Oct 30, 2008 0
Paul de Man, Literary Materialism, and the Critical Heritage of Romanticism
The very fact that Paul de Man would edit a selection of Keats’s work is matter for critical reflection.
drink deep
Oct 30, 2008 0
On Love, and Why It Is Boring
Writers, notorious as philanderers and divorcees as they are, should perhaps learn to differentiate between the mechanisms of love and those of seduction. Their enterprise—writing—is the latter. As such, the latter’s games, schemas, architectures will always be more interesting, however unnecessary to a right understanding of the former. The distinction between passion and love is a useful one for the writer, though not necessarily as it pertains to a successful love life for him. More likely, the distinction will make him a better writer, a better lover, and a worse partner.
Oct 29, 2008 0
CCL, E-books, and Cory Doctorow On the Future of Reading
What appeals about a book isn’t the masquerade of bookishness; it’s the physicality of the object. I relate to books according to an established protocol: a personal code of underline, box, circle, various symbols; self-kept indices; etc. If I’m going to interact with a text digitally, I don’t want it to pretend like it’s a book.
Oct 29, 2008 0
Cory Doctorow Calls Out the American Association of Publishers
In a totally fabulous interview over at the Chicago Tribune, Cory Doctorow discusses technology triumphalism, the surveillance state, and the so-called “death of the book.” It’s brilliant, it’s cutting, and it’s about damned time.
Oct 26, 2008 0
The Mainstream American Left’s Urgent Challenge: Articulate Radical Capitalism
Mainstream American liberals—despite being demonstrably superior stewards of the economy in contemporary history—rarely succeed in articulating for the public the distinction between the generic capitalism praised by conservatives in campaigns and the the radical capitalism of the so-caled “ownership society” instituted by conservatives when they take up the reins of government. The mainstream American left too often shies away from—or simply fails at—illuminating iniquities and inequalities inherent in radical capitalism for fear of appearing to have indicted capitalism as such.