driftingowl27 said:It seems to me that you are somewhat disregarding format and structure; after all, the fundamental form of motion pictures has remained largely identical for nearly ninety years. You might choose to watch something like *Gone with the Wind* on a smartphone, but I highly doubt that doing so (assuming, of course, that you actually enjoy that specific film 🙂 ) will provide you with any genuine cinematic satisfaction 🙂
That was not actually my intention; rather, I was referring to those anecdotes about how people would go to the movie theater multiple times simply because nothing else was playing, whereas today one can download anything via a torrent and perhaps not even finish watching it once, let alone see it twice.
Or consider how there used to be only one or two television networks to choose from, while today we have access to hundreds.
Ultimately, to reiterate my point, I believe that our hyper-available and hyper-productive culture, in its current iteration, alters the way we consume art—in the sense that we have become more impatient and less willing to grant works a fair chance—but does it truly alter the authenticity of the experience? Truly great works remain just as profoundly moving now as they were in the past.
As for Arthur Barnes, I obviously disagree. 🙂
*Compared to the era of the Walkman, for instance.