Text Without Context

Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Imovie, Letsmix! Cut, paste and appropriate! These are the toys of the young and the tools of the new. They are being used for entertainment, art, education and business. Technically speaking, we are boldly going where no consumers have gone before. We are taking a really big bite of the Apple and swapping our innocence for hi-tech know-how. Michiko Kakutani’s essay “Text Without Context” featured in the Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times warns that new media is inflicting an intellectual beheading, cultural puncture and historical amputation. She presents a litany of cautionary reports as to why we should be wary when traveling on the new media highway. Here is her list of establishments on technology’s chopping block:

Fiction as a genre…R.I.P!

Intellectual property…Ha! Starve measly content providers.

Valued source classics…Shakespeare who?

Expertise and accuracy...Its your blog, say what the f*** you want people!

Deep thought….huh…what?

Hard News ...The Evening News welcomes new anchor Perez Hiton!

Political comradery .......uh….hmm, not applicable?

Books!….opens at the Whitney Museum this fall, no flash please.

If we believe in the nascent apocalypse maybe all of this rancor sounds “just so” for a damned world about to flush it self down the moral and intellectual commode. But if we hold any stock in Darwinism, or history for that matter, don’t we assimilate and adapt? Isn’t that what life forms do? New media is not the scythe of the grim reaper but it is a tool. A tool that enhances our collective reach into art, history, business, education, science et cetera

Mourning the Undead

Kakutani’s article tiptoes into various authors’ opinions of techno-geddon, some more offensive than others. But a recurring theme for all of them is the fear of a disregard for source material value and literary tradition. She has gathered a grievers support group for cultural hallmarks, hallmarks that just can’t die – like zombies. If you Google “troubadour” “oral tradition” or “oral story arts” Google will provide over 5 million results to peruse and inform about this supposed lost art. Organizations that foster the study and practice of the ancient oral story tradition exist all over the world. They like their oral stories and my guess is, they’re sticking to them no matter what software comes blazing down the information highway. Imagine the romantic troubadours or singing story keepers of bygone days lamenting the technology of music notation, or even the written word! Would they have feared their most excellent powers of memorization would no longer be useful in a society where people could write things down? I think those brilliant minds probably would have learned some new tricks or made sure their offspring did. Human beings have an innate propensity for nostalgia. Individually, we collect items and save them in nice cabinets so that we can admire our life’s personal wonders. As a society we keep collections of art in museums, books in libraries and dinosaur bones in science museums! Shakespeare is more popular today than ever. Every year people re-enact the civil war. Artisans are still making authentic muskets to this very day. Every summer struggling actors dress up in stinky, scratchy medieval clothes to satisfy the collective lust for “Ye Old Renaissance Faire.” I don’t think we are going to abandon our nostalgic spirit or addiction to preserving, studying and documenting everything that is, was or ever has been, any time soon. It’s human nature. Thankfully, the next time you’re craving a hearty joust or want to kick some confederate hiney, you can Mapquest the nearest Renaissance Faire or Re-enactment and make an immediate on-line reservation. Ms. Kakutani, please stop mourning the undead.

Control + ESC

Text Without Context shifts smoothly from fear to anger when the concept of shortcuts is discussed. Shortcuts to information mean more cultural dumb-down to Kakuatani and her crew. Our hi-tech culture gives us every opportunity to take the shortcut home. Information? We can instant message it, text it, Google it, click-through, cut and paste, instantly photograph, post or send and video-phone! We are the roving reporters on the scene. We are the reviewers on location opening night. We can compare prices while we shop. Shortcuts are fun and valuable. They allow us to take on a larger existential load. But no one would ever dream of shortcutting true love.

Love

Now I will take the liberty of stating the obvious. What sports fan would rather know the final score than watch the game? What lover of art would prefer an online gallery to the real thing? Music lovers often discover new music through music and video mash-ups. What lover of literature collects Sparknotes? Human interest follows its own interests. Some may be unique and far-reaching, some just following trends and collecting facts, some seemingly bland and uninspired. The tools aren’t changing the people using them. A deep thinker is not going to become an airhead due to Web 2.0 but by using Web 2.0, an airhead might have an easier time collecting some facts to cover that fact that he is an airhead.

Can you here me now?

Ms. Kakutani and her assemblage of authors in mourning have missed the point of their own point. Intellectual appropriation and collage style creation have been part of human development since a date that would have a B.C. attached to it. Classic experimental author, William S. Burroughs “a pioneer of the cut-up technique, a method of cutting up pre-existing media and rearranging it to form something entirely new,” was experimenting and appropriating long before the Internet arrived. (emusician.com) Burroughs also influenced other envelope pushing authors like the disturbing Kathy Acker, as well as impacting music and film styles. This, before any of us even had an email address. Technology cast as the assassin of human potential sounds like a theme Kakutani has herself appropriated from legendary writer William Gibson. Armed by the opinions of the many authors and books she quotes throughout her essay, Kakutani presents a caustic view of literary appropriation, content deconstruction and overtly provocative subject matter for the sake of visibility. She disparages the same tools she uses to present her own ideas. For these reasons and by the power vested in me by www.ministerregistration.org, I say BLASPHEMY!

Works Cited

Kakutani, Michko. “Texts Without Context.” The New York Times. 21 Mar. 2010

“About Us: Storytelling Arts of Indiana.” Official Site, www.storytellingarts.org Web 29, Mar. 2010

“Become Ordained…Online.” Official Site, www.ministerregistration.org Web 29, Mar. 2010

Pallanck , Laura. “William S Burroughs – Pioneer of the Cut-up Technique” www.emusician.com 01, Mar. 2005