h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After giving the talking point a bit of thought, the outcome was worse than I expected!!

[Which book would you save? The Bible? The Qur'an? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Microsoft Word for Dummies?]

Wouldn't matter; if there's only one left - and, presumably, only one copy - virtually nobody's going to be reading while he's in power!

[Which film do you think it would be a crime to deny future, and past, generations of? Personally, we'd vote for One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, but that's just us.]

Again, with only one film, nobody's going to bother keeping up the equipment to view it! And who would want to watch it anyway, if it was always the last couple of movies they already saw?!

[Which album, above all others, deserves to be saved for posterity? Something by the Beatles, or something of a more classical or operatic bent perhaps?]

Who would bother to keep playback equipment for one album?! Well, maybe Marillion's Six-of-One.

And finally, which work of art do you think we simply couldn't be without? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Tretchikoff's Green Lady? Charles M Schultz' Peanuts cartoons?

Another strata gone, I'm afraid. One work of art would hardly justify maintaining a whole museum. There'd be only one copy, and any other representations of it might as well be 'prints'.

The despot will have won, and only after teasing and tormenting the panel making the decision. Plus, any decision they make would bring the wrath of the majority down upon them for their work.

Boy, we're talking about a real Satan here!

Your musings make a strong point. Marillion's Six-in-One is a great suggestion if we could have one. That or Dream Theater's Scenes From a Memory.

Six of one, sorry

Speaking from a purely commercial perspective, just think how much that one last piece of art would be worth!

Once the despotic leader is overthrow you'd be quids in. Or are we missing the point?

Thanks for the support, leesmojo!

I'm not sure. If there is only one piece of 'art', everyone would be in a binary state of have it or don't have it.

I'm not even sure that worth would have any meaning, much less lend itself to a commercial perspective. I mean, how would you market it?

Judging by some of the stuff on Ebay marketing should be possible....original BR work jacket?

Do we need big art...so it can be viewed by lots of people at once (maybe Picassos opera sets)?

And I think we should consider where to display the last art...The Mona Lisa is in the Louvre which is very busy and loud with lots of tourists taking pictures...do we want a more reverent atmosphere?

"Art" is certainly a subjective subject, as is beauty; not that art must be beautiful. But, if there is only one example of art, I guess it would automatically be considered priceless, no matter which piece is selected.

Even the BR work jacket could represent the one, sole, remaining piece of art in the world, and become priceless!

On further thought, perhaps there would be a strange effect from having only one piece of art, literature, etc.

I would suspect that works would be regularly released, in an underground sort of way, and these would be the works truly sought after!

The one of each type that did remain would be seen as state-sanctioned, watered-down, garbage (compared to the lively, gut-hitting stuff that would start popping, surreptitiously, out of the woodwork.