In the beginning was the word and the word was good enough. No, it was better than that, it was great, it was better than sex, it was better than pictures because it had no need to wait for photographic chemistry or special effects or video streaming technology to catch up with it. The word could take you anywhere and make you anyone you wanted. The word could fly you through outer space and conquer galaxies long before George Lucas started playing with Airfix models. The word could take you inside your head and navigate your blood vessels in a submarine and still make sure you got the girl.

And pictures finally caught up with our dreams. So what happened to words then? It was called post modernism, which roughly translates as ‘what next?’. The word took back seat and the image became the thing, the icon. Look at the signs; they are telling you what to eat, what to do, what to think. Moving pictures tell us what the world looks like. But ironically the more ‘realistic’ the pictures become the more we distrust them. Nobody believes in pictures anymore, digital manipulation of photographs, the Hollywood gloss on history, fake fly on the wall documentaries; lies, lies, lies. The concept of the TV generation was handy way make everyone and their dog a postmodernist; but no one can be bothered to wait for the film to end, or the pictures to download on the internet or least of all on a mobile phone; they want information and real communication.

Text messages on the telephone, Words on the wall, words on food, words on clothes, words on shampoo, stories passed on by email, electronic myths starring yourself; just when the written word had been consigned to the dustbin it suddenly seems to be the newest thing. There’s this massive e-commerce outfit and they sell books! Lovely big wads of paper with loads of words printed in them. And what are these words? Mostly mindless junk, recycled cliched gibberish, catchphrases, puns, jokes and ironic posturing, lifeless lifestyle and old stories retold for stupid people in short words and long sentences. But we can’t get enough. We want more.

The important thing is to have good story; it doesn’t matter if it is true (unlike with pictures where authenticity is everything) it just needs to be memorable enough to make it easy to pass on. In fact it’s not the story but the teller who counts. So who is writing all this stuff, who are the carney folk bringing the crowds to the fair ground and spinning that old magic? Universal broadcasting means that everyone is famous, or in effect, not famous. Legends are being borrowed, sampled, stolen from elsewhere; the further away the better. But hey, why come with something new when just working those old words, squeezing the last drop of life out of them, and gets more laughs. Wassup!