Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
Joshua Glenn is a Boston-based writer, editor, and multimedia
producer.
Christopher Shea writes the Critical Faculties column for Ideas.
 Send the Brainiac bloggers a
comment on a post.
  Week of:
November 11
Week of:
November 4
Week of:
October 28
Week of:
October 21
Week of:
October 14
Week of:
October 7
Mind the gap
Shop talk What he learned in the newsroom Mr. Boffo lays an eggcorn Curse of the mummy's tummy More in Word Watch  |
November 11, 2007
Rarebit Fiend!I've produced another Brainiac audio slideshow, a print version of which appears in today's Ideas section. Click here to watch "Fiendishly Inspiring."  What is today's slideshow about? Not long ago, I blogged about "The Complete 'Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'," a gorgeous archival collection -- edited by independent scholar Ulrich Merkl -- of the wildly imaginative comic strip published in American newspapers from 1904 to 1911. "Rarebit Fiend" was written and drawn by Winsor McCay, who -- according to Merkl -- supplied many ideas later used in comic strips, animated cartoons, and movies. I found Merkl's case so convincing and amusing that I wanted to present it to Brainiac/Ideas readers myself. Now you know. For example: The 1930 surrealist classic "L'Age d'Or," directed by Luis Buñuel, so outraged audiences that it was banned in France, and wasn't released in the United States until 1979. This is ironic, since the scenes in which a man kicks a dog, slaps a lady, beats a blind man, and throws a cleric out of the window bear a striking resemblance to a 1906 "Rarebit Fiend" episode in which a girl dreams that her father kicks a dog, slaps an elderly woman, beats a blind man, and throws his grandmother out of the window.   Merkl also points to scenes in "King Kong," "Dumbo," "Mary Poppins," and Tim Burton's 2005 film version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Now that every screenwriter in Hollywood is on strike, Merkl’s book, which is only available at www.rarebit-fiend-book.com, might come in handy. PS: In January 2006, Ideas published an essay by Jeet Heer on "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend." Heer was writing about another fine collection of McCay's work, titled "Dreams and Nightmares" (Fantagraphics). PPS: Did you miss the first Brainiac audio slideshow? Check out "The Iconography of Boing Boing." Posted by Joshua Glenn at 08:00 AM
November 8, 2007
Speaking of China... Wang Hui was -- until recently, when he was pushed out of his job -- coeditor of China's leading intellectual journal, Dushu (Reading), and the author of a four-volume history of Chinese thought. He's also a central figure among a group of writers and academics known in China as the New Left. The New Left (not a term that Wang Hui embraces) advocate a "Chinese alternative" to the neoliberal market economy, one that will guarantee the welfare of the country's 800 million peasants. Unlike China's better-known (in the West, anyway) human rights dissidents and pro-democracy activists, the New Left views the Communist leadership as a likely force for change. They see themselves as "critical intellectuals" working for reform. Want to learn more? Wang Hui is speaking in Harvard Square today, from 4-6 pm. Click here for details.
Posted by Joshua Glenn at 08:14 AM
November 8, 2007
Aqua Dots -- the Big Lie?The Aqua Dots story on every news channel this morning is too amazing, too wild to be true. In fact, I strongly suspect that the Aqua Dots scare is a large-scale hoax, perpetrated by a sinister cabal intent on keeping the Western world (a) anxious about personal safety, and (b) focused on anything but our real problems, from global warming to misguided military actions. Remember, you heard it here first!  What are Aqua Dots, you ask? According to an AP story in today's Globe, it's a popular "holiday toy" distributed in 40 countries and manufactured in China. Aqua Dots are beads whose chemical coating becomes sticky, then hardens again, when sprayed with water -- which makes it possible for children to fuse the beads into various fun formations. But it turns out that the coating on Aqua Dots, when eaten, metabolizes into gamma hydroxy butyrate, the so-called date-rape drug: "roofies." Five children in the US and Australia who swallowed Aqua Dot beads went into nonresponsive comas, prompting a massive recall in both countries.  As the sidebar to a story in the Globe's Business section -- ironically, a story about how the recall of 22 million Chinese-made toys is affecting US toy sales -- noted last month, Aqua Dots were among the "Hot Dozen" toys chosen by Toy Wishes magazine. ("Given the high level of scrutiny toys have been under this year, manufacturers have tested toys to assure safety," said Chris Byrne, a contributing editor to Toy Wishes magazine. Ouch.) Why do I think Aqua Dots is a hoax? It parses too neatly. Its elements map too precisely onto the map of contemporary American fears. Semiotically, something smells rotten. * First, the name of the product. "Aqua" is a word guaranteed to trigger alarms in the frontal lobe, especially in the Northeast, because of the Mooninite Attack here in