24fps

[Jan Klimkowski]

David writes:
>We should never forget that (IMHO) one of the messages of Vineland is
>that 24fps failed -- spectacularly.

I think rather 24fps disintegrated, as was pretty much inevitable.

I also think it's very hard to imagine what "success" for 24fps would look 
like.  24fps turned Their cameras back on Them for a few brief moments - a 
countercultural gesture.

In the UK today camcorders are increasingly recording another version of, 
say, anti-road and animal rights demos.  At the moment this footage is 
rarely shown by the network telly stations but is distributed via video 
cassette.  It is also increasingly being distributed in bits and bytes.  The 
Net provides a delivery infrastructure, a means of getting material out 
there, which simply did not exist in the Sixties.  This doesn't mean that 
these contemporary experiments will be any more "successful".

David also writes:
>Salvation comes otherwise than through technology (cf. Desmond) --
>but the error is not in the technology but in our own naive belief in
>its capacity to transcend ourselves.

Couldn't agree more, as my many posts testify.  But the comments of mine 
that you're referring to were made specifically in the context of that skein 
of thought which argues we must endlessly attempt to seize new technology, 
or gain access to tools.  For Stewart Brand, the invention of the personal 
computer (be it Apple or other) was a direct counter to the nightmare of Big 
Brother mainframes determining every aspect of our lives.  And, I do find 
something  very appealing in that willingness to look at a technology and 
strive to find a version of it (the invididual computer connected to the 
world) that gives us "power" of one sort or another (or diminishes Their 
power over us).

[For what it's worth, I've also recently been involved in the making of a 
documentary (Horizon: "Icon Earth") which attempted - amongst other things - 
to explore who was being empowered (sorry for using that word) by digital 
technology and in what ways.  IOW whilst I find the vision appealing, I 
don't necessarily think it's THE ANSWER.]

Whilst we're at it, the most illuminating writer I've come across in terms 
of Pynchon's attitude towards Technology and Transcendence is undoubtedly 
Khachig Tololyan.

jan