Reading about the reading life: May 12, 2024 edition

 

Welcome to another edition of "Reading about the reading life" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is where I collect stories about reading and the reading life. Basically, these are items related to reading, maybe writing and literacy, that I find interesting and think my four readers might find interesting as well with a little commentary. As with other features I do on this blog, I do it when I have time or feel like it. Comments are always welcome (within reason).

• Starting this month with a story in the bad economy. Constance Grady writing for Vox reports on the trash e-books on Amazon. It is perfect storm of problems featuring A.I. generated books, get rich quick scams, and Amazon not giving a shit since they can make money on it from their marks (oops, customers). As the article describes it, it is "a vast, hidden ecosystem centered on the production and distribution of very cheap, low-quality ebooks about increasingly esoteric subjects. Many of them gleefully share misinformation or repackage basic facts from WikiHow behind a title that’s been search-engine-optimized to hell and back again." This kind of development is not exactly helpful to the self-publishing cause by the way.
  
•  At Lit Hub, Maris Kreizman argues that publishers need to focus more on quality of the books they publish rather than the quantity. As a reader, like others out there I am sure, I have more than enough choices for what to read next. Finding the quality stuff is difficult enough without adding things like scam books written by A.I. (see story above) or just books that are not that good because some marketing guru who probably does not read figured a topic might stick, except the book will end up remaindered. Personally, I put a lot of effort on the sources I follow and read to decide what books I am going to read, plus as a librarian I do have access to various professional vetting options. Not everyone can say that, but I will say if you are a reader and need a bit of help figuring out what to read next you can always visit your local library, especially public libraries that tend to have librarians specializing in reader's advisory. On a small disclosure note, I do specialize in reader's advisory, but I don't get to use those skills as often in the academic setting, but that is another story. 
• Ariel Dorfman, writing for Lit Hub, wrote this interesting piece on "What Latin American Literature Can Teach The Current Leaders of Latin America." Dorfman offers some regional recommendations, a bit of reader's advisory, for Latin American autocrats and hombres fuertes. A few of these books would make good selections for any reader to expand their reading repertoire and learn a bit more about Latin America in the process. One of the bonuses of being educated as a youth in Puerto Rico is that I had to read a good number of Latin American authors, including some listed in the article. As an English major later on, studying literature, I did manage to sneak in a few Latin American selections into my electives when I could. Hey, it was literature, even if I had to read some in translation, but I digress. Some of the authors mentioned in the article I have read are Roque Dalton and Mario Vargas Llosa. I need to pick up the pace and read some more. 
• Nicolás Medina Mora, writing for Lit Hub, explores "Why are so many Mexican novels set in cantinas?" I admit this is not something I thought about until now, so it was worth reading. 
• Keith Roysdon, writing for CrimeReads, looks at "The Heyday of Pulp Fiction." This is a brief but nice overview of the genre from the 20s to the 50s or so. The emphasis is on some lesser known pulp fiction works. After all, even today many folks know characters such as The Shadow and Doc Strange, but there are many other characters to discover. 
• Public Domain Review looks at false translations and literary rip offs in "Pseudo-Boccaccio, Yiddish Pulp Fiction, and the Man Who Ripped Off Joyce." I found it interesting just for the fake Boccaccio stuff, but stay for the rest of the tale. 
• In Spanish, Lecturalia has a small article on the advantages and disadvantages of buying second hand books. In my case, I am more than happy to buy books second hand books. I am also happy to buy cartomancy decks used.
   

Can Amazon really shoot itself in the foot?

I had read this idea before, that Amazon, by killing off its competition, would harm itself by destroying the discovery engines that help it somewhat. Here is an article at Salon talking about just that. Still, it does make an interesting point. From the article, 

 "According to survey research by the Codex Group, roughly 60 percent of book sales — print and digital — now occur online. But buyers first discover their books online only about 17 percent of the time. Internet booksellers specifically, including Amazon, account for just 6 percent of discoveries. Where do readers learn about the titles they end up adding to the cart on Amazon? In many cases, at bookstores." 

So, in an ironic twist, I guess, the (somewhat encouraged by Amazon) practice of "showrooming" does help them, so if it kills the "show rooms..." well, you get the idea. Not that I have a very nice opinion of people who "show room," especially if they then whine "my local bookstore is closing." Now you can get all high and mighty about saving money, how one should go with the cheaper option (a declaration certainly open to debate), convenience, etc. However, if you do that, you can't complain then when the local bookstores close down. You caused that plain and simple by "showrooming" instead of supporting your local economy in favor on a commercial behemoth that engages in various unethical and unfair business practices. Always fascinates me how Americans, who by and large give lip service to things like "a level playing field" and "fair and equal opportunities" are more than happy to simply go along with el cheapo no matter the damage. 