Boston. Remember, the LED "hoax devices" were really guerrilla advertisements for the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" movie. In fact, at least one Globe account of the Mooninite scare uses the words "aqua" and "dots" in succeeding sentences: "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" airs late at night and involves animated characters that are depicted as fast food products, including a ball of ground meat, French fries, and a milk shake. The objects that had been placed on bridges and other infrastructure across the city are patterns of lighted dots in the shape of boxy characters on the cartoon show. * Second, China. Ever since the Atlantic Monthly ran a cover story (in June 2005) on "How We Would Fight China," it's been clear that there are individuals in America who'd like to see the US embroiled in a new Cold War. ("In the coming decades China will play an asymmetric back-and-forth game with us in the Pacific, taking advantage not only of its vast coastline but also of its rear base -- stretching far back into Central Asia -- from which it may eventually be able to lob missiles accurately at moving ships in the Pacific," warned Robert D. Kaplan, sounding like Colin Powell before Iraq.) The Cold War was good for the military-industrial complex, after all. Lead paint and loose magnets are one thing, but toys coated with the date-rape drug? To arms! * Third, the date-rape drug. Really? The date-rape drug?! How on earth could a toy be accidentally coated with roofies? Answer: It couldn't. Either the Chinese really are trying to poison American children, which is far-fetched, or this whole recall was a big lie. Remember what Hitler wrote about the big lie in "Mein Kampf": ... the magnitude of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds they more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big. Such a falsehood will never enter their heads and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others; yes, even when enlightened on the subject, they will long doubt and waver, and continue to accept at least one of these causes as true. If Aqua Dots were merely toxic, I might not be so suspicious. But (innocent children) + (anything to do with sexual predators) = widespread, instant hysteria. Guaranteed. * Finally, there's some evidence that the hoaxers, whoever they may be -- some might suspect spin masters in the Bush administration, trying to divert attention away from Iraq -- have a sick sense of humor. Why else, one wonders, would the Toronto-based North American distributor of Aqua Dots be called... wait for it... Spin Master Toys? Let me make it clear that I'm not saying you should let your children eat Aqua Dots. In fact, you should confiscate their Aqua Dots and put them away. But don't get caught up in the hysteria. Remain alert. Something fishy is going on! MORE AQUA DOTS CONSPIRACY-MONGERING: Jason Zengerle | Ed Champion | Machinist | Posted by Joshua Glenn at 07:58 AM
November 5, 2007
Henry James mystery... solved?I thought I would bring my recent attempt to solve (ham-fistedly, to be sure) an enduring literary puzzler to your attention. I hope it entertains you, at least...  Is It a Chamber Pot? By Joshua Glenn Posted Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007 Ever since the 1903 publication of Henry James' "The Ambassadors," critics and readers have puzzled over a literary mystery that has come to be known as the Woollett Question. What, everyone from E.M. Forster to David Lodge has wanted to know, is the "little nameless object" manufactured in Woollett, Mass.? The case went cold at some point in the 1960s, but earlier this week it was reopened... and cracked. READ THE REST: http://www.slate.com/id/2177149 RESPONSES: Scott McLemee (Crooked Timber) | John Holbo (The Valve) | Jessa Crispin (Bookslut) | Maud Newton | Ed Champion (Edward Champion's Return of the Reluctant) | Sarah Weinman (ex-GalleyCat, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind) | BRIJIT | American Studies | ALSO: Check out this WaPo Book World review vs. this NYT Book Review essay. Oh yeah, and was the shrunken brain rattling around in E.A. Poe's skull really a tumor? Posted by Joshua Glenn at 11:24 AM
November 4, 2007
ClarificationA Brainiac item in the Oct. 21 Ideas section argued that Lee Siegel made a "careless error" in a New York Times book review of Alice Sebold's "The Almost Moon." The item noted that Siegel wrote of the "juvenile contrivance of a Mom in the freezer" when the plot does not have a mother being put into a freezer. The book, however, does contain a conversation about the possibility of putting mom in a freezer. Siegel's review discussed that conversation but did not say whether or not the mother's body was put in the freezer. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 07:11 AM
November 1, 2007
LOLcat 'Wasteland'The LOLcat phenomenon was described (if not explained, which would be impossible) in the "Iconography of Boing Boing" slideshow I produced last Sunday. Did you watch the slideshow? If so, you are now prepared to read the most astonishing literary parody of 2007, a LOLcat version of T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland." 
