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Wit and Technology




Would the words be as witty
or would they be as read
if the table in 1920s New York City
recorded differently what was said?




Would a landmark of today,
the Algonquin Hotel, of Round Table fame,
still hold the aura of brilliance at play
if typesetting had not been the tool of the game?




Would Benchley and Parker
have formed as productive an alliance
strengthened as the night grew darker
if daily presses were not their reliance?





Would Dorothy have  proclaimed
curiosity as the "cure for boredom"
and "no cure for curiosity" named
if perchance texted by thumb?





Would charismatic conversation
have sparked greatness and fellowship
if all the members' wit and inspiration
were  preoccupied with Blackberry at fingertip?







Questions to ponder, as if in a fable,
picturing electronics at play
at a modern day round table
lit by cell phones at a Starbucks Café.









Author notes

Dorothy was more than "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."
Spurred into action by Yem's journal entry on Dawn Powell.
http://allpoetry.com/journal/by/Yemassee
"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out."
Dawn Powell
(courtesy of Yemassee)

In a list

Words come alive when answered in kind.

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Comments

1 - 38 of 38

  • RadioPJ
    February 25

    Edit | Reply
    You make a great point, as usual. I can't help but stare in fascination at people in air ports, sidewalks, cars ... with cell phones attached to their ears. Just chattering away. And of course all the billions of echats taking place. Don't people ever just sit and think quietly? And compose in the depth of their selves? Well, but of course they do -- just look at some of the genuine art on AP. Yours at the top of my list! But so many others. I guess it comes down to the writer and not the tool of her trade.

    Nice write -- thought provoking ~

    pj


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      February 26
      Edit | Reply
      Hah! Low odds of any thoughtful verse
      being created by thumb in texting action.

      It used to be that people vied with time
      for a few moments to themselves. Now
      that we have the "power" the urge seems
      to be that of constant connection.

      All in the balance, the joy of "being" with
      others no matter the distance....or taking
      a time-out!

      Thanks for sharing thoughts.

      M-C

  • Mr Id
    February 17

    Edit | Reply
    Wow- this is shorter than the others, so I found it easier to digest than some of your others.

    I ask the questions you ask here every day- very pertinent and relevant to current events, in this age of information in which we live.

    The fact that you rhyme, but not in a conventional way is something I admire and that I think is effective.

    The images work well with the text, too!

    Your work is very unique and richly stylised.

    Great piece- very enjoyable!


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      February 17
      Edit | Reply
      Thank you for the careful read, Mr Id.

      I finally have time to create illustrations with each of my pieces,
      and now the piece can't see the page until I draw and play.

      A well-read friend, Yemassee, had written about Dawn Powell
      and Dorothy and this spurred my interest and led to the view
      in my mind, contrasting how the groups gathered then and now.

      I have many short pieces. It's the fiction that goes on!!!

      I shall check out some more of your work.

      M-C

  • ahhyeah silver member
    January 19

    Edit | Reply

    thought provoking!

    love the time travel factor of your muse here, Aesthete. taking the time to read it allowed me to travel to the algonquin. bottom's up! thanks for the memories.


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      February 26
      Edit | Reply
      Somehow I missed your comment here,
      so weeks later may I share with you
      how that Algonquin atmosphere
      still seems intriguing to me,
      the "in" table, the witty intellectuals---
      how avante garde they seemed to themselves,
      and to others!

      Of course, a contemporary, personalized take
      could be our hey day of the Underground,
      limericks flying, haiku, senryu on the wing,
      poetic conversation! Audacious, right!

  • Sandi Alford gold member
    January 18

    Edit | Reply
    I loved your wit in this!
    We call it progress for the sake of a better term, I myself like to go back to the 'old ways' once in a while, if nothing more than to remember how to do it

    my one sister is stuck in the old, no computer or fax and just this christmas got a cell phone from her grand daughters hehehe they said get with it grandma

    Let the ink flow!
    blessings, Sandi


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 19

      Edit | Reply
      I have some friends who despise anything
      they consider "yuppy." I try to tell them
      no one even uses that term anymore,
      and that there is a huge population
      of senior citizens on line at any
      time of the day---or night.
      I tell them of friends I have
      all over the world--and now
      the Netherlands, too. It is most
      mind expanding to get one's mind
      out of one's own country and see the world
      through somone else's descriptive words!!!!!!

      NIce to see you here!

      M-C

  • waydownuponjoy
    January 13

    Edit | Reply

    Yes! I read this as well!

    Gone are the days of lunching in person,
    or munching on thoughts from mouths to ears ...
    Instead we are left with the poems by person's
    typed on a site or buried for years!

