Book Summary
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What distinguishes a technological world is that the terms of nature are obscured; one need not live quite in the present or the local.
River of Shadow
Eadweard Muybridge had a significant role in shaping the world as we know it today, which began in California in the late 1800s. This audacious declaration is at the centre of Rebecca Solnit's new book, which combines biography, history, and unique insights into art and technology to create a strikingly innovative portrayal of America on the cusp of modernity. Muybridge's narrative becomes a lens for a bigger storey about the acceleration and industrialization of ordinary life, when he succeeded in photographically recording high-speed motion in 1872.
Solnit shows how the peculiar freedoms and opportunities of post–Civil War California led directly to the two industries—Hollywood and Silicon Valley—that have most powerfully defined contemporary society.
What distinguishes a technological world is that the terms of nature are obscured; one need not live quite in the present or the local.
