A little off-topic...

04/12/09

Permalink 11:30:42 pm, by Chris Jones Email , 190 words, 221 views   English (US)
Categories: Announcements, News, Literature

A little off-topic...

Author Matt Richtel has an interesting column in the Sunday NY Times about how modern technology has made some venerable literary devices obsolete. In an age of cellphones, GPS and instant messaging, could Shakespeare get away with the fake death in Romeo and Juliet or Homer the 20-year wandering of Odysseus?

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But while I agree the days of the missed message are over, I’m unconvinced a skilled author couldn’t find new ways to exploit modern technology and recast narrative. As I wrote in a previous post, modern storytelling has exploited the narrative advantages of supernatural “Destiny” by appealing to pseudo-scientific treatments of time-travel. And cell-phones? Well, there is a key scene late in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire which takes perfect advantage of cell-phone disposability to set up the film’s payoff.

Yes, it’s much harder to keep key characters incommunicado in modern story treatments, but perhaps that’s a sign writers must explore new narrative techniques more urgently. I mean, Pyramus and Thisbe predates Romeo and Juliet by a good 1500 years, and Plautus used the hoary sitcom device of identical twins more than 2000 years ago; isn’t it time both were retired?

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Comment from: John Andre [Visitor] Email
It's interesting how modern technology would figure in our literary classics.

I betcha Romeo and Juliet would switch off their cell phones just to make sure Juliet's dad didn't try to intervene. As I recall both families, the Montagues and the Capulets, were involved in a rather irreconcilable family or political feud, which might have been resolved had the couple been allowed to marry. After all, that's how the Hatfield/McCoy feud was ultimately resolved; today both families hold an annual gathering on the Kentucky-West Virginia border featuring a softball game.

As for Odysseus [Ulysses], things could have been a whole lot different had modern cell phone and GPS technology been available. I can just imagine the final scene in the drama, with the cell-phone conversation preceding: "Penelope, let's send invitations to all these suitors to a nice barbecue party at our place. Just make sure they check all their weapons at the door. Boy, will they ever be surprised when Telemachus and I show up with our bows and arrows to meet them!" (Of course Odysseus could have finished off those suitors much more quickly with a pair of automatic handguns, but then the next epic in the series would feature the titanic legislative struggle between the Greek Rifle Association and Peloponnesian gun control advocates!)
PermalinkPermalink 04/17/09 @ 13:36

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