By the way, you know another place where you can discover good books to read? Your local library, especially public libraries. What will you find there? Glad you asked:

• Books in print and very often also electronic. Now, we can grant that e-book access can vary widely from public library to public library. We can also acknowledge that publishers hate libraries lending e-books and pretty much obstruct the practice as much as possible. However, that aside, odds are good your library has offerings that you can read on your e-book reader or tablet computer. Check them out. I can speak from personal experience that I have tried out some of the e-books my local public library offers (via Overdrive in our case, which they get as part of a state consortial deal), and I have been pleasantly satisfied. 
• Readers' advisory. You need some suggestions and ideas on what to read next? Would you like to talk to someone who reads, knows books, and can make recommendations based on what you like to read or would like to discover? Public librarians (and some academic ones like me) are trained in doing just that. We call it readers' advisory. So, you've read 50 Shades of Grey, and you want more books like it (or better than that book)? Ask your local librarian to give you some recommendations. You zipped through Game of Thrones and now need your next fantasy fix? Your local librarian can probably recommend a thing or two. Readers' advisors make it their business to know about good books so they can make helpful suggestions. Go ahead and give them a try. 
• Libraries often take advantage of social media when it comes to recommending books. From using Facebook and Twitter to having a presence in places like GoodReads, libraries draw on these powerful tools to help you discover your next read. Also, many librarians use social media as individuals, often doing readers' advisory online as well. In addition, many fine librarians out there keep blogs where they review books and give suggestions. Give them a try as well. 
• One more thing. Libraries are community spaces. Odds are good  you may meet other people there who are readers just like you. The surveys do say that a lot of people, if not most, get their reading recommendations from acquaintances, friends, so on. Library is a good place to meet some of those friends. 
• Let us be honest. At the end of the day, a librarian well versed in readers' advisory can give you better recommendations and advice than any algorithm that Amazon tries to come up with. 

In the end, if they shoot themselves in the foot, it may be a flesh wound at best. I don't think Amazon is going to die because every bookstore closes. Granted, such a scenario would be a seriously gruesome future. But if that were to happen, discovery would certainly suffer to a degree. Only thing I would hope for is that Amazon does not really decide to come after libraries as well. 

Reading about the reading life, June 19, 2013

I realized I have not done one of these link posts in a while, yet I have been reading and putting aside items that I think my four readers might find of interest. I often don't read them right away, but I do enjoy reading them when I finally do. It's one of the nice things of using an RSS feed reader. So, here are the things about reading and the reading life I am highlighting this week. I really liked the one about Borges and Bradbury as they are both favorite authors of mine.

• About publishing in literary journals: http://www.writingforward.com/getting-published/how-to-get-published/getting-published-in-literary-magazines-and-journals.This is a post with tips and advice on how to get published in literary magazines and journals. I think aspiring writers out there might find it useful. I think some graduate students in writing programs might find it useful as well. Back when I was in graduate school, during my other life, I was encouraged to write for submission, so this would have been useful to me back then.
• Borges and Bradbury: http://bigthink.com/book-think/bradbury-borges-and-the-future-of-media. Like the author of the post, I had no idea that Borges was a fan of Bradbury and his The Martian Chronicles. By the way, so am I. Bradbury's series of stories about the conquest of Mars is one of my favorites. What is interesting here is how both authors looked to the future, and what they saw is very relevant today.
• Menswear and books: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/01/02/the-book-club/.This is an interesting article discussing how books are often accessories in men's clothing stores and other "manly" retail venues. Keep in mind the books are kept in such places often for looks; they are rarely read, which I do find kind of sad.
• A Hong Kong Bookstore specializing in banned books: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/world/asia/exposes-of-chinas-elite-a-big-lure-in-hong-kong.html?from=arts. I found this at Papeles Perdidos here.A bit from the article, which is out of The New York Times, "The People’s Recreation Community bookstore and several others on Hong Kong’s teeming shopping streets specialize in selling books and magazines banned by the Chinese government, mostly for their luridly damning accounts of party leaders, past and present. And at a time when many Chinese citizens smolder with distrust of their leaders, business is thriving."

Reading about the reading life, July 13, 2012

A few items of interest on reading and the reading life for this. I do clip a few of these, but I don't always get to read them right away. Maybe I need to work on that, and maybe I could make this kind of post a more regular feature of the blog. Anyhow, here are this week's items.

• Via NPR, on the topic of who might inherit your books, but what if they are e-books? It is an interesting question to me. While I have a small personal library, it is by no means valuable. It is the library of a reader, not a collector. I think I will be lucky if my kid keeps some and the rest get donated to some library that may want them. However, at least the books have the potential to be passed on and read by someone else when my demise comes. E-books don't really stand a chance in that regard. Between the obsolescence by design of e-readers, passwords (what if your heirs did not get your password), format changes, so on, odds are good your heirs are not getting your e-books any time soon. If you can learn about a person by the books he reads, you won't be learning a whole lot if you can't get into grandma's Kindle she may have left you, or, if you do get in, you may find out granny was one of those hidden romance/erotica readers (the kind who would not be caught dead with a print romance or erotica book but kept plenty of them on the e-reader). 
• Greg Zimmerman, at Book Riot, asks what is a "summer read"? Personally, I never really understand the whole fuss over "summer reads." Maybe it is because I read throughout the year, so summer is no different than any other time of the year when it comes to reading. Also, I tend to read "serious" books as well as "light" reading any time of the year, so the distinction just does not work for me. Anyhow, feel free to read the piece and see where you stand. 
• Via The Atlantic, to think there was a time when large stretches of the U.S. did not have a single bookstore. The article mentions that in 1931, there were 500 or so legitimate bookstores in the U.S. In contrast, today bookstores are facing extinction thanks to e-readers and other changes. The article also mentions a book by historian Kenneth C. Davis that I may want to add to my TBR list. The book is Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America. The book was published in 1984, so it is not terribly new, but The Atlantic author writes that "many of the changes that social media and the Internet are supposed to have wrought on culture are ascribed to the rise of the paperback."