Here's Part One: i seez cumean sybil sybil can has bukkit? sybil wantz DIE 1. IM IN UR WASTELAND BURYING UR DEAD april hates u, makes lilacs, u no can has. (1) earth in ur winter, covered in snow at archduke’s haus, invisible sled! in ur stones, whar r treez? (19) whar r wind? INVISIBLE IRISH GIRL in ur homelandz, freshening ur windz can has hyacinths, Sosotris Cat has smartz, (43)
Read the rest here. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 02:11 PM
October 31, 2007
Waking Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Wow! As fans of vintage newspaper comics -- and hopefully all other human beings -- are aware, Winsor McCay's "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend," published in the New York Evening Telegram and elsewhere from 1904-11, is one of the greatest achievements of the form. Each of the nearly 600 "episodes" -- as McCay's almost-animated strips are described by scholars -- of "Fiend" presents the surreal and fantastic adventures of some poor sap who foolishly ate Welsh Rarebit before going to bed. (One serving of Welsh Rarebit = approx. 1/4 pound rich cheese, thinned with ale, melted with mustard and cayenne, and served over toast.)  Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams" had been published a couple of years before "Fiend" started, and the notion that dreams aren't irrational flights of fancy -- that they are, in fact, at some level always a symbolic reflection of our waking lives -- was fertile territory for an imaginative and funny artist and writer like McCay. Better still, unlike "Little Nemo," McCay's famous cartoon dream-adventures for kiddies, "Fiend" was for adults -- the dreams were nightmares, each one creepier and kookier than the next.  Remember David Lynch's "Eraserhead," in which one bizarre thing after another happens to the protagonist? Read "The Complete 'Dream of the Rarebit Fiend' (1904-1913)," a colossal (oversized, hardcover, 464-page) tome written and edited by Ulrich Merkl, an independent art historian and comics scholar, and you'll soon realize that Lynch had nothing on McCay. Neither did other filmmakers, who -- Merkl demonstrates -- ripped off McCay's nightmare visions for such famous sequences as the dance of the pink elephants in "Dumbo," the giant hands grabbing a woman through a window in the 1933 "King Kong" (not to mention the climbing-to-the-top-of-a-skyscraper-to-catch-a-plane scene), and several sequences from Luis Bunuel's surrealist classic "L'Age d'Or." Phew! This is the rare kind of book that -- if given the proper place in your home, perhaps a plinth in the living room -- will sustain you for many months. For example, there is an entire section dedicated to teasing out signs, from "Fiend" episodes, of McCay's early work as a circus poster illustrator. (The first image in this post, from a 1908 episode in which a hunter dreams about hybrid animals, is one such example.) Another section demonstrates that McCay predicted the sinking of the Lusitania (the Lusitania sinks in a 1907 episode), hair transplants, cosmetic surgery, even breakdancing! Merkl's book is a self-published, gorgeously designed and printed labor of love; he handled the text and image research, the copyright research, the scanning and image restoration, not to mention the printing, advertising, and distribution. So... it's critical to note that "The Complete 'Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'" is not available from normal bookstores or online booksellers. Instead, visit the Rarebit Fiend Book website to get your hands on this magnificent achievement. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 11:32 AM
October 31, 2007
Children of Disaster CapitalismHere's a spooky Halloween movie for you, readers. When journalist Naomi Klein finished her new, bestselling book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," which argues that the machinery of the state and the requirements of "disaster capitalism" are now so tightly synchronized in their exploitation of disasters both man-made and natural that they have become virtually one in the same, she sent it to Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón. "I adore his films and felt that the future he created for 'Children of Men' was very close to the present I was seeing in disaster zones," she writes on her website. "I was hoping he would send me a quote for the book jacket and instead he pulled together this amazing team of artists -- including Jonás Cuarón, who directed and edited -- to make 'The Shock Doctrine' short film." Posted by Joshua Glenn at 10:11 AM
October 30, 2007
Red Sox victory paradeUniversal Hub, the only must-read blog about Boston, has just posted links to various sites where you can view fan photos of today's parade.  Also check out the Red Sox Nation photo pool on Flickr:  I must say, I like the photos of the fans better than the photos of the Sox (they're all wearing hoodies, caps, and sunglasses -- you can barely tell them apart). So I hope the Sox are uploading all those photos they were taking during the parade... Posted by Joshua Glenn at 06:56 PM
