Technology trumps Superman

On a recent flight to Nashville, I finally got around to reading the much-hyped Superman: Earth One by J. Michael Stracznsky. It was an fresh take on Superman, catering to a crowd that knows Smallville more than Lois and Clark (or even Christopher Reeve … or George Reeves, for that matter).

The key to the book’s success relies on our knowledge of the Superman birth story, which allows the author to “play” within it: tryouts for professional football and baseball teams, for example; or Clark’s near-stint as a research scientist. These variations are only possible when we know that, in the end, he’s going to end up at the Daily Planet.

It was also neat to see how the iconic Superman pose from Action Comics #1 made its way into the new one:

However, it was the ending that stood out the most. Consider this sequence:

Here, after Superman overcomes the bad guys (spoiler alert), he goes back the ship that transported him to Earth in the first place. He sits down, and senses an “intelligence” from this machine, and implores it to “teach him.”

Now, I know that this panel fits within the overall story line, but, if we take a step back, we can see how this fits even more into a growing American mythos of technology as God. Technology teaches us. It shows us how to live. It shows us how to reach our full potential. Even our “super-est” of heroes must now submit themselves to a machine in order to become truly Super.

At this point, we should obviously nod to the patron saints of The Ramble: Neil Postman, whose book Technopoly should become required reading; and Marshall McLuhan, who not only gave us a Mechanical Bride, but also affirmed that how we say something is as important as what we say.

Maybe the Joker isn’t so batty after all …

Caught this little two-panel commentary in the Batman 80-page Giant 2010 and it struck me.

In an age of celebrities being famous for being famous, of You Tube celebrity, of Facebook friends and blog hits, this seems to be a loudly clanging bell of truth.

Maybe the media not only creates the celebrity, it also creates the audience.

Hmmm … may have to chew on that one for a bit. Seems like this could definitely be linked to Neil Postman … something about Amusing Ourselves to Death … Amusing … Joker … Hmmm …

Anyway, it could just be that the Joker isn’t so batty after all.

(Note: For the record, the two panels are from a story called “Reality Check,” written by Peter Miriani, art by Szyman Kudranski, colors by John Kalisz, and letters by Dave Sharpe.)

Something I’d say to Media Lit …

This picture came to mind while reading a recent New York Times article about how smart phones are pushing digital cameras to pasture. I’m not exactly sure how I made the jump from smart-phones to Dick Tracy watches, but I’ll try to sort it out here.

The thing about the Dick Tracy two-way communicator (basically, a phone) watch is not necessarily the device itself, but what the device represents. Introduced in 1946, the device represents a forward-thinking concept: an on-the-go phone, conveniently incorporated into one of the most important pieces of a person’s wardrobe: the watch.

It’s the incorporation (read: “convergence”) of the phone to the watch that’s interesting. It underscores the importance of time to wartime (and post-war) America.

Neil Postman notes that with each dominant technology comes the bias that shapes all other technologies around it. With the watch-phone, we imagined technologies (and, in a sense, society) through the lens of time.

What are some of the biases of time? Punctuality is rewarded, tardiness is punished (or worse, “rude”). We show up on time not for our sake, but for the sake of those waiting on us. As part of a community, we need to make the most of our time. Making sure things happen on time is the purpose for doing them in the first place.

Time, though, is a two-edged sword, since we can become slaves to time. Technology giveth and technology taketh away (Postman, again).

Now, fast-forward to today’s convergence technology: the smart-phone. Not only is it a camera, it is also a watch. Not many people I know wear a watch anymore. So what are the biases of the smart-phone? We’re still sorting them out, but ease and convenience come to mind. It is also an individualistic device in a way that is distinctly different from the watch-phone.

Time is not as important as being able to be contacted, since time (the watch) is incorporated into a dominant device (the phone). Time is a casualty to social/individual concerns.

The Dick Tracy view America has flipped: instead of our devices linked to time, our time is linked to devices. And that, indeed, is a two-edged sword.

Message, meet Medium

It’s one thing to say “The Medium is the Message.” It’s another to see it being played out. Here’s a few examples:

Picked up a copy of the book Twitterture at one of those outlet wholesalers. It’s a book that takes literature classics and boils them down to Twitter form, 140 characters at a time. For example, here’s Shakespeare’s Hamlet (source)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
@OedipusGothplex

My royal father gone and nobody seems to care.

Mom says to stop wearing black.

STOP TRYING TO CONTROL ME. I won’t conform! I wish my skin would just … melt.