Books I would want NOT taught in school: a small reflection

The headline of the article from Salon says "Reader Responses: Books You Want Banned." It makes it sound like they want the books permanently banned. In reality, it is an article about people expressing which they do not want to see taught in schools. This may be for reasons ranging from the ever infamous dissection that teachers shove down students throats to the fact that, well, the books just plain suck. In some cases, the tragedy is the book might have been appreciated by some kids down the road had they not had it rammed up their keisters by the schools.

Anyhow, in the interest of having some fun, these are the books I would certainly leave out of schools if I had my way. They would be optional readings because I believe to instill love of reading that dissection and the ever popular "let's all read the same book, at the same time, at the same pace, and heaven help you if you read ahead past the rest rest of the class" approaches are not the ways to do it.

On a disclosure note, if my four readers do not know this by now, I was a public school teacher many moons ago, and yes, I was forced to do the dissection, which led not only to a good number of my kids hating certain books. It also led to me hating books and authors to the point I will never read them again. So, I give a big "eff you" to those "curriculum specialists" who forced to get real creative and work around them to minimize the damage.

So, my (partial) list:

• Anything by Dickens, but specially Great Expectations.
• From now on, as far as I am concerned, you may NOT introduce Shakespeare with Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare has a lot of better plays, some actually pretty funny. Use one of those instead if you absolutely have to teach Shakespeare. And for the love of all that is holy, you better be willing and able to teach any and all ribald and bawdy references. Teaching Shakespeare, or Chaucer, or others without going into the puns, innuendos, etc. is like trying to swim with your hands and ankles tied behind your back. If you have to be squeamish, because heaven forbid the kiddies hear about titties or farts, you probably should not be teaching it then. Anyhow, the kids have already heard about the tits and farts anyhow.
• The Spanish equivalent of the above is Cervantes. If you think Shakespeare's English is difficult (and it can be without some proper training), give Baroque Spanish a try. Cervantes does have various shorter works that may be more accessible. If you must, put Cervantes on a list with similar authors of his time. Don Quixote is good, but it is one hell of a reading odyssey to your average teen.
• Lord of the Flies. Overdone at this point. 
• The Scarlet Letter.
• Moby Dick. If you have to do Melville in school, his short fiction is both more accessible and a bit easier to discuss.
• Jane Eyre, Portrait of a Lady, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and similar.
• Anything by James Joyce. Making any school student read this is just sadistic torture pure and simple. 
• The Catcher in the Rye. This overrated tripe needs to go from any school. Heck, as far as I am concerned, this outdated teen experience book just needs to go. There is a reason the author pretty much went into seclusion after.

The article quotes a teacher who argues that if you are going to teach some of these books,  you need to do so with context: history, politics, social sciences, and in some cases, yes, this would include sexual information. To teach 1984, to pick an example, it does help to have some of the Cold War history in place, not to mention hooking up with current politics.  Having said that, some of those books taught in schools are just bad; you teachers and administrators are not doing kids any favors by forcing the same texts year after year.

If I had my way, there would still be some curriculum. Let us be honest here. The idealists who claim we can just let kids pick whatever they want fail to take into account human nature. If you let kids literally pick anything, all they would read is Dr. Seuss (no offense) and Curious George because they are easy. So, as teachers and librarians, we can and should set some parameters. Maybe a list, be it thematic, by authors, so on, and let students pick. For instance:

• Say, you have to read some Shakespeare: here are some choices for your grade level. 
• You have to read a dystopian novel? Pick from these, and the list does include contemporary as well classics. So both Brave New World and Hunger Games could get in, along with other things. How about V for Vendetta?
• You have to read something that also deals with American history: so you can have various American classics, but also why not something like Watchmen, which if you look closely, does have quite a bit to say about 20th century United States? Notice I said about American history, not necessarily written by an American. Actually, such an idea could open other ideas such as how foreigners see the U.S. in literature for example. 
• If you read the Bible in school, probably for some world literature class (I am assuming public school here. Parochial schools have "their way" of teaching the Bible), you have to read other religious texts as well and have contextual lessons to go with it. Again, this opens up history, politics, and other important subjects. 
• More World Literature. Read something like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, but make sure you provide a good history of colonialism and post-colonialism for context. In fact, a book like this can help you understand, with proper context, things such as why India and Pakistan pretty much hate each other. Read one of the dictator novels from Latin America, say El Señor Presidente by Miguel Ángel Asturias. With proper historical lessons, you can come to understand not only Latin American history but also U.S.-Latin American relations. Again, provide a list and go from there.

The point is there are many ways to promote reading while getting a good education without having to do the usual sleep inducing, fairly irrelevant, so-called classics that kids will grow to hate. Then again, some of my suggestions would actually take some work and planning, and in the era of teaching to the test and doing just the bare minimum, not likely to happen.

