| This reminds me of one of my favorite movie scenes, from "Annie Hall" when Woody Allen's character has a disagreement with a man in the line for a movie: MAN IN LINE: It's the influence of television. Yeah, now Marshall McLuhan deals with it in terms of it being a-a high, uh, high intensity, you understand? A hot medium ... as opposed to a ... ALVY (More and more aggravated): What I wouldn't give for a large sock o' horse manure. MAN IN LINE: ... as opposed to a print ... Alvy steps forward, waving his hands in frustration, and stands facing the camera. ALVY (Sighing and addressing the audience): What do you do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this behind you? I mean, it's just maddening! MAN IN LINE: Wait a minute! Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called "TV Media and Culture"! So I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan-well, have a great deal of validity. ALVY: Oh, do yuh? MAN IN LINE: Yes. ALVY: Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here. So ... so, here, just let me-I mean, all right. Come over here ... a second. Alvy gestures to the camera which follows him and the man in line to the back of the crowded lobby. He moves over to a large stand-up movie poster and pulls Marshall McLuhan from behind the poster. MAN IN LINE: Oh. ALVY (To McLuhan): Tell him. MCLUHAN (To the man in line): I hear-I heard what you were saying. You-you know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing. ALVY (To the camera): Boy, if life were only like this! [Alvy, fast forward to 2010 and Hacker News. It is now.] (I don't mean for this comment to judge either person's opinion, just that I find it so interesting that you never know who's going to drop by Hacker News and join the discussion.) |
And Woody Allen, too.