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.

Purchase this book at purchase this book at fatbrain.