Timeless wankery

2 January 2011

Sometimes, when technology marches on, it tramples popular culture under its jackboots. For example, I often wonder what people who grew up with e-mail and cellular phones make of Diva, a film in which half the cast chases the other half around looking for surreptitious tape recordings.

But sometimes, an artist recognizes a fundamental truth of human nature that transcends the hardware of the age. Compare Flanders and Swann’s fifty-year-old “Song of Reproduction” with the latest xkcd strip.

• Later: The mathematics of leaks
• Earlier: World without suits