Commentary on technologies of reading, writing, research, and, generally, knowledge. As these technologies change and develop, what do we lose, what do we gain, what is (fundamentally or trivially) altered? And, not least, what’s fun?
By: Alan Jacobs
June 24, 2011
Yesterday our study group went to Canterbury, where I wanted us to see not just the famous, enormous, and tourist-strewn cathedral — thank God we’re not tourists, huh? — but also the ruins of St. Augustine’s Abbey — a site which from a certain historical point of view is as important as that big old church. But the coach park...
June 22, 2011
One of the most common defenses of anonymity on the internet is the one offered by Daniel Solove here: For all its vices, anonymity has many virtues. With anonymity, people can be free to express unpopular ideas and be critical of people in power without risking retaliation or opprobrium. The anonymity in everyday life enables people to...
June 15, 2011
Herewith a cautionary — or an encouraging — tale. (Depends on how you read it.) A few weeks ago I started having a problem with my Kindle: it wasn’t holding a charge nearly as well as it had been. It was running out of juice more quickly with every charge, and had reached the point that, with wi-fi off, it was usable for less than...
June 10, 2011
My department runs an annual program called Wheaton in England. I haven’t participated in the program since 2004, in part because, though it’s incredibly fun, it’s also incredibly exhausting. But this summer is my son’s last chance to go on the program before he enters college — which is to say, this is...
June 8, 2011
The response from young adult writers and their editors to Megan Cox Gurdon’s recent highly critical op-ed has been, to me anyway, extremely disappointing. Everyone seems concerned to throw up an instinctive, reactive, common front rather than give thoughtful replies. Look, for example, at the comments gathered here. According to these...
June 8, 2011
While I’m being negative about the advice that some writers give: I also think some of the writers consulted are giving universal advice based on the experience of writing one or two books. I’ve written not just several books but several kinds of book, and in my judgment they all called for different approaches. In some cases I have...
June 7, 2011
I’m not the only one who thinks it’s not all curation. And don’t neglect this post.
June 7, 2011
Say, here are “Practical Tips on Writing a Book from 22 Brilliant Authors”. Some good advice may be found there; also some ridiculous stuff. I have always been annoyed by the tendency some writers have to make writing a book sound like hard labor in Siberia. Thus an anonymous “author of notable books on science and psychology”:...
June 6, 2011
I like the suggestion here: Two months into 2011, The New York Times tech reporter (and former Wired reporter Jenna Wortham) wrote excitedly that she had finally finished her first e-book — how is such technological tardiness possible for someone so plugged in? Wortham had an excellent explanation: She kept forgetting to pick up any...
June 5, 2011
In an earlier post I used Storify to present a Twitter conversation. But I’m a piker at storification in comparison to my friend Tim Carmody, who transformed my recent visit to D.C. — and my first meeting with him — into a work of art. Check it out. I am very grateful to my friends at The New Atlantis — Adam Keiper,...