CyberMouse Saturday, November 08, 2003: WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TERRA INCOGNITA Travel writer Paul Theroux thinks there's too much "connectedness" these days: "'Connected' is the triumphant cry these days. Connection has made people arrogant, impatient, hasty, and presumptuous. I am old enough to have witnessed the rise of the telephone, the apotheosis of TV and the videocassette, the cellular phone, the pager, the fax machine, and e-mail. I don't doubt that instant communication has been good for business, even for the publishing business, but it has done nothing for literature, and might even have harmed it. In many ways connection has been disastrous. We have confused information (of which there is too much) with ideas (of which there are too few). I found out much more about the world and myself by being unconnected. "And what does connection really mean? What can the archivist -- relishing detail, boasting of the information age -- possibly do about all those private phone calls, e-mails, and electronic messages. Lost! A president is impeached, and in spite of all the phone calls and all the investigations, almost the only evidence that exists of his assignations are a few cheap gifts, a signed photograph, and obscure stains. So much for the age of information. My detractors may say, 'You can print e-mails,' but who commits that yackety-yak to paper? "The most aberrant aspect of the delusional concept of globalization is the smug belief that the world is connected and that everyone and every place is instantly accessible. This is merely a harmful conceit. The colorful advertisement for cellular phones or computers showing Chinese speaking to Zulus, and Italians speaking to Tongans, is inaccurate, not to say mendacious. There are still places on earth that are inaccessible, because of their geography or their politics or their religion. Parts of China are off the map, and for that matter parts of Italy are too -- there are villages in the hinterland of Basilicata, in southern Italy, that are as isolated as they have ever been. "For the past ten years, since the disputed and disallowed election of 1991, the entire Republic of Algeria has been a no-go area where between eighty and one hundred thousand people have been massacred. Algeria -- a sunny Mediterranean country, the most dangerous place in the world, with the worst human rights record on earth -- is right next to jolly Morocco and colorful Tunisia, the haunts of package tourists and rug collectors. This bizarre proximity highlights the paradox, which is an old one, that close by there are areas of the world that are still forbidden, or terra incognita, where no outsider dares to venture. In spite of all our connectedness we have little idea of what passes for daily life in Algeria." *** See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618126937/newsscancom/ref=nosim for Theroux's "Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings" Unknown // 12:06 AM ______________________
WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TERRA INCOGNITA Travel writer Paul Theroux thinks there's too much "connectedness" these days: "'Connected' is the triumphant cry these days. Connection has made people arrogant, impatient, hasty, and presumptuous. I am old enough to have witnessed the rise of the telephone, the apotheosis of TV and the videocassette, the cellular phone, the pager, the fax machine, and e-mail. I don't doubt that instant communication has been good for business, even for the publishing business, but it has done nothing for literature, and might even have harmed it. In many ways connection has been disastrous. We have confused information (of which there is too much) with ideas (of which there are too few). I found out much more about the world and myself by being unconnected. "And what does connection really mean? What can the archivist -- relishing detail, boasting of the information age -- possibly do about all those private phone calls, e-mails, and electronic messages. Lost! A president is impeached, and in spite of all the phone calls and all the investigations, almost the only evidence that exists of his assignations are a few cheap gifts, a signed photograph, and obscure stains. So much for the age of information. My detractors may say, 'You can print e-mails,' but who commits that yackety-yak to paper? "The most aberrant aspect of the delusional concept of globalization is the smug belief that the world is connected and that everyone and every place is instantly accessible. This is merely a harmful conceit. The colorful advertisement for cellular phones or computers showing Chinese speaking to Zulus, and Italians speaking to Tongans, is inaccurate, not to say mendacious. There are still places on earth that are inaccessible, because of their geography or their politics or their religion. Parts of China are off the map, and for that matter parts of Italy are too -- there are villages in the hinterland of Basilicata, in southern Italy, that are as isolated as they have ever been. "For the past ten years, since the disputed and disallowed election of 1991, the entire Republic of Algeria has been a no-go area where between eighty and one hundred thousand people have been massacred. Algeria -- a sunny Mediterranean country, the most dangerous place in the world, with the worst human rights record on earth -- is right next to jolly Morocco and colorful Tunisia, the haunts of package tourists and rug collectors. This bizarre proximity highlights the paradox, which is an old one, that close by there are areas of the world that are still forbidden, or terra incognita, where no outsider dares to venture. In spite of all our connectedness we have little idea of what passes for daily life in Algeria." *** See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618126937/newsscancom/ref=nosim for Theroux's "Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings" Unknown // 12:06 AM
