January 2012
22 posts
“I am not going to use a computer because I don’t want to deny myself the...”
– Wendell Berry as quoted in The Phenomenology of Writing by Hand
This essay is chock full of wonderful quotes from writers reflecting on tools they prefer to use in the construction of their craft. Daniel Chandler also offers a model for describing writerly habits as Planners and Discoverers...
“And, bonus question: Who would win in a fight, Clay Shirky or Nicholas Carr?...”
– What the Internet Means for How We Think About the World - Technology - The Atlantic
David Weinberger making clever internet jokes in promotion of his new book, Too Big to Know. He goes on to make some interesting points about technodeterminism in Carr’s, Shirky’s and his own work.
Books That Are Never Done Being Written - WSJ.com →
Nick Carr on the shift from moveable type and immovable text or the “typographical fixity” of print books, to the maleable, editable, edition-less e-book.
“I remember reading about a concept called “Not Two” (不二), a kind of...”
– Not Two: Stillness and Digital Life at a Korean Monastery | An Xiao Studio: the virtual studio of an xiao mina
Sounds a lot like Alexandra Samuel’s discussion about what’s wrong with the phrase “In Real Life” or IRL. Time to abandon the false dichotomy.
Why Authors Tweet - NYTimes.com →
New Service Lets You Have A Prominent Author For A... →
Literary website The Rumpus recently launched a print subscription, appropriately called Letters in the Mail. Subscribers pay $5 per month to receive ‘personal letters from interesting people’ almost every week. These ‘interesting people’ are primarily authors, bloggers, and other prominent creative types, including Dave Eggers, Marc Maron, Wendy MacNaughton, Emily Gould, Tao Lin and Stephen...
The Triumph of Kodakery: The Camera Maker May Die,... →
On Kodak’s consumer tech legacy, from Alexis Madrigal.
Social media in the 16th Century: How Luther went... →
Interesting take on how Luther’s printed pamphlets spread through social networks and sparked conversation that led to the Reformation. Tom Standage writes in The Economist, via Kottke.
December 2011
7 posts
“Like camping out for concert tickets and plots that hinge on missed phone calls,...”
– Social Media Reduce Allure of High School Reunions - NYTimes.com
Reading Infinite Jest →
I finished reading Infinite Jest. Here’s my take on the experience, with a special bent towards DFW’s film studies and media ecology juicy bits.
“Saying this is bad is like saying traffic is bad, or health-care surtaxes, or...”
– Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
“Freer’s from inland Maryland, originally, his family’s riches...”
– Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
November 2011
12 posts
The Mind's Ear - NYTimes.com →
The New York Times has not one, but two articles on the experience of audio book listening/reading this weekend. The first, by James Parker, describes the oral/aural tradition, with a nod to T.S. Eliot recordings that I appreciated. The second, by John Schwartz, gets into a more petty debate about whether consuming a book aurally counts as “reading.”
HANDWRITING: AN ELEGY | More Intelligent Life →
October 2011
5 posts
How Siri's Robotic Voice Will Help Her Win Your... →
The Rise of the Zuckerverb: The New Language of... →
September 2011
5 posts
The Mechanic Muse — From Scroll to Screen -... →
A description of the unique non-linear qualities of the codex. Grossman does a good job of flowing through the evolution of reading technologies, from scroll, to code, to e-reader without oversimplifying.