pointillist impressionistic editing and just-in-time narratives

Rating: Null/10 (4 April 2009)

McLuhan said in the electronic age narrative would decay and pattern recognition would dominate. Sure enough, mass media is dropping grammar, spelling and syntax (not to mention perspective) in favor of spectacle. Are books and film to follow suit? The latest Bond seems the shape of things to come, with pointillist impressionistic editing and just-in-time narratives that barely carry a scene. The old Bond clichés (what's that you're drinking, Bond? - I don't know) are pinned to the movie like arches and columns are pinned to bleak postmodern buildings. It's not Bond, it's postmodern Bond, sending itself up in its refusal to be Bond. As a result, poor M is left oscillating between always trusting him and never trusting him, much as we the audience oscillate between involvement and alienation. The problem with pomo cleverness is that it's a posture, not an artistic method. No mo po mo.