Warren Ellis's Blog, page 93
October 9, 2011
Drawing on the rapidly developing alliances between cogni...
Drawing on the rapidly developing alliances between cognitive psychology and aesthetics, in the work of Jean-Marie Schaeffer, for example, she presents reading as an activity where, as we go back and forth between the text and our everyday surroundings, we can view the world through the borrowed lens of the book, and also, if we wish, reshape our lives in harmony with the writer's vision as imparted through his style.
Note: a life irradiated by fiction:
Textures
in the Literary Criticism section of The Times Literary Supplement
by MICHAEL SHERINGHAM
Shared on October 9th, 2011 from Kindle
October 7, 2011
October 6, 2011
DC Comics' Relaunch
So DC Comic's media-blitzed massive relaunch of its entire line in September got them this:
A half-point lead in dollar share over Marvel Comics (who had one high-profile launch in the September frame).
A five-point lead in units sold over Marvel Comics.
But all those units DC sold are returnable.
Thank god all those DC execs told everyone they weren't interested in market share. Otherwise someone might have come away with the notion that DC really intended to give Marvel a fight in the marketplace and make Marvel sort their own shit out. What a stroke of luck for everybody.
Bookmarks for 2011-10-06
"The city of Paris has a deputy mayor of the night. It is hard to think of a bureaucratic job title with more global cool cachet, even if large parts of the job involve overseeing sanitation, street repairs and other decidedly unromantic and underappreciated nighttime activities which make cities functional places to exist."
(tags:pol cities )
Iranians Bristle as Banking Scandal Widens – IPS ipsnews.net
"A banking scandal, identified by Iranian authorities as the "largest embezzlement in the country's banking history", has further shaken confidence in the government whose legitimacy was already under question after the contested results of the 2009 presidential election."
(tags:money pol crime )
Decline Watch: Malnourished muppet to appear on Sesame Street | FP Passport
"A new poverty-stricken Muppet will highlight the issue of hunger struggles on an episode of "Sesame Street", the show said in a statement on Tuesday. Pink-faced Muppet Lily, whose family deals with food insecurity, will join Big Bird, Elmo and other favorites on a one-hour prime-time special featuring country star Brad Paisley and his wife Kimberly Williams Paisley called "Growing Hope Against Hunger," to air Oct 9."
(tags:media pol dooooom )
Did a comet hit cause an explosion on the sun?
(tags:space )
October 5, 2011
Social Book Reading
In an otherwise interesting and incisive piece by James Bridle, I find this:
Added to the velocity of the new text is its sociability, its connectivity. Social reading, whether of the Kindle highlights, Kobo Dashboard, Instapaper, Findings or Readmill flavour, adds depth to the text without diminishing it. When I write about the reading experience, I'm talking about a deep engagement with text, an active, intelligent, two-way conversation between reader and writer
James, have you never read a comments thread in your life? I'm sure you didn't mean this to sound like the entitlement of the fan reader to tell the author exactly what the reader thinks of them, and to have the author respond on bended knee. But do you really think that a writer is going to open the commenting function on an ebook and find something other than LOLWUT U CUNT?
This sounds like you believe your money buys you an exchange with the author. I'm sure you didn't mean it to sound like that.
(Some things are going to remain one-way broadcasts for a little while yet. Books are one of them. The alternative is crowdsourced literature, echo-chamber writing and the transcription of a focus group session. And if you want that? Television already exists.)
Bookmarks for 2011-10-04
(tags:comp )
Twitter / @justinpickard: With FB, we might yet be a …
"Weaponized social stenography?"
(tags:web mad future neologism )
October 4, 2011
Newspapers For Cities
Idle thought:
Surely (niche) newspapers for cities, or big gatherings that want to accrete more people, would have modular content, and would easily tear down into handbills? Content on one side, slogan/image/information on the other. Each module having its own discrete web address (shortcode) printed under the article. And a bit of the last page would tear down and then fold into notepaper.
/random
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