Technical difficulties — “Today’s technology is wreaking havoc on the old-fashioned methods of building plot complications.” The essayist suggests several plot contortions to get around the dilemma — setting a plot in the past or in a remote region without access to technology, portraying the protagonist as anti-technology, etc. But surely a modern world full of Palm Pilots, cell phones and computers still presents human dramas without outlandish plot contrivance? I know I’m technologically replete, but there’s plenty of drama, pathos and even melodrama in my life. [Maybe you don’t want to write a book about it, though…] Salon [via spike]