Incomplete communication

So last night Adam Gopnik gives a lovely reading at the Strand; he was great with his material, not over-the-top with an act but not that dirge-like NPR voice drone. I bought the book for his essay on the dilemma of busy-ness. As he himself said, business has been around much longer. He blamed the telegram.

The telegram began the world on a journey of increasingly incomplete communications. The letter, while it expected areply, was meant to be a whole thought in and of itself, whereas the telegram was quite often signed off with "letter to follow". Updates on the medium have followed suit, boiling it down to TTYL.

He went on to talk about this has led to a modern culture of busy-ness, particularly in NYC where we're stuck in 19th century modes of transport. I don't agree that NYers are busier than other people, but I was totally on board with him about the rest of it until I realized how naive we were both being. The fact is, these modes of communication have ceased to be viewed as incomplete.

If I needed more proof, I searched for a link to Adam Gopnik's web site. He doesn't have his own.