Virginia Postrel has written a wonderful NYT piece about the meaning of wires.  She writes:

One of the best places to find wireless glamour isn’t in ads for
high-tech products. It’s in images of stylish lamps in catalogs for
companies like Crate & Barrel and Chiasso. Whether through careful
composition or a little digital magic, the lamps seem to have no cords.
Like bills piled on the kitchen counter or muddy footprints on the
floor, the utilitarian realism of electrical wires would break the
spell of domestic perfection. Glamour’s grace is the art that conceals
art… What is truly glamorous about wireless technology is the fantasy that it requires no wires.

Is it possible to tell an authentic story made up of little lies?  I’m not so sure… a good story, maybe, but authentic, no.  Perhaps I don’t need to be told an authentic story to get me to buy a lamp or a laptop, just a good one.  I wonder.