Albert Mobilio: In a very clever book called Home Rules that was published a few years ago, the authors look at the rules that govern a house. They’re very detailed, very particular: No ball playing in the hallway. Always make sure you shut this cabinet, because if you don’t shut it in a particular way, it hangs open and grandma hits her head.

Geoffrey O’Brien: It’s like the Code of Hammurabi…

Mobilio: The Code of Hammurabi for every rickety shack and every McMansion on the block. What you can and can’t do. What you have to do to maintain a home.

O’Brien: I know a writer who tries to keep a copy of everything he considers essential to starting civilization over again in case he gets stuck with that job. Is that what we’re unconsciously doing, collecting books and images and pieces of music, attempting to preserve civilization as we know it? Are we afraid nobody else will take on the job?

Mobilio: I don’t know if that’s the reason. Perhaps we surround ourselves with these cultural artifacts because so many of us now live outside of what used to be called civilization. It’s now possible to have the Great Library at Rhodes in your trailer in Montana. On CD you can have the great music of any number of cultures, and on your CD-ROM you can have any number of art reproductions as well as several thousand essential books. You can have all of Western culture in a 10 by 12 room, and you can participate in that culture. You no longer have to live in Paris or Berlin or Athens…