Group items tagged

Fascinating article from frequent Chronicle tech blogger on why some academic scholars continue to use the typewriter. The primary answer - nostalgia - is both a mood (in the sense of a feeling one has in relation to history and technology), a political statement (opposed to forward modernization), and - perhaps - deeply related to the "literary" or writing (notalgia as why one writes).

Paul Conneally describes the future of humanitarianism in a hyper-connected world. The idea of re-typing and transforming texts to tweets to websites and digital maps in disaster situations etc. seems like an act of uncreative writing--something that is, in a way, re-presenting information while at the same time creating a profound new piece of writing.

An interesting article about an author who was recently caught up in a plagiarism scandal that dated back over (nearly) his whole writing career. The article deals with intentionality and references/interviews Jonathan Lethem who we discussed in class (and I think Sandy bookmarked).

Here is a live recording of Vanessa Place reading at the Kelly Writers House in March 2011. Vanessa Place was of course cited frequently in Kenny Goldsmith's Uncreative Writing. I think listening/watching the live reading really aids in the comprehension of his discussion of her work.

This is an article that discusses the views of professional historians regarding wikipedia. I think it makes a number of interesting claims both regarding the management or historical data and wikipedia's role in promoting a particular historical paradigm.

Dennis Allen posted this item in the blog "The Tenants of Colson Hall" a few weeks ago. Originally, the seller was auctioning this item for $399.95 and then for $599.95 and finally for $999.95. No one bought the item, but I think it would make for an interesting discussion related to Kenny Goldsmith's Uncreative Writing. I'm wondering if the intent was serious (similar to the retyping of On the Road) or if it was meant to be comical? Either way, it would make for an interesting discussion on the materiality of language.

Highly influential article about the essentially plagiaristic nature of all culture production, an article that itself is composed entirely of "borrowed texts." An excellent short and direct argument for uncreative writing.

This blogger makes some really great points extending Joseph Reagle's ('The Argument Engine' in Wikipedia Reader) ideas of the filter than publish principle of academic publications. Haranguing the filter than publish operation, this author writes how the peer review system adulterates the author's real content writing, "In the conventional peer review system, you seek to please the reviewers who in turn try to please the editor who in turn is trying to guess what the readers want."

Interesting yet slightly morbid. Does immortalizing the dead on a social media platform that by definition requires interaction among the living to fulfill its purpose reveal yet another narcissistic impulse? For whom are we writing? Obviously not the dead (unless you can make some sort of argument that they check their feeds from the afterlife). For ourselves? If that were the case, we could just as easily sit at home and mourn a photograph. It seems more like this type of mourning is much more performative and public than that...

Fascinating recent plagiarism case from the New Yorker. Spy novel written by author who was "undercover" in the sense that he was secretly writing everything with passages lifted from other novels. 

A few rhetorical strategies.

A little late in the game, but the wording here is really interesting because the censorship of bloggers by the Chinese government includes works with imagined information. In addition, they specifically cut off the comments option. We have a direct moment here where the 2.0 and call and response of online writing is considered poisonous to government action, even if the work is a fictional piece. The most important thing to note here is that China is now requiring all microbloggers to use their real names. We talked about how useful a tracked name can be, but in this case practicality loses over privacy.

New project called Wikidata aims to automate some aspects of Wikipedia.

Jessica Murphy writes: "Eolas's "interactive web" patent being ruled as invalid and Berners-Lee jumping for joy about the ruling."

Last post I'll provide about Rowan, but The Fix was referenced a great deal in the New Yorker article.

Another article, this one from Salon, that talks about Quentin Rowan (the subject of the New Yorker article).

Just have your computer change one word, and look at all the beautiful chaos it creates...

Blod devoted to videogame "archaeology" as Bogost would call it. The site actually suggests reading his book too.

Netflix CEO gives a brief rant about the Comcast data limit and how it applies (or not) depending on which app you use for your content.

An article about Inbound Writer, software that helps writers revise their content to maximize search engine optimization. The author's conclusion: "Just like the Internet it is served across, InboundWriter is just an information source, and it can be used for good or evil."