The topic of modernity takes center stage in this short essay penned in 1967 by Kurt, a reflection upon the shift from an industrial notion of modernity, a la Charlie Chaplin, to an electronic one, a la Marshall McLuhan. Our view of history, Kurt notes, also has changed. "The recent past, approximately the last 500 years, has provided us with the conceptual and methodological equipment with which to resuscitate the distant past before it." And as an art historian, Kurt explores modern media and media figures, including comedians. "There are no more Chaplins. Modern times are now too complex, at once too gross and too subtle, to be counted out in the coin of such comedy."
