We live in a world that values the preservation of events; the “Information” age, we have dubbed it. Experience the wonders of such an age, see how we write and record every detail of our lives, because if it happened, somewhere, it’s important. Here, i have an example of this marvel of modern news reporting. Now, before you totally pass this off as just a silly oddball offbeat quip of news, read it again, look at the nouns that refer to those involved. This just strikes me as fascinating. This article dutifully records the events with MINIMAL reference to actual people.
Kinda reminds me of the dull blog. remember the dull blog? remember how matter-of-fact it is, how dry and just plain vanilla it is? yeah. we all know that this is just a web log, and it has the right to be like that.
Blogs are personal. News, like the above article, really truly wants to be personal and endearing. But it can’t, something is holding it back, someone is editing out just enough information to turn it into a totally neutral story about heartbreak and forgiveness. What is Neutral Heartbreak anyways?
I’m not saying that this is always necessarily bad. Kurt Vonnegut, for example, does a fantastic job satirizing societal quirks like these, combining realist detachment with a conscience. but he writes like that on purpose.
just thinking about it. sometimes when i read news or watch news anchors, i am actually looking for shreds of personality. i don’t find it often. what a crazy world.