October 30, 2007
Mom in the freezer, redux A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Lee Siegel's NYTBR review of "The Almost Moon," Alice Sebold's new novel. As the blog GalleyCat pointed out, Siegel's review contained a factual error, one that might or might not make Siegel look pretty bad. Unlike other bloggers, who piled onto Siegel and the Times Book Review, I pointed out that he wasn't the only "Almost Moon" reviewer who thought that the protagonist had stuffed her mother's corpse into a meat freezer. To his credit, New York Magazine's Sam Anderson, one of the misguided reviewers on my list, responded a few days later with a mea culpa. But Anderson also defended Siegel: In Siegel's defense, he never actually claims that Helen puts her mom in the freezer. All he does is quote some dialogue ("What did you think putting her in the freezer would achieve?" "I don't know") and issue the following judgment: "You find yourself struggling simultaneously with the juvenile contrivance of Mom in the freezer, the icy cynicism of such a conceit and the utter unreality of the conversation." This is all indisputably true. Putting Mom in the freezer is a juvenile contrivance, whether it actually happens or is just a dark fantasy. Siegel's ambiguity only looks like a misreading when it's sandwiched between a deceptive headline and a garish illustration, both of which were probably out of Siegel's control. Like I said in my original post, I'd like to let Siegel off the hook. So I'll buy this. UPDATE: I shouldn't have suggested -- as I might seem to do, in this post -- that GalleyCat was one of the blogs that "piled on" Siegel. GalleyCat, in fact, deliberately refrained from making sock puppet jokes, unlike Brainiac. I was talking about the other litblogs out there... PS. Here's a less rambling version of "Mom's body is not in the freezer" that appeared in the Ideas section on October 21. POOR LEE SIEGEL! In August 2006, after the prolific literary critic was accused of replying pseudonymously to snarky reader comments posted to his blog at The New Republic, he was suspended from that magazine. Worse, in the blogosphere his name will forever be associated with "sock-puppeting," as doing what he did is known. Last week, Siegel became the butt of blogger ire once again, thanks to a careless error that appears in his New York Times Book Review critique of "The Almost Moon," the long-awaited new novel by Alice Sebold, author of the best-selling "The Lovely Bones." Siegel doesn't think much of "The Almost Moon," in which Helen, a woman who, no longer able to deal with her elderly mother's dementia, murders her, then drags the corpse to the basement meat freezer. Among the many things Siegel doesn't like about Sebold's book, as he put it in his review, is "the juvenile contrivance of Mom in the freezer." Fair enough. But there's just one problem. As several people who had already read "The Almost Moon" informed the publishing-industry blog GalleyCat: Helen considers cutting up her mother's corpse so it will fit into the freezer, but can't bring herself to do it. (A few reviews of the book -- in the Richmond Times Dispatch (Va.), for example, and the Times of London -- confirm this plot point.) Despite her crime, according to GalleyCat, the fact that Helen can't bring herself to dismember her mother demonstrates that she is not completely evil. So is Siegel guilty not of only blogging in haste, but of reading too quickly? If he did, he's in good company. I see that reviewers for New York magazine, The New Yorker, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications, were likewise under the impression that "The Almost Moon" features a corpse-in-the-freezer scene. Efforts to reach Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Times Book Review, were unsuccessful. Having a character stuff a corpse into a meat freezer may indeed be a juvenile contrivance on a novelist's part. But having a character not do so -- after getting the body to the basement -- might be, dare I say it? Quite brilliant. CLARIFICATION: A Brainiac item in the Oct. 21 Ideas section argued that Lee Siegel made a "careless error" in a New York Times book review of Alice Sebold's "The Almost Moon." The item noted that Siegel wrote of the "juvenile contrivance of a Mom in the freezer" when the plot does not have a mother being put into a freezer. The book, however, does contain a conversation about the possibility of putting mom in a freezer. Siegel's review discussed that conversation but did not say whether or not the mother's body was put in the freezer. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 01:44 PM
October 30, 2007