I can probably add a few more to my list, but the above were ones that came to me right away. So, what would you add to your list of books that should not be taught in schools? Maybe you want to defend something you read in school that most other people hate? As always, the comments are open.

Reading about the reading life, June 15, 2011

Here are the items about the reading life for this week that I have found interesting. I hope maybe my four readers will find some of them interesting as well. I will note that I am featuring some items in Spanish this week. In the end, it's all good.

•  Book Riot reviews the site Underground New York Public Library. The site in question is a Tumblr blog that looks at what people read on their commute. How often do you find yourself trying to find out what is that one book that guy is reading sitting across from you in a subway, bus, etc.? I know I have done it. I will be adding it to my own Tumblr blog to follow. 
• Via the Arabic Literature (in English) blog, here is a piece on book censorship in Kuwait. In a curious way, this is kind of like a "day in the life" kind of writing where you get to see a bit of how the book censor actually thinks. I think it is worth a look. I also feel that some of that censor's attitudes are alive and well in the U.S., even if we do not have "official" censors (on the other hand, we have plenty of unofficial ones).
• From the PBS Newshour, a Q&A conversation with Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. The writer speaks on the importance of literature. Video and transcript are available. I always enjoy listening to writers speak about their craft. Vargas Llosa is certainly one of the authors I wish I could meet during a dinner, or at least over coffee. My reading experience of Vargas Llosa has been mixed; I have enjoyed some of Vargas Llosa's works such as Pantaleón y las visitadoras and La fiesta del chivo. But I just could not get into such as La ciudad y los perros and Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto. By the way, while I do read his works in Spanish, the works I have mentioned are available in English translation. As my mother once told me, even great writers get a miss once in a while. However, he does remain a writer I am willing to read and explore. A hat tip to the Literary Saloon.

And finally, some items from the Papeles Perdidos blog, out of El Pais (Spain) newspaper: 

• "Leer es viajar." (To read is to travel). From the Madrid Book Fair, some annotated suggestions of books to read from various parts of the world.
• Here is part two of the journey in "Viaje a Latinoamerica."
• And a bookseller from Madrid speaks on the future of bookstores and answers questions from readers in "Lopez-Vega: 'Hay futuro, pero con un librero nuevo.'" ("We have a future, but with a new kind of bookseller").

Reading about the reading life, April 27. 2012

A few more items on reading and the reading life I have read recently, or that I have pondered about recently.

• Via Berfrois, a post on travel writing, tourism, and how traveling usually means often seeing one part of the place.  What the tourists often get is a performance, a show, an illusion of the tourist attraction. Things like the poor of a nation overseas are rarely if ever seen. They are also missing from travel narratives. This is a nice little reflective piece. 
• Via The New York Times, it turns out that India is "one of the best English-language book markets in the world." Publishers large and small are heading there, in part hoping for new markets and income given the chaos e-books is causing them in their home nations. This also means more literary agencies are sprouting and thriving. Another reason: demographic changes, rising literacy and the increase of Indians speaking English, the lingua franca of economic growth." 
• It seems that taking a trip from mainland China into Hong Kong to buy books censored by the Chinese government is a big business in Hong Kong. An article entitled "Beating China's Book Bans in Hong Kong" was published by the Asia Sentinel. I find interesting the ways people find workarounds and how they adapt in order to get the reading that they want. You can censor all you want. People will get it somehow. 
• A nice gallery of book sculptures. Basically, the artist takes old books, that likely would have been pulped or ended up in a landfill, and makes beautiful sculptures with it. Find the gallery here at The Telegraph (UK). A statement from the artist can be found here.  A hat tip to 3 Quarks Daily over here.
• Via the blog Papeles Perdidos, a discussion of the apparent curse of Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest (Spanish language article). The curse is that the novel, unlike others by the same author, has not been made into a movie. It discusses reasons and goes over some of the noir genre. Article comes in context of a new Spanish language translation of the complete works featuring the Continental Op by Hammett. 
• Via The Christian Science Monitor, a defense on why we do need indie bookstores.  A bit from the article: "What makes excellent booksellers excellent is that they read a ton, they are surrounded by and have at their disposal people who do the same, and that they are skilled at the practice of giving recommendations.  Make no mistake, giving recommendations is a skill. Just ask any master sommelier (or customer who has had the misfortune of interacting with a lousy bookseller).  You have to listen to what a customer says about their tastes, interests, and desires and discern from that what it is they’re looking for, what will most satisfy them right now.  It is a delicate process of matchmaking." Gee, that sounds just like Reader's Advisory, a skill your local librarian has, and you can certainly use when you visit your local public library. I am not saying to abandon your indie bookstores; far from it, I love indie bookstores, and we need more good ones in Tyler, Texas. But hey, you certainly should take a trip to your local library too, especially if your budget is a little tight.

Booknote: The New Bedside Playboy

I found this book to be an interesting and curious item to pick up and read. I guess at one point, when people said, "I read it for the articles," they did read it for the articles. As I say in my review, do not let the fact it is a Playboy book turn you away. There is some good writing here. I will say as a final comment that I have read the magazine here and there, but not in any regular fashion. You do get the feeling that it was a lot more in its heyday, and yet, it keeps rolling along.

