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Thought I was done goofing around with the tuby-clouds when Kim Stolz floated the question in my Google Reader: Is the Internet Ruining Everything From Music to Human Accountability?
I was reading an article in the New York Times today by Matt Richtel about how technology has almost completely obliterated the potential for the "classic love story." Richtel explores the concept that cell phones, blackberries, Facebooks and the like are "rendering obsolete some classic narrative plot devices: missed connections, miscommunications, the ability to reach someone." Think back to the best storylines you read in high school: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the list goes on. If Romeo could have just texted Juliet, or if Elizabeth had been able to get a hold of Mr. Darcy's screen name, there would have been no strife, no desperateness, no epically tragic moments; no story.
This seems just a variation on the Noble Savage myth. Repeat after me, Kim:
- Technology changes, yet:
- The human spirit remains constant.
- Ugly Losers blame both the lack of equality in tools, and the lack of quality on tools.
Have no fears about the demise of the classic love story. Despite all the advances in technology, I still manage to misunderstand my wife on a regular basis, and she still manages to misunderstand me. The essential male/female equation remains unchanged.
ReplyDeleteWhat killed love stories and romantic comedies in Hollywood and literature was the insistence that we're all modern and post-guilt and if a couple was hot for one another they should just go ahead and screw and then maybe move in together.
ReplyDeleteTo try to make up for this lack of a story they've been writing characters so weird and damaged that their personality disorders create the tension.