Rushkoff's algorithm"Like the participants of failed cultural eras before our own, we have embraced the new technologies and literacies of our age without actually learning how they work and work on us," claims writer and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, in a recent email. He continues: The 22-letter alphabet did not lead to a society of literate Israelite readers, but a society of hearers, who would gather to hear the Torah scroll read to them by a priest. The printing press and television set did not lead to a society of writers and producers, but one of readers and viewers, who were free to enjoy their own perspective on the creations of an elite with access to the new tools of production. And the computer has not led to a society of programmers, but one of bloggers -- free to write whatever we please, but utterly unaware of the underlying biases of the interfaces and windows that have been programmed for us. I'd dropped a line to Rushkoff to ask him to explain the following algorithm, titled "Social Control as a Function of Media," which he contributed recently to a special exhibition (on "Formulae for the 21st Century") at the Serpentine Gallery in the UK. (The question was asked by the same folks who brought us recent books in which bleeding-edge thinkers answer questions like, "What Is Your Dangerous Idea?")  What does this algorithm, which is the subject of his next book ("The Slope: Corporatism and the Myth of Self Interest"), have to do with bloggers like me, not to mention Rushkoff himself? He explains: Our controllers -- be they pharaohs, kings or corporations -- always remain one dimensional leap beyond us. When we learn to read, they gain monopoly over the presses. As we now gain access to Internet distribution of our text, they create the framework for such publication -- blogs, basically -- by monopolizing the programs, interface, and conduit. Worse, we tend to remain unaware of the new context shaping all our activity. And that's why no matter how much of a revolution Time magazine grants us by calling us "people of the year," we're still paying them for our access, and their sister corporations for our technologies. As Curly from "The Three Stooges" used to say, I resemble that remark! Posted by Joshua Glenn at 01:25 PM
October 30, 2007
The 9-to-5 artist There's a great show closing this coming Sunday at A.P.E.'s Gallery 2 in Northampton. Titled "Way, Shape, Form," the exhibit showcases recent works by Heather Kasunick, Michael Lewy, and Craig Lupien, all of whom are interested in exploring "ideas of how work habits both as artists and as 9-to-5 employees are manifested in what they produce in the studio." Check it out before it's too late! Jamaica Plain's Michael Lewy, about whom I've written for Ideas once or twice, holds down an administrative job at MIT. His workaday angst has been expressed via subversive PowerPoint charts, which have been collected in a book ("Chart Sensation") and also featured in the 2005 DeCordova Annual. Here's his video of the A.P.E. gallery exhibit.  Recently, Lewy has been subverting another kind of workplace software -- SketchUp, which architects and others use to create and share 3D models -- for an ambitious project, soon-to-be-fully realized online art project called "City of Work."  Alas, City of Work is a dystopian place. Although everything there is shiny and new, the gates to the city, emblazoned with the CITY OF WORK logo, remind one of the gates to Auschwitz, with their slogan, "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" (Work Brings Freedom). Not only that, but it's mandatory to have your Human Potential tested. Watch the video or the slideshow -- that's Lewy himself in the lead role. White-collar workers everywhere, visit the City of Work and reevaluate your lives!  Posted by Joshua Glenn at 01:04 PM
October 29, 2007
More Red Sox* Bumped into a friend of mine who lives on Newbury Street, this morning. He doesn't follow baseball, and went to bed at 9:30 last night. Says he woke up around midnight because he heard what he thought were explosions, followed by the terrifying sound of hundreds of people screaming. Naturally, he thought it was the apocalypse. Then... "Oh! Right, the Sox must have won the World Series." * Thinking outside the batter's box: Maybe Boston should stop using a DH. In Colorado, the Sox got a two-RBI single from Dice-K and a pinch-hit home run from a utility infielder. That's amazing. * One of the best pieces of baseball writing I've seen so far this season: Last Friday, ex-Ideas deputy editor John Swansburg (now an editor at Slate) related what it was like to watch the Sox beat the Rockies in Game 2, at Fenway. Excerpt: What was disappointing was that I'd been at Fenway the last time Schilling pitched for the Sox in a World Series Game 2, in 2004. The electric hum I experienced that October just wasn't quite there last night. In '04, at least as I remember it, I stood for pretty much the entire game, something I'd never done before at a sporting event, and haven't done since. Last night, the fans