There’s a reason why most songs have choruses, but many don’t; why theatre has intermissions, but movies don’t; why visual art has a background to support its foreground. And it’s not to allow time for a word from our sponsor.

But it is all about allowing time, giving us a chance to learn and remember. The New York Times gets into this theory, backed up by research, about how digital devices take away our downtime and the negative effect this has on learning and retaining.   

Of course, this information would have to be about technology – all those smart phones and other toys are today’s sex objects – otherwise it wouldn’t help the Times sell ads.

Context is Everything. By Rene Magritte. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The point, I think, is not how technology distracts us; this has been pretty obvious since the advent of television and has become an inverted epiphany since everyone got a personal computer. No, it’s more about how we’re losing our abilities to appreciate things that offer a deeper glimpse of life.

Arts journalism is a good example.

With few exceptions in Ottawa, arts media focus on product: what, when and where. (Sometimes it’s about how much, but not too often because this is an industry that is told it’s not worth anything. But that’s a story for another time. ) One product starts to look like every other, much like focusing on a Blackberry, an iPod and a video game, all at the same time.  Just gimme more.

What’s being lost is narrative, the thing that makes us think about a writer’s opinion rather than immediately accepting or rejecting it, or about a story’s context, which helps us see criticism as valid, maybe even important?

I don’t buy the lack-of-resources rationale because there are lots of examples of local writers creating great narrative pieces they weren’t paid to produce – examples here, here and here.  Alie Lavoie doesn’t buy it either. She’s a young lady I met recently and asked to do some writing for UnFolding. She explains her take on creative non-fiction arts writing in this way:

“There is no ultimate truth when it comes to questions of art or opinion. Everybody’s got a bias, and everybody’s got a reason behind that bias–and both of these things are fascinating to explore.

“I feel like bias and personal accounts are considered amateurish in journalistic circles, but for myself, bias and personalization are the things that draw me to reviewers, journalists and artists of all kinds. Getting at the heart of why you even wanted to write about (creativity), while simultaneously giving a non-fiction account? Well that can be inspiring.”

Narrative in arts writing allows for intermissions, digressions and opinions, unless of course a reader is plugged into music and watching reality TV at the same time.