Bumping into Mr. Ravioli

This article by Adam Gopnik showcases Gopnik's daughter Olivia, a three year old girl growing up in Manhattan. She has a seemingly innocent imaginary friend named Charlie Ravioli, but they have a concerning and slightly odd relationship. Charlie Ravioli never has a second to spare for Olivia. They merely catch up on the phone some times, or shoot each other emails. The relationship concerns the parents, and they look into it, only to realize that Olivia's imaginary friend is a mirror of what their new york city lifestyle has become. Everyone is too busy for each other. They only have time to grab a bite to eat before being whisked away to their next project. Most metropolitan lifestyles have become a fierce fast moving web of communication

Every device that has evolved from the telegram shares the same character. E-mails end with a suggestion for a phone call (“Anyway, let’s meet and/or talk soon”), faxes with a request for an e-mail, answering machine messages with a request for a fax. All are devices of perpetually suspended communication. My wife recalls a moment last fall when she got a telephone message from a friend asking her to check her e-mail apropos a phone call she needed to make vis-à-vis a fax they had both received asking for more information about a bed they were thinking of buying from Ireland online and having sent to America by Federal Express- a grand slam of incomplete communication.

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