in my section stood up for a lot of the full counts or when runners were in scoring position, but I heard a fair number of "down in fronts" from people who were content to root from their seats. There were also long stretches of near silence. In the fourth inning, with a man on second and two outs, the guy sitting in front of me fielded a call from, and had a leisurely chat with, a buddy watching the BC football game at home. The percussion section in the Red Sox bullpen was easily audible throughout the game, even from my far-off seats. And my kid sister and I had a serious discussion about which event elicited a louder roar from the crowd: Mike Lowell's fifth-inning double, which scored the game's winning run, or Jacoby Ellsbury's uncontested stolen base in the fourth, which won America a free taco from Taco Bell. Move over, John Updike and Stephen King! * These two baseball blogs, also written by friends of mine, are must-reads this morning: Surviving Grady (I went to high school with Red), and Seth Mnookin's Feeding the Monster (Seth, author of the Sox book "Feeding the Monster," is a friend of a friend, really). * Finally, I urge you to watch these Sox videos shot and produced by another friend, Boston.com senior multimedia producer Scott LaPierre, with other Globe and Boston.com colleagues: What do Bostonians know about the Colorado Rockies? Posted by Joshua Glenn at 11:53 AM
October 29, 2007
This one's for Kate...my sister-in-law, who works at Houghton Mifflin and calls Mike Lowell "Boyfriend." (She's got my kids calling him "Boyfriend," too, which I frankly find a little disconcerting.)  That's Boyfriend, the World Series MVP, celebrating with teammates after scoring in the fifth inning, last night. Got any baseball questions, Houghton staffers? Drop by Kate's desk -- she's got answers. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 11:11 AM
October 28, 2007
The iconography of Boing BoingWith over 7.5 million page views a month, not to mention over 3 million RSS subscribers, Boing Boing is one of the most popular and influential blogs in the world. Its formula is simple: Co-editors Cory Doctorow, Mark Frauenfelder, Xeni Jardin, and David Pescovitz are enthusiastic about high technology, lowbrow culture, and everything in between. A Boing Boing item on a particularly outré graphic artist might be followed by instructions on how to make your own steampunk computer keyboard, followed by a clip of an obscure science-fiction movie.  Earlier this month saw the launch of Boing Boing TV, a five-day a week online program consisting of a video report three to five minutes long, hosted by one of the editors. "Boing Boing fans can expect the same curious and irreverent exploration of the world they find on the blog, but now through video," Jardin said in a press release. "Internet culture, DIY technology, geeky curiosities -- they're all in the mix." They sure are: At the beginning of each episode, some three dozen 8-bit images flash past, forming a kind of subliminal iconography.    At my request, Mark Frauenfelder decoded a few of these images. Click here to hear him do so in an audio slideshow that I produced for today's Ideas section. MORE BOING BOING ON BRAINIAC: item on Mark Frauenfelder's "Rule the Web" | Frauenfelder digs Cape Cod trash car | I go to Maker Fair SF07 | Posted by Joshua Glenn at 05:10 PM
October 26, 2007
Taking Things Seriously -- the NY party New York readers of Brainiac, I hope you will attend a party to celebrate the publication of "Taking Things Seriously," a book of photos and essays about "ordinary objects with extraordinary significance" that I co-edited with Brooklyn-based designer Carol Hayes. WHEN: Friday, November 2, from 8 p.m. to midnight. PS: I've been trying to not to self-promote too much via Brainiac. But I just have to share these recent reviews of "Taking Things Seriously." * On October 17, the Boston Globe reviewed the book. Excerpt: As the old sayings go, art is in the eye of the beholder and one person's junk is another person's treasure. "Taking Things Seriously" is a fun, off-center collection of objects and stories that will have you looking at the objects around you with fresh eyes and strange questions, like "Would Christopher Walken autograph my burned bagel?" or "Is it a good thing to get military ordnance for your birthday?" Reviewer Chuck Leddy's use of the words "offbeat," "bizarre," "quirkiness," "bizarre" (again), and "off-center" indicates that he wouldn't want most of the contributors' objects in his own home. But he still praises the book! So: Many thanks, indeed. * "Taking Things Seriously" made "The Must List" in the October 26 issue of Entertainment Weekly, where it rubs elbows with the likes of "The Abstinence Teacher," "Survivor: China," "Desperate Housewives" newbie Dana Delany, and the David Lee Roth/Van Halen reunion. Excerpt: "Proving one man's trash is another's treasure, this collection of photos and essays