Zadie Smith's article Generation Why? for the New York Review of Books is one of the most interesting things I have read lately, encompassing as it does a review of The Social Network, a riff on intergenerational differences, the effect of software itself on us (this what somewhat of a paradigm shift for myself) Toussaint and Jaron Lainer's You are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, which, needless to say, I am now desperate to read.
Quite a jump from Molly Ringwald being chatted up on the computer in the schol library in Pretty in Pink.
I often find the best writing manages to make a broader point about society, the human condition, the nature of existence - whatever you will call it - from a seamingly self-contained topic as Smith does here with such lightness of touch. Surely that must mean a masterly talent for observation, as well as being able to write. Truly great, in my humble opinion.
Quite a jump from Molly Ringwald being chatted up on the computer in the schol library in Pretty in Pink.
I often find the best writing manages to make a broader point about society, the human condition, the nature of existence - whatever you will call it - from a seamingly self-contained topic as Smith does here with such lightness of touch. Surely that must mean a masterly talent for observation, as well as being able to write. Truly great, in my humble opinion.
