this is dialogue?

library ad infinitum: Putting The Shallows into dialogue with Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus, the latter book seems like the one with an actual idea. However smartly dressed, Carr’s concern about the corrosiveness of media is really a reflex, one that’s been twitching ever since Socrates fretted over the dangers of the...

bodies and minds

Really interesting brief essay by Linda Stone: In our current relationship with technology, we bring our bodies, but our minds rule. “Don’t stop now, you’re on a roll. Yes, pick up that phone call, you can still answer these six emails. Follow Twitter while working on PowerPoint, why not?” Our minds push, demand, coax, and...

the writer who forgot how to read

once more without much feeling

I think I may have said all I have to say about e-readers, at least until the technology changes significantly. I’ve written a good deal about their benefits and their limitations, and I think I’ve covered both categories fairly well — at least, that’s how it seems to me when I read this article about six...

re-evaluating

Ross Douthat disagrees with Stanley Fish and me, but the article AKMA linked to in his comment on my first Fish post suggests that the data may be on our side: Professors rated highly by their students tended to yield better results for students in their own classes, but the same students did worse in subsequent classes. The implication:...

Fish follow-up

A generally thoughtful piece by Mark Bousquet, with some valuable considerations of the various ways — legitimate and not-so-legitimate — that teachers can get their students to rate them more highly. But here’s an odd thing: Fish makes two arguments against the proposal. He squanders pixels bolstering his weaker point, that...

Stanley Fish is right again

In a follow-up to his earlier post about his gratitude for high-school education: A number of responses to my column about the education I received at Classical High (a public school in Providence, RI) rehearsed a story of late-flowering gratitude after an earlier period of frustration and resentment. “I had a high school (or a...

a note about comments

Gentle readers, I am thankful for the thoughtfulness of the commenters on this blog. I learn from y’all, and even when I disagree my thinking is often sharpened and clarified. I think I have an obligation to respond thoughtfully to people who have responded thoughtfully to me — but I may have some trouble doing that in the coming...

the uses of books

Via Lux Mentis.

Market Day

To me, James Sturm’s Market Day provides a far more compelling visual world than David Small’s Stitches. It is beautiful and memorable. But even so, the story leaves something to be desired. Sturm tells the story of a rug-weaver who takes his wares to market but by the end of the day has, it seems, completely changed his...