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Ode on a Grecian Urn 29461 Views


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Description:

Ode on a Californian Shmoop.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:09

Ode on a Grecian Urn, a la Shmoop.

00:18

Are we in love with our technology? Are we whispering sweet nothings to our smart phones? [Angel shoots woman with heart arrows]

00:24

Just like Keats did with his Grecian Urn?

00:28

Well, the urn represented history. These days we get our history built right into our web browsers.

00:35

It's that thing you delete right before your parents check your computer. [Boy deleting computer history and parents appear]

00:40

Remember that haircut you posted three years ago? It's not going anywhere.

00:47

Now imagine that hairdo painted on the side of an urn for hundreds of years.

00:52

The story painted on the side of the urn was perfect. [Urn with painting of woman on the side]

00:55

It was an idealized version of reality. TV has been doing this for years.

01:05

Now we're doing it ourselves.

01:09

We're showing people the best parts and sometimes the worst parts [Person taking photo of fish]

01:18

whenever we post online.

01:21

We're building our own romanticized stories, making our own modern day urns. [Person logging into urnbook]

01:27

Are there any modern-day Keats pondering our place? Keats wrote that eventually, though, the urn's

01:32

beauty would fade. Then it would decay and break down, its story lost. [Urn smashes]

01:41

Eventually, our phones and tablets would become obsolete, too. Even a trip to the Smart Bar won't save them.

01:49

That once must-have gadget will be old news. [Phone with white wings]

01:56

Its story, our stories, might be lost,

01:59

too. Do we objectify, idealize our phones and tablets just like Keats did with his Grecian

02:06

Urn? Will our stories last as long as those on the urn? Only time will tell. Shmoop amongst

02:12

yourselves.

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