Comments on: Twenty Tweets From the North

By: baby jebus

baby jebus — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:38:25 +0000

Those examples hardly reflect technology though- they’re merely updates of the old reading someone’s diary/losing one’s address book tropes. Human interaction doesn’t change, merely the tools of its expression. Music might be made digitally but we still use boring old ears to receive it.
Novels and movies that rely on technological advances to drive their plots date very very quickly. And authors that struggle to deal with basic social realities aren’t likely to contribute anything too essential to the canon. Still, hijack someone’s twitter account and you can create a convincing fake trail of their supposed activities, which ought to allow a determined abductor to escape the country before anyone twigs. The idea of imagined life versus reality is the most underexplored aspect opened up by social networking- it’s a pity it’s always reduced to a ‘find the evil paedo’ chase by slack thriller writers.

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:34:48 +0000

Great quote from Kurt, I was wondering if you saw the piece in the NY TImes Week in Review section on Sunday, how difficult some novelists are finding it to handle plot now that all their characters have cell phones and texting devices. I don’t think it’s that difficult and that they’re welcome to follow my example; Imagine someone coming to New York without a cell phone. Or someone’s phone getting stolen. Or miscommunication. A jealous boyfriend reading his girlfriend’s messages to another boy – the possibilities are endless.

Cheers

By: McCutcheon

McCutcheon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:23:00 +0000

I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex. – Kurt Vonnegut (Another American bullocks?)

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:55:00 +0000

Twitter — headline news: follow the BBC (I stopped, too many tweets) , the Berlin newspaper, certain friends, certain music sites, CNN journalists, .

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:38:57 +0000

Twitter has the potential to be a great tool, in that it requires people to keep their posts short and to the point. (Which is why I had fun trying to do the above post.) Unfortunately, though perhaps predictably, instead of short bursts of wry wisdom, most people – including Stephen Fry, who ought to be pithy more times than he should be boring – use it to post inane updates on their non-existence.

As for it American bollocks, maybe it is James, but you should see how popular it is in the country that gave the world the Page 3 girl, The Price Is Right and Pop Idol.

Tony

By: James the vineman

James the vineman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:49:20 +0000

I get the whole picture I got straight transported, especially the blokes punchin then lovin ! yah i looked at twitter for 5 mins and thought what a load of american bollocks

By: baby jebus

baby jebus — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:28:17 +0000

The only reason to tweet is if you have an ego problem and believe that every single pointless incident in your life must be shared with someone. No one cares. Resist adding to the tide of virtual shit that threatens to engulf us all. Save the planet and your dignity.