(no subject)
On Wed, while I was out running around the city with Richard, I picked up a few non-fiction books.
The first, "Eats ( , ) Shoots and Leaves. The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", I read a few years ago (Yes, that was a few years ago now, back when I use to frolic on Bank at Frank. Oh god how time flies.) but have forgotten a lot of what was in there. I don't think I will have time to read it from cover to cover until school dies down but I figured that in the meantime it will be a good reference book. No picking on my punctuation until I have ploughed trough it again.
I became eager to pick this up because a fear of mine was being realized, I am learning grammar (yes 849, I hear you yelling "yes" while raising your hands above your head in victory). While I understand electron distribution during an SN2 reaction, I have no idea how English works. Now, I am learning the different noun cases. My vocabulary now includes Vocative, Dative, Accusative, Nominative, Ablative, and Genitive. Blech...I feel so dirty.
The second book I bought because of an interview I saw on Colbert. "Cult of the Amateur - How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture" by Andrew Keen addresses the problem with the internet democratizing. What initially drew me to this book was my problem with the degradation of art and the price of art because of the internet. Since the internet became mainstream, shittier, cheaper, faster art work is available lowering the cost of professional labour. As someone who use to rely on art to pay my bills and know a lot of very talented people who currently do so, it is something that I have thought about and am concerned about.
How is the book? I will give it a "not bad" with a big smile. In other words, I am enjoying it. What does bother me is he references, too often for my taste, the analogy of T.H. Huxley's "infinite monkeys theorem." That being said, he is sometimes successful in using it a comedic context; "At best, it will provide the monkeys with peanuts and beer." Maybe I just have a thing for monkeys.
I am only halfway through the book and so far he has been attacking blogs and what he calls "citizen journalists." How it degrades the quality of news and creates "fake news" more times than not. He also talks about problems with "Wikipedia" and how anyone with a keyboard can rewrite how a nuclear reactors (he cites a specific case that irked me as much as politicians being the ones determining if in fact global warming occurs. LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERTS AKA THE SCIENTISTS).
Keen addresses that the audience and the author are becoming the same thing. He shows how we are sometimes fooled into thinking that the author is the audience when really it is a company or political group creating spin or pushing an agenda and praying on the naivety of the masses (i.e. the YouTube video "Al Gore's Army of Penguins"). Even lonely girl, though less harmful, was barking up the same tree.
What really impresses me about this book is how much he DOES know about the subject. He researched blogs, cites some of my favorite magazines, and seems to approaching things from all expert perspectives bringing it to us in a more "user friendly" format. He brings in the amateurs and the experts, people who agree with him and people who don't. He discusses the economics and financial impact of the democratization of the internet and it isn't looking good. Think of this book as a more balanced "Fast Food Nation" meal with less political agenda on the side.
Ironically, by blogging this, I am an audience member who his thesis is attacking. To be fair to him, he does seem to write with the realization that there is a bit of a paradox involved with his thesis. I am sure that because of people blogging, he realize that he will get "press coverage" and in the end feed his wallet. I haven't finished the entire book but I get the feeling that he does see some (a very small some) good in what is going on. Makes for a weaker thesis, but in my eyes, makes him more credible. I appreciate someone who can see both sides of the argument especially when it is gray.
While I agree with Keen for the most part, I feel conflicted. I am a poor student who can't afford all the CDs and DVDs I want. Also, a lot my tastes tend to be impossible to find (When was the last time you saw a CD by "The Fatales" for sale?) and infringing on copyright laws are my only options. I get patient waiting for box sets and DVD releases so I download movies and TV episodes. On the flip side, anyone who has seen my room with my towers of CDs and my overflowing DVD rack (now really a DVD corner) know that when I have the money, I buy and support the artist. I am a good little consumer but I can't always afford the stuff I want.
In the end, I feel like this is a REASONABLE and LOGICAL book debunking a real conspiracy, the conspiracy that free media to the mass is a positive thing. This book has been a long time coming and now that it has arrived, I am enjoying my purchased, non-"liquid version" of the book.
