The little hall was packed with fifty people, mostly weedy young men and badly dressed young women inclining to untidy hair. They were the city's artistic set, the college-educated paupers that stocked shelves and waited tables by day and then flocked nightly to dingy venues for experimental rock music or poetry readings. Tonight they had flocked to see a man who was creating a local sensation. He spoke in the old style: using complete paragraphs.
The lights dimmed. The man walked to center stage, sat on a chair, and began to speak. "A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.' So he divided unto them his living."
Twenty cell phones lit up. Quick fingers tapped out tweets and posted them to the internet. The tweets were variations on "Early inheritance speeds the exchange of wealth between generations." The twenty people left the hall, happy to have received an insight without a burdensome investment of time and attention.
The man continued, "And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living."
This provoked another twenty tweets. "Foreign travel and getting wasted can be a real riot." And these twenty additional people vacated the hall in favor of more lively amusements.
The man continued, "And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed his swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat."
Six more tweets were uploaded to the internet: "It's important to get outdoors and enjoy nature. Also, get plenty of fiber in your diet." The six twitterers slipped from the hall.
All that remained was a remnant of four people at the back. Evidently, these four were out of step with the pace of modern life. They stayed behind and listened to every paragraph.
* * * * *
The description of "weedy young men and badly dressed young women inclining to untidy hair" was lifted from Chapter 2 of Mr. Standfast, John Buchan's action novel published in 1919. The description is still apt, although now the attribute of untidy hair applies equally to both sexes.
