“What then shall we choose? Weight or Lightness?”
-Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”
For those familiar with the book, the author plays with several themes. My favorite, embedded in the book’s very title, plays on three themes:
1) the “heaviness” associated with romantic relationships
2) the transient “lightness” associated with bachelorhood and
3) the constant state of flux we all experience between both states.
For their own part– Viacom, News Corp and NBC Universal– also seem to be in a state of flux. Today Viacom announced a content partnership deal with Joost (an online P2P video site started by the creators of Skype), which beckons continued partnering troubles with Google’s YouTube.
Meanwhile NBC Universal and News Corp prefer keeping light. Rather than burden themselves with the weight of a potential GoogTube content deal, they figure they can just start their own online video channel and remain unencumbered to do as they please.
Here’s the thing. For the longest time big networks were all too happy reveling in their independence, commanding their content wherever they wished, and basking in a bachelor’s delight.
Now, however, that lightness of being has turned unbearable. New distribution partners are calling, and finding the right web distribution portal/site/syndication channel for their content has become an existential plight (And I thought I had it bad). Unsure whether to carry on in “old media” bachelorhood, or to succumb to their own conflicted desires by signing with the Google Universe, the day-to-day existence of these monolith networks has taken on a very human plight. One that I couldn’t help but relate with when recently reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Excuse the anthropomorphism. Nonetheless, it is reassuring to know that even steel and cold corporate intellect can suffer, just like the rest of us.
The idea of traditional media’s struggling in this brave new world of new media, is a good point, albeit an old one. What is new and refreshing, however, is the connnection to a book so aware of the plight & essence of what it means to be human.
Alias
February 21st, 2007