Here is the review then as I posted it to my GoodReads profile:


The New Bedside Playboy by Hugh Hefner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Though I labeled this book for my "erotica and sensual" bookshelf, do not let that dissuade you from reading it if erotica and sexuality materials are not your cup of tea. There is very little actual erotic content in this anthology. The book focuses more on 50 years of literary content in Playboy magazine. Yes, people could indeed really be reading it for the articles. The anthology features a pretty broad selection of commentary, opinion pieces, essays, some celebrity interviews, pieces of short fiction, plus some of the features many do expect from the magazine such as a sampling on pin-ups and cartoons and "Playboy jokes."

I think you can read this anthology in a few ways. You can read it as a piece of nostalgia, as a look back at how the magazine was great, and not just for the pictorials. They did feature some of the great writers of the late part of the 20th century. Some of the pieces were better than others, and that is the only reason I gave it three stars. I liked it, but I did not "really like it." There were some misses, but I am sure for other readers, the pieces I did not like others might like. So give it a try anyways. You can also read this book as a sort of small literary history or time capsule. As I mentioned, some great writers and thinkers are featured here. I think you can also read it as a piece of popular culture, as a reflection of its time. I did find interesting some of the things the writers addressed and were concerned about. Some things were curious little details, for example, William Buckley writing about reading and defining what makes someone smart mentioned that, in 1983 or so, he had not really heard of Michael Jackson. Reading that detail today is an interesting experience.

There may be a few pieces that show age, but there are also a few that are pretty timeless, some even relevant still today. The best part of this book is that you can browse through it, find items of interest, and read those. Leaf through it, read a little bit now, a little bit later. It does lend itself to be a bedside reader (may also work for bathroom reading, and I do mean that in a good way).

The only other small nitpicks I had with the book were the way the table of contents was organized and a lack of some small note of information to preface the pieces. The table of contents is organized by major topics, instead of in the order that the pieces appear in the book. Personally, I would have preferred to know what came in what order. Two, in anthologies like this I tend to like a small preface to the pieces, something like, "this piece was published in the X year issue of Playboy" and maybe a bit about an author or something like that. Only way I could tell when a piece was written was either by references the authors made in their piece or by looking at the copyright page if I got curious. Most of the time I could guess ok (on classical things, like that piece by Boccaccio I obviously had an idea when it was originally written). Anyhow, those are the small things.

Overall, this is a pretty good book to pass the time. If you need some reading material, and you need something that you can read with ease, something you can pick up and drop and pick up again, then this is the book for you. And if you have never read the magazine, it may give you an appreciation for it, especially for what it used to be.




View all my reviews

Reading about the reading life. March 9, 2012

A few things about books and reading that I have recently read and found interesting.

• An article about getting Korean literature translated so folks abroad can read it. The article out of the The Korea Herald features an interview with the director of the Korea Literature Translation Institute.
• A Spanish language article from the blog Papeles Pérdidos. The article is entitled "Un recorrido por las librerías más bonitas del mundo." The article highlights beautiful bookstores around the world, using a previous article on the topic out of Flavorpill. I think the English-language version has made the rounds in a few celebrity librarian blogs and other book blogs. However, as often the case with Spanish language writing, I found the article a more pleasant reading experience. The language is a bit more lyrical in describing these havens for book readers. Additional commentary on the book industry is also included. 
• Under learning something new, did you know that Japan has about 500 literary prizes? This article from The Japan Times a small Q&A on the prominent literary awards in Japan.  A hat tip to The Literary Saloon.
• From Cornell University's Cornell Chronicle magazine, a short profile of writer José Edmundo Paz-Soldán. Not too many of his works have been translated into English. I do recall ordering a few of his works in Spanish for the collections at my previous workplace. A pity I did not get around to reading them myself at the time. I may need to work on fixing that reading gap. A hat tip to The Literary Saloon.

Reading about the reading life, January 20, 2011

Just another small round-up of stories on things about reading and readers that I have found interesting. I read some of these a while back, but I did not get around to sharing them until now. As the saying goes, life (really) does trump blogging.

