things Work. I got my own hardcover copy at reduced cost back in the fifth grade and subsequently wore the thing down to a stub (okay, not quite). The best part is that the cutaway illustrations of the devices he describes are invariably skyscraper-sized cathedrals being constructed by miniature people running around on the page (with a good many wooly mammoths -- no, don't ask, just pick up a copy from your local library). If you look around at what they're actually doing, there's a good bit of subtle humor at play (and sometimes even an ocassional subplot). If you have an aspiring technician or engineer in the family, buy them this book! [/plug]

The "Nacirema" that some commenters have referred to is something separate from the Motel of the Mysteries.

It was a section of The People's Almanac, written and assembled in the mid-70's by Irving Wallace and David Wallechinsky. The article "Studying the Strange People of Nacirema" is on page 1085 of the paperback edition; I'm looking at it right now. For those who may look it up, I won't give away the origin of the country's name.

Weird pricing at Amazon; can someone explain it?

The comments above prompted me to buy the book. I went to Amazon and found it for sale for $10.40. I did not buy it immediately.

15 minutes later I returned to Amazon and found a listing for "Motel of the Mysteries [BARGAIN PRICE]" for $4.99. Why the sudden (and apparently not replicable) drop in price? Note that the bargain version is the same book, new, direct from Amazon and available for "FREE Super Saver Shipping." I happily bought the book at the reduced price.

Can anyone explain the pricing?

Daivd M.

Though I can't prove it I believe that Amazon uses a "fare yield" strategy similar to that the airlines use.

I know that in searching for pricing on tickets from Delta that on the initial query the price was high and every time I checked, several times over a short period of time (minutes), that the price kept getting higher. Now, again I can't prove for certain that my inquiries were causing the fare system to increase the quoted fares, but I have my suspicions.

I can also highly recommend Macaulay's other books - among them are Castle, Cathedral, Skyscraper and more. Castle and Cathedral describe how those things were built. Skyscraper does the same, but backwards - the skyscraper is being disassembled, if I remember correctly. Another detail I remember from one of his books (Although I don't remember which book) is L'Arc de Defeat. It's L'Arc de Triomphe, built upside down.

>Another detail I remember from one of his books
> (Although I don't remember which book) is L'Arc
> de Defeat. It's L'Arc de Triomphe, built upside
> down

That's "Great Moments in Architecture" Which also shows "The Secret of the Pyramids Revealed." Wherein an excavated pyramid shows a giant razor blade.

There was also "Digging the Weans" by Robert Nathan, an essay satirical of archeology that appeared in "A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown and other essays for a scientific age." by Robert A. Baker (ed.), Prentice-Hall, 1963.

The acknowledgments say it was reprinted from "The Weans" Alfred A. Knopf (1961).

BTW, "Weans" comes from "USA" when "US" is interpreted by the future archeologists as "We," hence the title.

"Sanitized for your protection."

I can never read that little assurance without hearing it chanted in deep, sonorous tones in my head. The Motel should be read as a cautionary tale by every aspiring archaeologist, along with Bluffing your way in Archaeology by Paul Bahn. Bahn observes that archaeology is an ideal subject in which to become an accomplished bluffer, for several reasons including:

"3) It is especially easy in this field to pass yourself off as an expert, full of impressive and esoteric knowledge, because it is filled with obscure terms and exotic names and places. Even if the general public has heard of them, it is almost certain they will know little or nothing about them. Thus, a minimum of homework will go a very long way."

Sigh. For too many, that is too, too true.

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