Okay...enough of this. Back to isomerization.
The first, "Eats ( , ) Shoots and Leaves. The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", I read a few years ago (Yes, that was a few years ago now, back when I use to frolic on Bank at Frank. Oh god how time flies.) but have forgotten a lot of what was in there. I don't think I will have time to read it from cover to cover until school dies down but I figured that in the meantime it will be a good reference book. No picking on my punctuation until I have ploughed trough it again.
I became eager to pick this up because a fear of mine was being realized, I am learning grammar (yes 849, I hear you yelling "yes" while raising your hands above your head in victory). While I understand electron distribution during an SN2 reaction, I have no idea how English works. Now, I am learning the different noun cases. My vocabulary now includes Vocative, Dative, Accusative, Nominative, Ablative, and Genitive. Blech...I feel so dirty.
The second book I bought because of an interview I saw on Colbert. "Cult of the Amateur - How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture" by Andrew Keen addresses the problem with the internet democratizing. What initially drew me to this book was my problem with the degradation of art and the price of art because of the internet. Since the internet became mainstream, shittier, cheaper, faster art work is available lowering the cost of professional labour. As someone who use to rely on art to pay my bills and know a lot of very talented people who currently do so, it is something that I have thought about and am concerned about.
How is the book? I will give it a "not bad" with a big smile. In other words, I am enjoying it. What does bother me is he references, too often for my taste, the analogy of T.H. Huxley's "infinite monkeys theorem." That being said, he is sometimes successful in using it a comedic context; "At best, it will provide the monkeys with peanuts and beer." Maybe I just have a thing for monkeys.
I am only halfway through the book and so far he has been attacking blogs and what he calls "citizen journalists." How it degrades the quality of news and creates "fake news" more times than not. He also talks about problems with "Wikipedia" and how anyone with a keyboard can rewrite how a nuclear reactors (he cites a specific case that irked me as much as politicians being the ones determining if in fact global warming occurs. LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERTS AKA THE SCIENTISTS).
Keen addresses that the audience and the author are becoming the same thing. He shows how we are sometimes fooled into thinking that the author is the audience when really it is a company or political group creating spin or pushing an agenda and praying on the naivety of the masses (i.e. the YouTube video "Al Gore's Army of Penguins"). Even lonely girl, though less harmful, was barking up the same tree.
What really impresses me about this book is how much he DOES know about the subject. He researched blogs, cites some of my favorite magazines, and seems to approaching things from all expert perspectives bringing it to us in a more "user friendly" format. He brings in the amateurs and the experts, people who agree with him and people who don't. He discusses the economics and financial impact of the democratization of the internet and it isn't looking good. Think of this book as a more balanced "Fast Food Nation" meal with less political agenda on the side.
Ironically, by blogging this, I am an audience member who his thesis is attacking. To be fair to him, he does seem to write with the realization that there is a bit of a paradox involved with his thesis. I am sure that because of people blogging, he realize that he will get "press coverage" and in the end feed his wallet. I haven't finished the entire book but I get the feeling that he does see some (a very small some) good in what is going on. Makes for a weaker thesis, but in my eyes, makes him more credible. I appreciate someone who can see both sides of the argument especially when it is gray.
While I agree with Keen for the most part, I feel conflicted. I am a poor student who can't afford all the CDs and DVDs I want. Also, a lot my tastes tend to be impossible to find (When was the last time you saw a CD by "The Fatales" for sale?) and infringing on copyright laws are my only options. I get patient waiting for box sets and DVD releases so I download movies and TV episodes. On the flip side, anyone who has seen my room with my towers of CDs and my overflowing DVD rack (now really a DVD corner) know that when I have the money, I buy and support the artist. I am a good little consumer but I can't always afford the stuff I want.
In the end, I feel like this is a REASONABLE and LOGICAL book debunking a real conspiracy, the conspiracy that free media to the mass is a positive thing. This book has been a long time coming and now that it has arrived, I am enjoying my purchased, non-"liquid version" of the book.
Okay...enough of this. Back to isomerization.