shows how the unlikeliest things can provide inspiration." Click here to view the EW page. Then use the arrow key to scroll down to no. 9. * Wow, Entertainment Weekly and Inside Higher Ed, two of my favorite periodicals, in the same week? It's too much. On October 24, IHE's "Intellectual Affairs" columnist Scott McLemee published a Q&A with yours truly about "Taking Things Seriously." Excerpt: Q: My left shoe and the coffee table it is beneath are both undoubtedly objects, but neither has much of an aura of meaning or mystery. I value them. They are useful. Their absence would get my attention. But it probably wouldn't be possible to write an essay about either one that would belong in your gallery. So what’s the difference between any old object and "things," in your book? A: I, too, value my left shoe and my coffee table! But I haven't invested them with mental or emotional energy, with complex ideas or strong feelings. Contrariwise, these particular possessions of mine aren't "notional," in the Victorian sense of the term: they don't demand my attention, they don't fascinate me. It might be tempting to argue that such commonplace items a priori cannot be "objects with unexpected significance," to quote the book's subtitle. But to do so would be a mistake. (After all, Heidegger found Van Gogh's shoes endlessly evocative; and one of the significant objects in Taking Things Seriously is a coffee table of sorts rescued by Ingrid Schorr from a dead neighbor's apartment.) My interest in someone's extraordinary object -- a grandfather's bayonet, a beloved pet's cremains, a GI Joe whose kung-fu grip still works -- is merely polite. What I find so charming about other people's totems, fetishes, fossils, and talismans is precisely this: Somehow, a perfectly ordinary object has taken on extraordinary significance. How? Why? I never get tired of hearing the answer. PS: If you want to see me get raked over the coals by IHE readers who seem to know a lot more than I do about material culture studies and philosophy, read the comments appended to the IHE interview. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 10:22 AM
October 23, 2007
Dumbledore PrideYou've undoubtedly already heard the news -- on Friday, October 19, "Hary Potter" author J.K. Rowling outed Albus Dumbledore, the kindly and wise headmaster of Hogwarts. Potter readers had speculated about Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past... but now it is official. Dumbledore is gay. Or is he? Columbia Law professor Michael Dorf uses this bombshell to explain "originalism" in Constitutional interpretation. His essay, "Harry Potter and the Framer's Intent" asks: Does J.K. Rowling's intent to make Dumbledore a gay character without ever mentioning it in the text in fact mean that the character is, in fact, gay? An Originalist, like Justices Scalia and Thomas, who believe that the Constitution should mean what its writers intended it to mean, would say yes. Not an Originalist? Then you can go ahead and argue -- as Salon's Rebecca Traister seems to do, when she writes, "In [Rowling's] desire to control and describe [the Potter universe], she's turning a modern assumption about what authorship means inside out" -- that no one, not even the author herself, can insert new meaning into an old text. I'll stay out of this complicated philosophical argument. While we wait for it to be decided, here's another stumper for you: How should originalist "Harry Potter" fans cope with this news? My answer: Celebrate, of course... by sporting an awesome t-shirt!  Available at DumbledorePride.com. UPDATE: Bush Seeks to Ban Marriage Between Fictitious Gay Characters. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 09:35 AM
October 23, 2007
Also, don't bring this pumpkin...to Boston's City Hall.  Sent in by reader Mike S., who writes: "You should get your army of loyal Brainiac readers to flood the streets with these, all that's required is a Phillips-head screwdriver!" Posted by Joshua Glenn at 08:52 AM
October 23, 2007
Do not bring this pumpkin light...to Logan Airport.  I noticed it on the website of Make magazine a couple of days ago. (We Bostonians sit up and take notice whenever a circuit board, LEDs, and a 9-volt battery are anywhere near one another.) The device's maker, "smariotti," explains: Pumpkin Light uses two high-output 5mm white LEDs, a nine volt battery, a ATtiny13v and a handful of parts to create a flasher that you can put inside a pumpkin or other light-up decoration. Or you can create a hoax device! Posted by Joshua Glenn at 08:34 AM
October 23, 2007
Holy MP3! It's Bat-Tunes. The inspired cartoonist and cultural archaeologist Craig Yoe announced today that he will post "one of a skadillion versions of the Batman Theme" to his blog, Arflovers, every Tuesday from now on. Click here for the over-the-top first installment, by Davie Allen and the Arrows. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 08:24 AM
|