    Gone are the times of real hugs and kisses
    instead we get O's and X's galore ...
    The best we can do is rewind reminisces
    of comments from those who no longer explore.

    Gone are the days of coffehouse chatter
    Excitement that woke up our sleepy brain ...
    Thank God we can join, although we are scattered,
    At least we can do it time and again!


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 13
      Edit | Reply
      I imagine future generations looking back at ours,
      we so smug with all our technology, can't live
      without any of it, And how primitive might
      we look in their eyes. Or far enough in the future,
      they may be reverted to primitive state!

      Nice to see you here, Joy.
      I enjoyed your interpretation.

      M-C

  • pixiestix silver member
    January 4
    Edit | Reply


    Interesting questions about "generation text" and their "crackberries". They'll one day look back in nostalgia too at the simplicity of their instruments. As for wit, I see it alive and well in the upcoming generation of creative thinkers allbeit in quick flashing bytes multi-tasking conversation and technology.

    I was going to comment yesterday but was somehow slipped a Moxie or it's generic equivalent.


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 5
      Edit | Reply
      Side effects of too much conversation---
      shifting from laryngitis to texting thumbs
      or typing fingers...

      • pixiestix silver member
        January 5
        Edit | Reply
        Interesting too how "chat speak" and "text terms" haves worked it's way into verbal conversation too...speaking in acronyms. I know I've said some.


        • Aesthete2000 gold member
          January 5
          Edit | Reply
          At first we may look in disdain
          at the shorthand that dissemmbles
          the language, but then time softens
          usage, and there they are, accepted!

          Hmmmm...wonder what Dorothy and
          Robert would have thought about that.
          Would probably address it each week
          in a column! And Benchley would have
          done one of his short, short, films on
          the topic!!!
  • Yemassee silver member
    January 4

    Edit | Reply
    Mine was just one volume, but I left a lot ofbooks there, mainly early American fiction, including "The Yemassee" by WG Simms. Some other authors of America's fictional infancy. WIll replace them slowly.

    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 5
      Edit | Reply
      Hope you don't mind---I borught over the Dawn Powell quote
      from your page, with credit for your inspiration!,
      concluding with "...their insides left out."

  • arafura gold member
    January 3
    Edit | Reply
    Excellent work my friend. You give me pause for thought. I wonder too!


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 4
      Edit | Reply
      Thank you, arafura.
      Every generation thinks it has made strides,
      perhaps even marvelous strides. They are
      the now, not actually conceiving how they
      will be so "outdated" buried by their own advances.
      There is concensus that Parker's writings of the 20s
      led the women of the 30s and 40s to shed any remnants
      of Victorian thinking.

      Whie the 20's ahd scintillating conversation,
      2009 sees us conversing from the Sea of Arafura
      to the bay of Green Bay!!!

      M-C

  • rockabye21
    January 3
    Edit | Reply
    Oh, that IS an interesting question! Technology may have made a difference in the appreciation and preservation of wit. But as for wit, itself, I think it's still alive and well. After all, where would the Betty Board Caption Thread be without technology? (Shameless plug).

    Of course, there WAS that little problem several months ago of having to move posts from one board to another. It would have been too tedious to move everything, so there's a whole lot of wit floating around lost in cyberspace, never to be seen again.


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 4
      Edit | Reply
      Ah, but one could lose a whole contintent
      in the depths of Jersey's archives. I think
      she pulled up my very first words, and the
      welcome by LondonA. Rocky, I don't think
      you were with us then, but on the day of
      the London subway bombing, we all had concerns
      for her. She had bee gone from regular posting
      for a while, working on doctorate, I think.
      A day later LondonA came in to calm fears. It was
      the very subway she wouild have been on,
      but that day she opted to work from home!!!!





      • rockabye21
        January 4

        Edit | Reply
        Jersey didn't save captions in her archives. Which maybe DOES speak to your question about the fragility of wit in the age of technology! LOL. (On a positive note - I saved several of the old captions in themed groups on the current board. And even with ones that are gone, I can usually reconstruct them as long as someone still has the pictures).

        • Aesthete2000 gold member
          January 5
          Edit | Reply
          That was the problem with the archives,
          the text woud save, but not the photos.

      • pixiestix silver member
        January 4
        Edit | Reply
        I have to chime in under this line..phathoming the cyber abyss where so many words of wit are pinging around from falling off the shelves to moving day's decisions.

        Much credit to Jersey for her archival diligence in saving past conversations and the poetry.

        • Aesthete2000 gold member
          January 5
          Edit | Reply
          Board after board, saving was up to date.
          But with the last changeover, the date
          was suddenly fast-forwarded---moved in
          before the recent archiving was fini--right?

