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(04/30/13 12:00am)
There were two news items that caught my attention this week: Gwyneth Paltrow nabbed the top spot on the recently released "Most Hated Celebrities" list for this year and an article about the Miss Korea contestants and their uncannily similar faces went viral.
(04/22/13 11:10pm)
Last week, my fellow columnist Christine Truong wrote eloquently about “the death of the story,” concerned about the role digital media will play in how we write and experience writing. Future works might "have the shelf life of a tweet, the significance of a Facebook post."A fellow English major, I sympathize with fears that our experience with the story and even language itself is being corrupted by our constant stream of interchangeable info bits. The Internet seems a unique beast, an amorphous creature of ever-changing topics all vying for your attention while providing artists with a distinctly digital foe for quality.
When the novel emerged in the 18th century, it was dismissed as nothing more than a genre for sensationalist fluff hoping to sell copies. However, by the 19th century, the novel found fierce defenders like Jane Austen, who used "Northanger Abbey" to highlight this prejudice, for "no species of composition has been so much derided." Austen's character, Henry Tilney, drives her point home: "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."Film underwent similar obstacles, cinema's early days filled with spectacle and novelty, which film historian Tom Gunning dubbed "cinema of attractions." Although there was a fair amount of shallow flash about early film, there was also the revolutionary potential for a reinterpretation of storytelling. Now the form has developed its own distinctive language thanks to the likes of Eisenstein, Kurosawa, the French New Wave and New Hollywood, who have provided artists with new means to filter their stories.
History is telling us the stories we value, with all their complexity and impact, cannot be killed by mere change. If anything, innovations, from the novel to cinema to digital media, manage to enrich our interaction with and comprehension of stories — providing more options, not fewer.Meme-spreading bloggers are our version of 18th century fluff novelists or early film's gimmicky experimenters. We can someday recount a similar evolution regarding the early age of digital story-telling if we act now.
Rather than lament a potential loss, artists should strive to pursue creative depth in a way that also engages new mediums. Digital consumption need not prompt narrative reduction. Electronic media and complex storytelling need not be mutually exclusive. The line in the sand — with dedicated long-form artists and their narrative complexity on one side, and Internet-enabled consumption of those artists on the other — will only solidify if we let it.
I can point to a number of things I've read on the Internet that changed my life: scholars I've encountered, writers who have influenced me, creative works that have moved me. These are all moments that epitomize the powerful force Internet resources and resourceful writers can become when combined in a symbiotic, cooperative relationship.Platforms change, but the primal fascination drawing us to stories about human experiences does not. Nor does the driving force of inspiration that empowered Milton, Austen, Kurosawa, and the next great storyteller — who is looking at the Internet right now and seeing new life rather than death — change.I wouldn't be the writer I am without 19th British literature or pioneering Internet artists. I sincerely hope future writers can say something similar.Reach the columnist at Esther.Drown@asu.edu or follow her at @EMDrown
(04/16/13 12:56am)
Recently, my State Press colleagues have tackled the topic of sexism, which was greeted by a slew of responses.
(04/09/13 12:00am)
Born between 1980 and 2000? Congratulations: You’re doomed.
(04/02/13 12:00am)
Beware: A ruined experience could be only one fateful mouse click away.
(03/25/13 10:29pm)
Let’s be honest here: Shy people just aren’t living life to the fullest.
(03/19/13 12:04am)
One little private-eye show cancelled six years ago is certainly causing some hullabaloo.
(03/05/13 11:30pm)
"Get used to disappointment," says Westley, the romantic hero of "The Princess Bride."
(02/26/13 3:15am)
Last September, I wrote an article claiming “Firefly” fans construct the show’s significance. The idea of “Firefly” is more culturally important than anything the ill-fated program ever achieved.
(02/18/13 11:25pm)
Zombies are stupid.
(02/12/13 1:59am)
Last week, I saw “Silver Linings Playbook” in theaters alone. Given that it was a romantic drama, I was not surprised to find that my fellow attendees were couples. As the only solitary person, I received more than one curious look.
(02/05/13 1:00am)
Feb. 1 marked the anniversary of the death of comedian Buster Keaton.
(01/30/13 1:00am)
We can be defensive when it comes to our "need" for the Internet.
(01/23/13 1:00am)
Like all Hollywood events, The Golden Globes resulted in “Best and Worst Dressed” lists.
(01/15/13 1:51am)
Sony Pictures's "Skyfall" was one of three 2012 films to cross the $1 billion mark, a distinction shared among only 14 movies in film history.
(01/09/13 12:00pm)
When "The Hobbit" arrived in theaters, the film sparked buzz among film critics for its use of high frame rate technology. HFR technology is director Peter Jackson's latest innovation in filmmaking, in which footage runs at 48 frames per second — twice as fast as the normal speed — to sharpen the picture and improve three-dimensional presentation.
(12/11/12 12:26am)
Last fall, my grandmother passed away. That Christmas, my family celebrated out of town, away from anything familiar. This year we had Thanksgiving brunch, sans turkey. Since my grandmother was the center of many of our holiday traditions, I’ve learned that loss suddenly leaves traditions strangely decentralized. They become confusing acts.
(12/04/12 12:09am)
A year-old article by Devin Faraci popped up in my Twitter feed titled, “The Death of Geek,” subtitled “It’s official: the word ‘geek’ means nothing anymore. The subculture is over.” The reemergence of the article a year later signals that not only is the subculture not over, but the debate over what “geek” even means is not over either.
(11/26/12 12:35am)
“Skyfall” is arguably one of the best Bond films ever, with perhaps the greatest Bond villain, Javier Bardem’s Silva. With his bleached hair and chilling performance, he’s being lauded for portraying another landmark villain.
(11/19/12 11:58pm)
There are levels to Facebook friend streamlining. You can hide someone’s feed if you simply don’t want to see his or her constant photo spam or mundane complaints. The next step is unfriending, which leaves the possibility of being friends again open.