Madness string 329

Random mermaid
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea's swell, and the profit and loss. A current under sea picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell, he passed the stages of his age and youth... entering the whirlpool.
Turns out, recorded knowledge doesn't stay forever and the majority gets buried and lost in only a few decades. Books go out of publication and are lost and thrown away over time, websites with images and important data get shut down and deleted, artworks are destroyed and burned, and most ancient forms of knowledge are recorded on perishable mediums that have since decomposed.