Gray Kochhar Lindgren wrote: > > Glass Bees has been translated into English, in 1960, by Louise Bogan and > Elizabeth Mayer. I recently completed an essay on the novel--"Automation, > Ethics, and the Ear"--which is currently under consideration by ajournal > at, of all places, GA Tech. Thanks for the notes on the conference! > cheers, > Gray > > Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Ph.D. > Intellectual Heritage > Temple University > Philadelphia, PA 19122 I would be interested in reading your essay. Interestingly enough the Association Eumeswil used this book as its group reading text for 1996. The aspect of micro-technology is of course fascinating and excellent food for thought but what fascinated me more about Zapparoni was his film-making. When one sees the latest uses of computer animation/image synthesis in movies, from Toy Story, 101 Dalmations, Charlie and the Giant Peach etc, one can't help but wonder if Junger's 1950's vision saw these rapidly evolving virtual images as Zapparoni's perfect mechanical actors: "Prognoses which have been made contend that our technology will terminate in pure necromancy. If so, everything we now experience would be only a departure and mechanics would become refined to a degree that would no longer require any crude embodiment. Lights, words, yes even thoughts, would be sufficient. Clearly, the Zapparoni films had very nearly realized such a future... The dreams of old utopians were coarse-grained in comparison. With the freedom and elegance of dancers, the automatons had opened up a world of their own. Here a principle operative in dreams - namely that matter thinks - seemed to be realized." Glass Bees, pages 28-29. One notices also, in congruity with our reality, that : "Naturally these movies had a strong attraction. Children in particular, were held spellbound. Zapparoni had dethroned the old stock figures of the fairy tales. Like one of the story-tellers who sits down on a carpet in an Arabian coffeehouse and transforms the room, he spun out his fables.... Parents complained that their children were too preoccupied with him. They could not fall asleep, were overexcited, had nightmares....The children lived in his world...." pages 29-30. Perhaps this is Zapparoni's most far-reaching and power - he is creating a new mythology for the coming generations and, as myth maker, he is gives form to a new world. Ecco, the power of virtual reality. (George Lucas as Creator? I jest and yet the concept is thought-provoking, isn't it?) (And if I may remark quite frankly, why is it that we spend so much time talking about peripheral issues and so little time discussing and exchanging views on the actual words and ideas of the author? Is this not in some way a function of this "hot" topic, political correctness?) Comments? - on Junger's works that is ...!
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