Think of classics like Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel On the Road. It is set within a mid-twentieth century industrial economy, where lonely individuals work precarious jobs in big cities. They hustle for cash in the market economy, spend it on beat-up cars and speed down America’s highways. On the road, they cross paths with other yearning souls for brief moments of intimacy, before moving on again.
The world of this novel has remarkably little bearing
on today’s reality. In the society it portrays you can hand over cash at a
secondhand car dealer’s for a rusty Pontiac whose only tethering to the distant
world is a radio receiver. Big institutions exist, but they do not infringe on
every aspect of life. The characters know how to fix a car, and don’t care that
their actions aren’t garnering likes on social media. Their adventures are
recorded in personal memory only, and do not accrue upon a database to form a
data ghost that will be used to personalise their environment, or influence
their price of credit.
Brett Scott
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