          • pixiestix silver member
            January 5

            Edit | Reply
            Yes. The board went "poof" a week or so earlier than expected. I was in the middle of moving some things when it fell from the radar for I am the great procrastinator.

            I believe she was relatively up-to-date with archiving. She is always on top of that so not much was missed.

            I wonder if her ears are ringing? lol


            • Aesthete2000 gold member
              January 5
              Edit | Reply
              Eureka! You have found it!
              A way to get mod/archivist/threadmaster
              over here. Ring her ears with praise!!!
  • Yemassee silver member
    January 3
    Edit | Reply
    Yemgonquin roundtable.

    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 4
      Edit | Reply
      I searched and searched all the bookshelves in the house,
      but can't find my Parker volume. Don't think think I knowingly
      sent it to Goodwill---think I lent it to a borrower who seemed
      to lose what she borrowedl

    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 4
      Edit | Reply
      IT LIVES!!!!!!

      Yemgonquin---it rolls right off the tongue.
      Now bring back your alter-ego.
  • Yemassee silver member
    January 3
    Edit | Reply
    I want to start my own roundtable. Very witty, and you divined all this from my passing reference to Dorothy Parker. I'm impressed. How Yemish, if I dare compare myself to you.

    Certainly mediums have changed, technology forever altered how we not only get information but perceive it.

    I'm not sure wit lives anymore. I mean it does, but do to all the alternatives for information it's harder to build a consensus big enough. But all it takes is a dominating force on the internet to change that...or on tv. Remember Matt Drudge, I forget the big news story he originally broke, but it woke up millions to what the internet might become. The internet is still an infant, the future will look very different.

    Dorothy has never looked better. Thanks for the link! And if I did inspire this even in an incidental way, I am proud and honored.


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 4
      Edit | Reply
      Oh, just who is this ghost-like Yem inpersonator?
      I am sitting her with my box of Kleenex, mourning Yem.
      ______________________________________________________

      Since the aformentioned link is now useless, I shall expound,
      quoting from Wiki:
      "In the episode "Help Wanted" on the Gilmore Girls, Rory is reading Complete Novels by Dawn Powell. Rory comments that no one has heard of Powell, which is a shame, and that there are some who claim that it was actually Powell who wrote some of the jokes that Dorothy Parker got credit for."

      Both Dawn and Dorothy had some simialities in early life, mothers died
      while they were young, not treated well right after that...
      ____________________________________________________________

      Speaking of the round table, seems there was one here,
      (an excellent one, conversation as stimulating as Shorewood.Benchley/Parker)
      wherever Yemassee pulled up a chair, most notable,
      at the Yemassee page which some ghost has whited out!!!!
      ____________________________________________________________

      Re Drudge: and succeeding blogs---No newspaper editor to insist
      that the info be vetted. Astounded all by the speed of light,
      allbeit, black light, even when total propaganda. When words were
      seen in print, the readership had been conditioned to believing them,
      having faith in the press. Well, bloggers can say anything...

      M-C


  • gaze
    January 3

    Edit | Reply
    I can't say I know the references you talk about, names and events. But I did like the analogy to technology and the thoughts of how would lives be without it.
    And of course, the drawings are excellent


    • Aesthete2000 gold member
      January 4
      Edit | Reply
      Thank you!
      I was going to leave more notes, but I figured
      it would come out in the discussion.

      Good explanation below.

      The group rather "happened" starting to meet at the Algonquin in 1919,
      first at a long banquet table, and then moved to the well known round table.
      They continued to meet until 1929, when the goup dissolved.

      Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker formed a writing partnership during
      those years. Other members included Heywood Broun, Marc Connely,
      Franklin P. Adams, Edna Ferber, Georg S. Kaufman...
      • Yemassee silver member
        January 4
        Edit | Reply
        I can't find the original conversation where this fits but...I left my collected works of Dorothy Parker in California when I moved back home to Maine. I knew I should have left my best books here. I lost some nice ones.

        • Aesthete2000 gold member
          January 4
          Edit | Reply
          It was Parker, Benchley, and Sherwood that started lunching
          daily there, others adding on. "The chosen ones" it seemed!!!

          Sorry about your books. Still can't find my one volume..
    • Yemassee silver member
      January 3
      Edit | Reply
      Dorothy Parker was an American writer known for her keen wit. She was the founder of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of New York city writers, etc. Robert Benchley was a friend of hers, he was a columnist, also known for his wit.

      You got the most important part of MC's wonderful poem...but I will shut up, she should reply not me, but you know me, I like to bub.

  • Denerica
    January 3
    Edit | Reply
    and with that a witty write...loved the comment on using a black berry phone. Blessings

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