• Aside from my native fluency in Spanish, and a very small barely working knowledge of French, I can't read in foreign languages. Thus, I am a reader who has to rely on translations if I want to read works from around the world. If I had unlimited time and wealth, going back to school to learn a few more languages, plus maybe spending some time abroad to immerse, would be my dream. In the meantime as I said, I have to look for translations for stuff I can't read in the original. I found this small piece about Indian publisher Seagull of interest. What they do is buy the English world rights for works and then translate them. From there, they then work to sell them in and out of India; University of Chicago distributes them in the U.S. Anyhow, the article also has some interesting tidbits about how the translation process works. Via Publishing Perspectives.
• Here is a piece about the bestsellers in South America, specifically Chile and Argentina. The piece gives a small annotated list of titles and it briefly discusses a bit about the reading habits of both countries. From Chile, El escritor de epitafios by Hernán Rivera Letelier (The writer of epitaphs) sounds interesting to me. Unfortunately, according the WorldCat, which I used to get the book record, there are not too many places nearby that have the book for me to borrow. It may be a while before I get to it. Story via Publishing Perspectives. 
• The Icelandic book market has some interesting quirks and issues. Well, they seem a bit quirky to me, but in reality a lot of it is a reflection of Iceland being a small nation with a small population, and a small, very educated population at that.  This item on the article's list caught my eye" Intellectualism is not a dirty word." Clearly very unlike the United States where more often than not Americans from the United States often take pride on their lack of erudition or just not being informed at the very least. If you are an intellectual in the United States, you are often seen as some academic egghead or a snob. Icelanders, while they may have other defects as the author mentions, do not have a problem with intellectuals. In fact, "erudition isn't considered to be a sign of elitism and snobbery but of education and intelligence." It sounds like it might be a good place to be a librarian. Via The Bookseller. 
• Holy shit! Apparently there is a problem in Pakistan with students and other lower class people wanting to read "unethical, obscene and immoral literature." Gosh, they make it sound like it's such a bad thing that people may want to read some books. In other words, they are going through one of those "let's blame books and magazines for any social ills-real or perceived" stage. Favorite line from the article, in referring to these books, "give rise to many gender related issues in our society." Translation: folks may get ideas that sex and such could be fun, and lo and behold, heaven forbid if women read these, they may get uppity and kick our collective patriarchal asses. If nothing else, the books are competitively priced, so if you are in Pakistan, make a bee line for the bus stops. Via Daily Times (Pakistan). A hat tip to The Literary Saloon.
• Joshua Kim at Inside Higher Ed has "8 Techie Ideas to Read More Books." The article does focus on reading more books, thus he does suggest going a bit lighter on magazines and newspapers, which are also forms of reading as far as I am concerned. The suggestions on online social media use and sharing what you are reading more are good. I certainly try to share what I read and comment on it, which I mostly do via my GoodReads page. These days, I will review or comment on a book more extensively in the blog if I took notes out of it or think it really is something I want to get my two readers to read. Otherwise, my GoodReads profile works out fine.

A few interesting things I've read, December 9, 2011

For this week, the theme seems to be writing "the old fashioned way." Whether it be with a typewriter or just pen and paper, articles on those topics caught my eye for this week. For me, writing by hand is a very personal thing as it allows me to reflect and think in a way that a keyboard and a computer do not allow. There are less distractions when writing by hand. And who knew there were still typewriter repairmen out there? Read about that and more this week.

• An article from Wired with some neat photos on what may be the last generation of typewriter repairmen.One place where typewriters are still used? Prisons, where they use clear plastic models for the inmates, and one company still remains that makes them. And then there are some nostalgia enthusiasts, but are they enough to keep typewriters alive? A hat tip to The Well-Appointed Desk. 
• A guy in India collects pens as a hobby. Sounds pretty nice, right? Well, the guy has over 18,000 pens in his collection. And he gently reminds people who want to see them that "his is my personal collection, in my house, and not for public display!"Via The Hindu (India).  
• Here is an article about some people who still keep journals and the reasons why they do so. The article comes from the Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN). As for myself, I have been keeping a journal somewhat consistently since 1992 or so, the year I went to do my student teaching. I like blogging, but as I believe I have stated before elsewhere, there are things that are private, so I keep them in my journals.  Articles about writing and journaling always catch my eye. Back in the day when I did the National Writing Project, use of journals in teaching writing, both for the teacher and the student, was an important element. These days much of that has given way to things like blogging. And yet, there are certain things you can only really express when you put pen or pencil to paper. There is more of a reflective process going on. A hat tip to Notebook Stories.
• Lee Rourke at The Guardian argues "why creative writing is better with a pen." Like some of the famous writers mentioned in the article, I usually compose stuff on paper first, often in my journals, before I polish it to put it on the blog. I think that is applicable to things I wish to reflect upon. For quick things, I do go directly to the blog. A neat line from the article: "For me, writing longhand is an utterly personal task where the outer world is closed off, just my thoughts and the movement of my hand across the page to keep me company. The whole process keeps me in touch with the craft of writing." A hat tip to Notebook Stories.

Reading about the reading life, November 18, 2011

Here we go again with a few items of interest I've recently read related to books and reading. Basically, these are articles or blog posts I have read that I think those of you out there who are readers and/or love books may appreciate as well. Some of these pieces give me idea for books I may want to read, which means my list of books to be read just keeps growing. Not that it is a bad thing. For this week, I think the one on the funeral books was my favorite, or at least the one I found most fascinating. If you read any of these, let me know if you found them interesting as well and any other comments. Tips for articles on the reading life you think I should read are also welcomed.

