Once Upon A Present Shock

In Present Shock, Rushkoff describes today’s technology creating a dictatorship of the present in which everything happens now. People don’t think about what will happen in the future, but rather, they want everything to happen now. One show I used to watch was Once Upon a Time. This show tells the story of a new world, in which modern life and fairy tale legends come together. There were characters such as Snow White, Hook, Peter Pan, and, of course, Elsa. In the beginning, the fairytale world is “frozen” in time and all of the characters live in the city of Storybrooke, Maine. One of the main characters, Emma, didn’t know who her parents were, and only finds out when the son she gave up years back comes to her and tells her. The show is filled with drama and a romantic atmosphere, in which many of the events are out of order and the audience has to keep up with the show, otherwise it will get very confusing.

This show can be an example of Rushkoff’s “Narrative collapse”, in which, “…like a fantasy role-playing game, the show is not about creating satisfying resolutions, but rather about keeping the adventure alive and as many threads going as possible” (Rushkoff 34). There is no specific plot and the story keeps going, with more characters being added. The directors of Once Upon A Time have been keeping the plot going for 5 seasons now. Season 1 itself had 22 episodes. Their story line, like Rushkoff says, isn’t about creating a good ending, but it’s about keeping it going and adding in more and more episodes, to keep the audience interested. After one show, many of the audience will focus on what will come in the next episode, and to be honest, anything could show up since the point of the show is just to keep it going and not actually to keep the plot from confusing the audience.

According to Rushkoff, “There is plot – there are many plots – but there is no overarching story, no end. There are so many plots, in fact, that an ending tying everything up seems inconceivable, even beside the point” (Rushkoff 34). Now that the show has so many episodes, they couldn’t tie it together and end the show because they would be leaving the audience in the middle of the show. Each episode does not stand on its own and depends on the next one to finish it, and that one depends on the next one, and that continues. There won’t be a set ending until maybe even Season 14. Shows nowadays are so hard to end because there are so many plots that ending just doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. The directors just have to keep it going until an ending seems convenient for the show.

Like Rushkoff describes in Present Shock, people are more focused about cramming everything into the present that they don’t think about the future. If someone misses a show, or even an entire season, they could always just binge watch it. However, they are only thinking about the present and how much fun it would be to sit there and just watch their shows. They are not thinking about the future and how much time would be wasted while they are binge watching.

There is also the “now” aspect that Rushkoff mentions and how everything is happening now. The present is more full of interruptions and there are so many things going on at once that it often leads people to cram everything into one time period. In one episode, two characters are stuck in a time portal, and have to be careful to not change anything otherwise they could alter everyone’s lives. At the end of this episode, Elsa is “created” from this blue ice that comes from the time portal, and that’s where the season ends. So, they could not have just ended the show, as a new character joined in, which means new plots for that character. More and more plots are being added, which makes it confusing, and crams in everything into the present.

 

Works Cited

Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. New York: Penguin Group, 2013. Print.

Yay for Hemingway!

Hemingway uses a specific style in A Moveable Feast. The story is written in first person, which shows us his perspective and how he felt towards the different characters. It helps us understand how each of the writers made an impact on his life.  He uses many specific details to describe the streets and the different places he visited. He also recalls on what café he went to and what he specifically ate in each place as well.

His use of time can confuse the reader. He goes from talking about the next day to talking about years in advance. However, his use of seasons to describe the time adds more symbolism to the book and compares the seasons to the stages of a person’s life. He talks about spring being the children and that, “…there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen” (Hemingway 52). Fall would be used to describe the end of someone’s life and how, “part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold…” (Hemingway 52). Something good always happens that will lead from fall to spring, and from a bad time in life to a happier time.

We read this book so we could discuss the elements of style used, and not just the plot of the book. He describes how he feels towards each of the writers he mentions and throughout the book, we get to see how his writing evolves with the help of these people. He places an emphasis on food, saying how he has to be full and content in order for him to write better and cannot write when he has an empty stomach. So, he prefers to write in a café so he can eat while writing. He describes in detail what food he eats and how it tasted, providing some sensory details for the reader to imagine the food item as well. This book would be an autobiography because Hemingway recalls on the event of his life and how his writing progressed overtime, thanks to his different writer friends.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest, and Sea Hemingway. A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition. New York, NY: Scribner, 2009. Print.