Magic and Loss

March 14, 2016
Former New York Times television critic Heffernan writes about the Internet as one “massive and collaborative work of realist art.” Marketed as a treatise on art, the book turns out to be more of a memoir infused with Heffernan’s personal philosophy and religion. She divides the book into broad categories such as “Design,” “Text,” “Images,” and “Video,” but her discussion of those categories is mostly fragmented into quick takes on pop culture. She raves about the design of Hundreds, a puzzle game for smartphones, and is enraptured by YouTube videos and an image of smog in Beijing. She links the demise of the BlackBerry to the modern-day “sidelining” of the written word. When she describes her work for Slate, she says, “You could write about almost anything under the pretext of writing about television,”and she extends that principle to the Internet in this book. Heffernan riffs on pop star Beyoncé, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Oculus Rift virtual reality, hashtags, and anything that marginally fits into the pretext of writing about “the Internet” or “art.” Heffernan is articulate and she occasionally makes a lucid point about reading or how art and commerce intersect online, but those never combine into a cohesive book; instead, this is a random mishmash of unfocused ideas that ultimately offers little insight.

April 15, 2016

Journalist Heffernan, formerly a columnist for the New York Times, goes into detail about a ubiquitous subject that many often take for granted: the Internet. Through an explanation of the history of digital text, images, video, and music, it is revealed that the author views these aspects as a type of magic, describing many of them as art forms. Apps such as Instagram enforce nostalgia with faux-vintage filters, and Twitter's 140 characters could be considered poetry. Heffernan recalls the first 19-second YouTube video about a zoo, noting that digital video has evolved into entire television series available on streaming services such as Netflix. She also mentions the few losses that we have experienced as a result of digital content, such as sound distorted through earbuds. However, Heffernan's stance is that the Internet is overall a boon. VERDICT Readers will be enthralled by Heffernan's unique take on this popular entity. Tech-savvy readers will be drawn to this book, but the concept of technology as creative expression should also entice art lovers. Most important, readers will be encouraged to appreciate the Internet not only for its ability to connect us to one another and information but also for its beauty.--Natalie Browning, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, VA

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