• An essay on the friendship between Jorge Luis Borges and Macedonio Fernández. Macedonio is often seen as "a wizened hermit, devoted to chess and esoteric speculation, a genius in the raw, who does not even bother to capture his creativity in writing or publish it." Some say he had a lot of influence on Borges. Others say it was more, but there certainly was a friendship and, to use another term from the article, an intellectual infatuation. Interesting piece on Argentine literature and two of its great writers. What united them? Many things, such as "their proclivity for metaphysics, their unflagging interest in examining the nature of reality, the mystery of being, the fabric of time and space." I have read much of Borges, and now I am curious to seek out a bit of Macedonio's works. Via Quarterly Conversation.
• Laura Miller, writing for Salon, describes "Reading Retreats: Paradise for Book Lovers." The idea sounds pretty simple: take a vacation devoted to reading. This is an idea I would not mind trying out. For me, I would prefer reading books, but magazines would be ok. The materials would be in print, as I am not a fan of e-book readers nor reading on a screen for long. So, this vacation would mean minimal Internet or none at all and definitely no phone. I also loved the idea of bibliotherapists mentioned in the article, folks who, if you need a reading list, will do a consultation with you and create a customized reading list for you. Sounds like good old reader's advisory. It also sounds like a job I would love to have. 
• Scott Esposito reviews a new translation by Anne McLean of Julio Cortázar's work, a prose poem, From the Observatory.  The review gives a pretty good overview of the work. I may look for the translation, but I will certainly try to find the original in Spanish. Via The National (United Arab Emirates).
• Sarah, at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, asks about organizing your reading lists. Do you keep track of your books online, say with GoodReads? Do you make lists? I will admit that, even though I am a librarian, I could probably work on organizing my reading lists a bit better. For one, I do not have all of them on GoodReads. I have some in handwritten notes or in my journals. However, for me, a bit of that semi-controlled chaos is part of what makes the serendipity of finding something new to read fun So, folks out there, if you feel moved to satisfy my curiosity a bit, how do you organize your reading lists? Do you even organize or make reading lists? 
• This is something new I learned about from this article: Thai funeral books. These are books that not only serve to provide a memorial to a dead person, but they also serve as valuable cultural artifacts. From the article: "The text and photographs are not always grim, mournful or poignant. The publications can also include eulogies or cheerful tales by relatives and friends, plus Buddhist prayers, descriptions of the deceased's favorite recipes and other intriguing data." The books are usually given away for free at cremations, and they range from very opulent for the wealthy to simple stapled pamphlets for the poor. Via CNNGo.
• Via The Reporter (Ethiopia), an article looking at Ethiopian writers of the 60s as well as a bit on Ethiopian reading and literary society. The article is "Generation of Literary Firebrands." A hat tip to The Literary Saloon. 
• Via the Kyiv Post (Ukraine), a story about local book collectors who have done work preserving local history. Now their concern is that they may not have anyone to pass on their collections when they are gone.  One of the collectors says something that resonates with me. From the article: “'I believe we are the last generation of people who read books,' Bilokin said. 'Young people think they can find an answer to any question on the Internet. But that’s not true.'” A hat tip to The Literary Saloon. 

A few interesting things I've read, October 28, 2011

This is just a list of articles and postings I have read and found interesting. I could not really put them in a specific category, so I am just listing them here to share and highlight. I will probably do this type of post every once in a while since I am always finding interesting (to me) things out there. Whether my three readers find them interesting is another question. As always, feel free to comment.

• From The Washington Monthly, while civic organizations are pretty much losing members in the U.S., clubs like the Kiwanis and the Rotarians are growing and thriving around the world. Personally, as an adult, I could not care less about clubs and civic organizations. A good number of them always seemed a bit on the elitist side for me. Still, I find interesting how parts of the world embrace these uniquely American organizations whether as status symbols or because they fit well with their social and economic development. 
• Via AfricaFeed, an article on the Sapeurs of Congo. I found this extremely fascinating: men who, in the midst of the most extreme poverty, save pennies here and there (by means ethical and otherwise at times) in order to dress up in the finest clothes that money can buy. The culture does have ties to anti-war sentiments. 
• Via Dangerous Minds, a short video of an old (circa 50s or so I think) documentary about Frederick's of Hollywood. The narrator tone blends a bit of the serious straight laced with just a tad of judgmental to add a bit of the sleazy. I find it interesting how back then they do want couples to be sexy so on, and yet it has to be all hidden, what would the neighbors say sort of thing. Personally, I found amusing that there was such a thing as an inflatable bra. Overall, between Victoria's Secret and Frederick's, the latter would have been the choice for the Better Half and me. The article includes a scan of one of their old catalogs. How things have changed. 
• Via The NYR Blog, on "The Lost Art of Postcard Writing." This seems to be another art that is dying off, people sending postcards in a time when it is easier to just send an e-mail with a photo attached. The article looks at the old tradition of sending postcards when traveling. I don't send postcards much, but when I am traveling on my own, I do try to send my daughter a postcard of the place I may be visiting for her collection. A hat tip to 3 Quarks Daily.
• Via Mother Jones, Andrew Marantz spends a summer working at an Indian call center.  The whole process, which when you look at it can be quite exploitative, is also fascinating in its scale. These jobs are seen as well paying opportunities (about $2 an hour, $5K a year, assuming workers last that long) in a land where per capita income is about $900 a year. However, the job does come with a lot of costs not only financially for the workers (who have to pay fees for training so on), but also having to become someone else given how they have to learn to lose their native accents. And then the overall picture, which is as U.S. companies lay off people here in droves, they are creating those jobs in India.
• Via the BBC, The Joy of Sex was a revolutionary book in its time during the early 1970s. It turns out it faced some challenges in terms of illustrating it. I found the article interesting in light of our times now when we pretty much take for granted that a sex manual or similar book will have photos in it.  Read about "How the Joy of Sex was Illustrated." Keep in mind that the book has been updated since then, and yes, it does feature photographs now. Also, the book has opened the way to newer versions and topics. 
• Here is one in time for Halloween. Via the Fine Books Blog,  a piece on the grimoire of H.P. Lovecraft. This is basically about fictitious books that Lovecraft created for his stories. A fascinating look at some occult volumes. To be honest, some of these books sound more interesting than stuff I come across with regularly. 
• Tracy Clark Flory interviews sex writer and activist Susie Bright for Salon. This is one that has been sitting in my feed reader's cue for a while, and I finally got to read through it. Learn a bit about her views on the feminist movement and where it went wrong (something that I do agree with), her work, and why she hates the term "casual sex" as well. An interesting piece not just because of her life, which is interesting in itself, but also because it looks at how times have changed and how much more there is to go. The article also mentions her memoir, which I have listed on one of my "books I want to read" lists.

