In “The Gambler,” by Paolo Balcigulpi, Ong is a Laotian who fled a despotic regime. His father was an idealist who believed in Thoreau, civil disobedience, and publishing broadsheets denouncing Laotian politics. His mother was a realist who escaped with Ong after his father was arrested. Now Ong is in LA, working for
Milestone Media—a combination of NTT DoCoMo, the Korean gaming consortium Hyundai-Kubu, and the smoking remains of the New York Times Company.
The coolest part of their site is a graphic representation of the hits each story generates, called the maelstrom. Truly his father’s son, he keeps posting stories about political corruption and lost butterflies. Currently he is working on a story about the bluets disappearing around Thoreau’s Walden Pond, and how they might be saved. But nobody wants to hear it.
In Ong’s world, Laos is lost down a digital rathole darker than North Korea. Ong is an endearingly earnest figure lost in the blinking glitterati-obsessed world of a celebrity gossip site. I don’t understand what Ong is doing there, except to show what online-only news sources might be headed for in a meditation on the death of Real News. Sounds pretty bad, but the story ends on a positive note.
Not much has changed, but I really think it’s about to. I like Ong, and I can’t help wanting him to be happier. I can’t see him staying where he is much longer. I guess I’m an idealist, too, because I don’t buy into the monolithic view of the web presented here. There will still be places where the Ongs of the world will be heard. He just hasn’t finished his journey.
Writing Every Day 