I’m too sad to notice that Ophelia’s so sexy and fine. And mother also looks rather fair despite all her struggles.

AN APPARITION! This shit just got HEAVY. Apparently people don’t accidentally fall on bottles of poison.

Why is Claudius telling me what to do again? YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD! In fact you killed my real dad.

2bornt2b? Can one tweet beyond the mortal coil?

I wrote a play. I hope everyone comes tonight! 7pm! Tickets are free w/ great sense of irony.

Uncle just confessed to Dad’s murder.

I had a knife to that fat asshole but bitched out. Now he’s alive and still taking to bed with that beautiful wo— … er, my mother.

Gonna try to talk some sense into Mom because boyfriend totally killed Dad. I sense this is the moment of truth, the moment of candour and –

WTF IS POLONIUS DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN?

I just killed my girlfriend’s dad. Does this mean I can’t hit that?

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are here, up to their shenanigans. YAWN.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Anyone miss them? Didn’t think so.

The gravedigger’s comic speech isn’t funny at all. It’s heavy and meaningful. Just send me YouTube vids instead, pls. I am so borrredddd.

Ophelia just pulled a Virginia Woolf. Funeral is on the morrow.

Laertes is unhappy that I killed his father and sister. What a drama queen! Oh well, fight this evening.

Anybody want a drink? Uh-oh. That went poorly.

@PeopleofDenmark: Don’t worry. Fortinbras will take care of thee. Peace.

Now, taking literature is one thing, but the Bible? That’s what Cincinnati’s Jana Reiss is doing. One verse at a time. For example, here’s her take on 2 Chronicles 2:

Here’s the New International Version.

Well, converting text from one form into another doesn’t fully reah the implications of a “medium-is-the-message” moment. For that, I’d like to introduce Puppy Tweets.

Yes, it’s a way for your dog to communicate with you via Twitter (insert Elmer Fudd shaking head in bewilderment here).

1 saw this at Target the other day, and am still trying to figure out exactly the point. I mean, wasn’t it enough that they were sniffing butts in private? Now they have to tweet about it? I can see it now:

PuppyMcLovin: @RexRocks totally had chicken last night. His butt it totally Foghorn Leghorn.

Now, at last, we’ve found a way to take the pet-owning experience to the next level … which, I guess is more virtual than real.

And I guess that’s what makes it so Message is the Medium. When a technology begins to take over, it takes over for everything: not just our talk with each other, but our whole life experience is somehow squeezed into whatever dominant medium runs the day.

When our dogs weren’t tweeting, we were shooting videos of them.

When we weren’t shooting videos of them, we recorded their barks.

When we didn’t record their barks, we took pictures.

And on …

Oh Marshall McLuhan … if he were alive today, what would he tweet? Maybe this:

GetaMcLuhan: Yo! Message=Medium. If you can’t say it in 140 chars keep it to yourself.

This is how it works

I think this may be how pop culture works:

I know this guy (Lemmy)

I know this guy’s band (Motorhead) and probably have the ability to recognize its logo.

But I have no clue what this band sounds like and other than reading a portion of this article, I cannot name any Motorhead songs (other than “Ace of Spades,” which, according to the article is the band’s “iconic” song … which makes me think I heard it on a VH1 Top 100 Metal Songs, something-or-other …)

The fact that I know this (without truly “knowing” in the experiential definition of the word … which I’ll address later), aligns me with a certain type of people (most likely white, most likely male, most likely of a certain age and musical taste).

This information is called “cultural knowledge.” When I am in a conversation and I use this knowledge, it becomes “currency,” in the sense that I am giving this knowledge in the hopes that my knowing it will return some sort of benefit, usually tied to the idea of respect (since I know the tidbit). Exchanging the information also brings out the identification with the  type of people who would commonly know this information.

As for pop culture “knowledge,” the idea of “knowing” without truly having “knowledge,” calls to mind Postman’s use of “The Judgment of Thamus,” in his book Technopoly. In it, King Thamus says of writing:

“As for wisdom, your pupils will have the reputation for it without the reality: they will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction. and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant” (p. 4)

It seems the same with pop culture knowledge. Most of us”know” about things in popular culture without truly experiencing them. We walk in a sea of information the same way we walk through air. We pick up certain tidbits of it and use it in order to be thought wise, but, in reality, we are just prophets of trivia.

But, at least it keeps the small talk moving at parties, doesn’t it?