Technoromanticism

In Technoromanticism, a University of Edinburgh architect agrees that the computer may represent the pinnacle of scientific and technological acheivement, but, he argues, some of the most revolutionary ideas surrounding cyberspace are grounded in old movements like the Enlightenment, something techies tend to forget. Warning: This is heavy-handed academic writing but with a fascinating premise.

Technoromanticism: digital narrative, holism and the romance of author Richard Coyne pages 399 publisher MIT Press rating 6/10 reviewer Jon Katz ISBN 0-262-03260-0 summary ploddingly written but important premise

Increasingly, pundits and scholars are putting the computer, and all of its promises -- of interconnectivity, interactivity, the erosion of hierarchies, of sweeping changes in business practices, the potential revitalism of individualism and democracy -- at the pinnacle of scientific and technological accomplishment, well before those promises are well delivered on.

A new book by a Richard Coyne, professor of Architectural Computing and head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Edinburgh agrees that the computer is revolutionary but he argues in Technoromanticism: digital narrative, holism, and the romance of the real (MIT University Press) that these narratives aren't brand new, but grounded in the Enlightenment and, especially, in the romantic traditions, from Marshall McLuhan's utopian vision of social reintegration by electronic communication to claims that cyberspace is literally redefining what reality is.

McLuhan, says author Marshall Coyne, identified the era of preliterate culture as a golden age in which humankind was at one with itself and nature. Speaking and listening in the absence of both writing and technology involved intensely interactive exchanges that come close to directly sharing thoughts. Then, says Coyne, we entered the age of literacy in which we write, lay things out in order and divide the world. Society in this era is urban, global and fragmented rather than local, integrated and whole.

Now, says the author, we are entering a third age in which the hyperactive environment of electronic communications is returning us to a tribal state once again, but this time the whole world is the tribe.

The romanticism of urban narratives represents one of two very different threads of the Enlightenment: rationalism and romanticism.

Coyne links virtual fantasies to other strains in creative history, like surrealism. "To search the web is to explore a vast 'city' within which one stumbles across strange objects and encounters surprise -- the net surfer is a flaneur (an idler, and a loafer)."

The surrealists, says Coyne were excited by this aspect of cities hundreds of years ago. Surrealist writers reported going to flea markets where they could search for objects "that can be found nowhere else: old fashioned, broken, useless, almost incomprehensible, even perverse ... "

This is an academic work published by a university press, and as such, is riddled with some dense jargon about representation, space, time, interpretation, structuralism and identity.

But Coyne is right about technoromanticism. Even if the technology is new, the ideas behind it don't spring suddenly from the earth, something the tech culture tends to forget. They have roots and precedents dating back hundreds of years, and are even more interesting when taken in context. That alone makes Technromanticism a worthwhile, if not particularly entertaining or universally accessible book.

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Comments

Surrealists

[ch-chuck]

Surrealist writers reported going to flea markets where they could search for objects "that can be found nowhere else: old fashioned, broken, useless, almost incomprehensible, even perverse ... "

That pretty much sums up the eBay experience! :))

Whole world a village?

[AdamHaun]

The whole world won't become a village until we all speak the same language. On the scale of human population, cities are fairly small-scale. It's easy to hook up with your neighbors in a city. On the internet, you generally meet a few people who have common interests. These are your intellectual "neighbors." The internet seems to be shaping up to be a model of the current world -- many isolated "settlements" of people who share common interests.

What?

[LNO]

No Corporate Republic? No anti-Geek? No post-Columbine?

You imposter! Where's the real Jon Katz? What have you done with him!?

Hmmm

[DunkPonch]

I ran that whole article through Babelfish and it still came out gibberish.

The tech culture DOES remember its roots

[Da VinMan]

We haven't forgotten our roots. However, we live them so intensely that we tend to forget that they're not delivered for everyone else. Most of us live in very privileged conditions, and we very much feel like we're in McLuhan's "global village" (McLuhan's idea; NOT Clinton's). This is especially true compared to the cold-war, pre-Internet era when simply having a Russian accent in America was considered exotic. (Or vice versa - I've heard stories about either.)

In a world where over half the world population goes hungry every night, and where maybe only 1% of the world population has access to a computer, much less the internet; the global (well fed, at peace, and in touch with their spirituality) village is far from achieved. But then is a state of utopia really achievable anyway? (Another discussion altogether.)

It is indeed a romantic vision that allows us to believe that everybody benefits from this fairly small-scaled renaissance that is occurring because of technology. The whole world will not be the tribe until the whole world has access to the same infrastructure.

If we're lucky, we might a achieve a worldwide tribe of the intelligentsia. That would at least allow the world's thinkers and leaders to have the medium as a support mechanism when they implement the best-of-breed cultural norms through the influences of their writing, art, etc.

Community Creation, Online Life, Blathering....

[namespan]

Wendell Berry also says that language and technology as they're now often used divide the world (see "Life is a Miracle" or really, just about anything else by him). I wonder what he thinks of the internet...

This reminds me of something that I was thinking about the other day as I passed some ad that said "communicate with anyone! anywhere! anytime!" I don't own a cell phone. Yes, I check my email twice a day, but I find that I don't really have to (several weeks in Australia reminded me of that).

How much of the communication ideals that seem to be pushed out (or community website ideas) do we really want? Need? I don't need to communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Sometimes I need the opposite. Sometimes I just need to be able to communicate with a few people, in the right places, and then have time to do something useful, like build a bookshelf (so I'll have a place to put those collectors items when people buy only eBooks that expire in 4 months).

Yeah, I'm starting to sound like Cliff Stoll and I'm also something of a hypocrite because I like the internet and technology as much as the next guy. But there's just something about the promise of virtual community (and often "Insta" or
some other manufactured word like that) that, like virtual books, doesn't seem quite as promising as community in the real world.