More on Desmond and communication

No blog ready for last Saturday 12 December, due to Storm Desmond. We’ve had no broadband since the previous week and it won’t be restored until 21 Dec, I was told after spending two hours seventeen minutes on the landline (which is thankfully working again). Saturday was also eventful for its 23 hours of continuous heavy rain and the river that erupted and then swept though our garden for all the daylight hours, luckily missing the house by a couple of metres.

In the 1770s or the 1870s, we’d probably have taken such things as par for the course, but not now. This has really brought home to me how dependent distance communication has become on high technology. And when this breaks down, communicative engagement is not so much ended as takes a different form in an ontological sense. Viz: oh, I can’t keep driving thro’ flooded roads six miles to a supermarket with a cafe and wi-fi; so I will send a blog to Emilia in a day or three; so why write it now, it can be done then.

Last updated: 17 December 2015