The pen can write poetry or a death sentence.
Interesting piece at Short Stack about the new book eTrust: Forming Relationships in the Online World.
I like this argument that obsolete technology can be just as “dangerous” as the new vanguard.
“After the widespread adoption of online communication in the 1990’s, it did not take long before the dangers of sexually explicit material and personal indiscretion became the ideological bogeymen of the Internet. Such polar extremes are not especially useful because they tend to conflate information technologies with their social uses. The telephone can be used to reach a loved one, or to call in a bomb threat. The pen can write poetry or a death sentence.”
Short Stack - (washingtonpost.com)
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Overdue Library Books Returned Half-Century Later...
And the librarian is like, “What the hell are these things?”
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I am not ready to toss aside my books for all those familiar, vaguely arbitrary yet highly emotional reasons: for the feel, the smell, the covers, the page-turning pleasure. In a world where e-readers replace books I will also miss… knowing what subway readers are into. How else will we be able to make snap judgments about strangers? We’ll be forced to ask them what they are reading. We’ll be forced to engage.
M. Blake Montandon, On Late Adopting, Nooks & Me via Motherboard
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Amos, obsolete.
It has recently been pointed out to me (nice use of passive voice, no?) that I have not written enough about a certain someone on this book’s site.
Who is these people who it who has been pointed outed this to me has been? I cannot categorize them. They are straight, gay, black, white, male, female, young and old. And that’s just the couple next door! Don’t even listen to me. Point: people keep asking me why I haven’t posted pictures of my dog.
Top three reasons:
1-I don’t want to scare people away from this site. In other words: I want people not to realize how dog-nutty I am. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m the kind of woman who loses it like a drunk toddler every time she sees something with four-legs on the street. Because I’m not. Shut up.
2-Ostensibly, this blog is about the book OBSOLETE and the general topic of obsolescence. Right? Right. Well, simply put, my dog isn’t obsolete. He also isn’t much for books and doesn’t ever have rhapsodizing thoughts about the ocean waves lapping against the beach and washing away the footprints of our lives. He’s more interested in Kant.
3-I hadn’t seen him in six weeks.
I’ve been traveling a lot, and so my 16-pound Yorkie/Poodle, Amos, has spent more than a month with my family and friends at my stepdad’s distillery where I’ve been living part-time for a few months. Amos is a rock-and-roll star in these parts. Recently I was told that people sometimes call after touring the distillery just to say that Amos was their favorite part of the tour. I know, right? So, anyway, while I was away, I kept getting reports about how great he was doing, how happy he was, etc. All good…except I felt a l bit bruised in the ego area. Wasn’t he normally so great and fun and loved and happy because I am so great and fun and loved and happy? Because I’m not. Shut up.
Does this mean that my dog and I are judged as one in this world? I hope so. He is just a really great dog. So, that was part of it. I guess. I don’t mean to psychoanalyze myself, but I think the other part was that I just wanted to imagine he was pouting in a corner writing me sonnets. An hirsute Prince Charming. Needless to say, when we finally had our reunion a few days ago, he didn’t kiss my feet. He was like six out of 10 on the excited barometer. And that really wasn’t good enough for me.
He’s grown a little warmer towards me in the last few hours. This might because a few hours ago I set up a whole photo shoot for him. Bonding time! Just like JonBenét and Patsy Ramsey!
Why a photo shoot? To put him on this site. And why would it make sense to put a picture of him on your site? Well, someone pointed out to me that I have a series of photos on this blog of cute animals posing with obsolete objects. This is true. Well, now, said person said: Your book is OBSOLETE, and he’s cute… This is true: also, books are arguably becoming obsolete, and OBSOLETE is indeed a book. Soooo… I present:
CUTE ANIMALS WITH OBSOLETE OBJECTS: Vol. IV, Is. 1
It wasn’t until after I shot this that I saw that the page he was turned to was “Body Hair.”
Maybe Amos is obsolete after all.
My friend Ian Blecher is the smartest, funniest person I know. (I may have offended some other people I know by making this proclamation. For that, I am sorry. Know that I do take bribes.) I was going to link to his website, but I don’t know if has one. So, here’s his son’s website. (If you scroll down a bit, you will see me playing patty-cake.)
Anyway, yesterday Ian pointed out to me that Book Forum likes my book. Book Forum, for those of you who don’t know, is… well, I don’t know. I’m not that smart. I gather it’s a magazine of some kind. I think it has to do with books. And I’d wager that it is read by many smart people, some of whom may also be funny.
Other subjects mentioned on this page: Wallace Shawn, Tintin, and Condoms. Good company, no?
I think it’s cute that they used the word “Twittery.” Is that an accepted adjective? I guess in smart/funny/book-y circles, it is. Does that mean “Tumblry” is on deck?
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Is the screen the new paper? Will publishing houses go the way of the old-fashioned record store? Is digital delivery the new bookstore? Is Google the new library? Is the author the new musician, playing directly to the audience? Is the audience the new author?
Former literary agent/book publisher asks all the right questions in a Sunday New York Times article about the way technology has affected the workplace. Preoccupations - Treasuring the Artifacts of Publishing.
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A display currently up at HiHo Market in Gardiner, NY. I love it! I’ll be signing books at HiHo on September 12th and 13th. I’ll also be reading this Friday at 7PM not far from there at Inquiring Minds in New Paltz, NY. If you come to both, I will offer you my hand in holy matrimony. Or I can make you cookies. Choice is yours.
Yesterday was my book’s official launch date. Woohee! For those of you who still read books (and still have $10.85 to spare), you can now buy OBSOLETE in most bookstores (remember bookstores?) or on Amazon. Your purchase will make you happy AND it will make me happy. Two birds…
According to Amazon, the book is currently the 13th most popular book in the Art section of the Encyclopedia section of the Reference section. I’ll take what I can get. It ranks slightly higher than Literature of the Western World, Volume I: The Ancient World Through the Renaissance. Eat your heart out, Literature of the Western World.
If you’re not much of a reader, no worries: copies of OBSOLETE make lovely coasters. Or, you could whip out your scissors and do some nice decoupage—there are twenty-five fantastic full-page drawings by James Gulliver Hancock.
Literature is dead! Long live literature!
The Medium is the Message But We Prefer Small
“The new, post-print literary media are certainly amenable to brevity. The blog post and the tweet may be ephemeral rather than lapidary, but the culture in which they thrive is fed by a craving for more narrative and a demand for pith. And just as the iPod has killed the album, so the Kindle might, in time, spur a revival of the short story. If you can buy a single song for a dollar, why wouldn’t you spend that much on a handy, compact package of character, incident and linguistic invention? Why wouldn’t you collect dozens, or hundreds, into a personal anthology, a playlist of humor, pathos, mystery and surprise?
The death of the novel is yesterday’s news. The death of print may be tomorrow’s headline. But the great American short story is still being written, and awaits its readers.”
(From “Brevity’s Pull: In Praise of the American Short Story”, by the Times’ film critic A.O. Scott)
