Walter Benjamin tells us that there is a homology between the pace of modern life and the cinema. The speed, shocks and dislocations of the city were “established as a formal principle” in film’s “rhythm of perception”. Perceptive as it is, we need to update Benjamin’s thesis. In the 21st century, there is a new relationship between the speed of our daily lives and the media we consume. The personal vehicle is destroying our minds at an accelerated rate.
I often hear complaints about the speed with which we are forced to consume information. The lightning-quick jump cuts in the Saw movies hurt your head, you say? You’re slavishly addicted to facebook and stumbleupon? You find it annoying when “the money you could save with GEICO” interrupts your programming at three-minute intervals? For christ’s sake, stop driving. The abundance of personal vehicles and the locales they shuttle us to in mere moments is creating unreasonable demands on our consciousness. Because our bodies can get nearly anywhere—Target, Cold Stone, Whole Foods—at any time—5:00, 3:37, 12:18—our minds must be compensated with a steady stream of stimuli.
Some say that bikes are the future, that they are suitable substitutes for the personal motor vehicle. This is a ruse. Bikes still cultivate the same bourgeois individualism, the same relationship between navigating the spatial environment of the city and the vaster digital space of media. Not to mention that today’s bikes are much faster—too fast.
It is also said that there are those who do not have personal vehicles. We should be envious. They must spend their days playing chess, reading the literature of their choice, puttering leisurely in their gardens—and the strolls, the endless strolls to the markets, the newspaper stands, the parks, the vistas, the palaces of amusement…
Editors Note: While we are happy to have Jim Toweill join our contributors, we would like to make it clear that only the reviews he posts on this site are approved by us. Everything on his rival review site is under his own jurisdiction, and should be treated as such.
[...] the sounds of traffic or the sight of billboards across the street. Its location favors access by car, and few save those who live in the surrounding neighborhoods will walk [...]
[...] Public transport should be a given, because in urbanity we sacrifice lesser luxuries, such as the personal vehicle and reduced risk of sudden nuclear attack, for the greater joys of city living, such as walking. [...]