Why keeping the library open is a matter of public safety.

When it comes to libraries and their funding, a lot of people go for the usual, "we can close the library. But make sure we keep the cops." While I think that we do need our police, closing the local library should not be the default option for funding cuts. As Diane Cherry  puts it in her editorial for the Marietta Daily Journal, "Closing Cobb's libraries a threat to public safety." This should be applicable to all libraries. A couple of good statements from the article; do go and read the rest.

• "Public safety begins with our teens who we can either educate and give opportunities to or deal with out on the streets. The same is true for the unemployed and homeless friends, neighbors and former co-workers who have touched every one of us. They need the libraries now more than they ever did." 
• "If we close libraries, we are shutting the doors on the people who need us most - a very real threat to public safety - as economic desperation often leads to crime and public unrest." This sounds a bit like a statement of the obvious, but then again, the asshats who want to cut public services and public goods (after they had 8 years or so of spending like drunken sailors with nothing really to show for it) do not particularly care.

Article Note: On Starship Troopers, the war on terror and censorship

Citation for the article:

Williams, Paul. "Starship Troopers, the War on Terror, and the Spectacle of Censorship." Science Fiction Film and Television 2.1 (2009): 25-44.

Read via Interlibrary Loan.


As my three readers know, once in a while I read academic articles outside of library science and pedagogy. In part, this is to keep up my academic fields of interest outside of library science, and science fiction happens to be one of those areas. Since the article is not related to library science or education, I am posting about it here. At any rate, I came across the article listed above, and it caught my eye.

The article looks at the Verhoeven film Starship Troopers in the context of censorship and war propaganda. It also makes some interesting connections to the War on Terror, especially to the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison. From the conclusion, "the discussion of Starship Troopers sheds light on America's military use of spectacle and information during the Bush Administration's War on Terror" (42). Williams goes about demonstrating this by looking at various scenes in the film. He pays particular attention to the FedNet broadcasts in the film, which are tools of propaganda and information. Notice also that the broadcasts in the film serve to reinforce the idea of a continuing, some may say eternal, war much like the current War on Terror which has no end in sight; notice how the rhetoric around the War on Terror deals with this being a long war. In essence, we are looking at a state of permanent war, which by the way, is something authors like George Orwell have described.

The article also looks at the issue of prisoner torture and how totalitarian societies, and some societies that claim not to be totalitarian, find ways to make that torture permissible. In the film, the captured brainbug is tortured, but the act itself is censored (even though everyone knows what will happen). This is compared to the concealment of Guantanamo prisoners where the legal protections of prisoners were erased.

Overall, the article uses the film as a way to look at the United States and its practices when it comes to the War on Terror. It looks at the mechanisms the government uses to censor and to create spectacle as needed to get people to go along with the war. The article is certainly worth a look. And personally, it also made me think of works like Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. I am thinking there may be similar possibilities for study in that novel as well.

Rolling Stone on Army's Use of Psy-Ops. Why am I reading about it in the music magazine?

Once again I get to ask why am I reading about this in Rolling Stone. I am not saying there is anything wrong with Rolling Stone. On the contrary, as of late, they are picking up some very interesting and important stories that the rest of the mainstream media seem to be ignoring.For example on the tea party and the BP oil spill.

Back in January (I know, I am a bit late writing about it, but I had to take time to read it), they had a piece on the Army using their psy-ops units (they call them MISO's now, which stands for "Military Information Support Operations) in Afghanistan to influence American senators, representatives, and other VIPs to hold favorable views of the operation in Afghanistan. Basically, they were using their psy-ops to influence American citizens, which is something forbidden by law.

"According to experts on intelligence policy, asking a psy-ops team to direct its expertise against visiting dignitaries would be like the president asking the CIA to put together background dossiers on congressional opponents." 

If you have not read it, it is worth a look. Now that I found the time to read it, I did find it timely as we think on Sunshine Week and things like open government and our right to know what it is our government does in order to hold it accountable. This does include holding the military accountable as well.

A hat tip to Americablog.

Are the best days of the USA gone? Maybe

This article out of Time, "Are America's Best Days Behind Us?," caught my eye because it made some pretty good points that I think people often fail to think about. They either fail to think about such points, or more likely they simply refuse to think about such things because in their eyes the good old US of A will be #1 no matter what. Those are the people who simply refuse to learn from the past because heaven forbid they learn from some other source that is not whatever jingoistic misinformation they prefer to consume.

Some of the points that made me think a bit:

"Yes, the U.S. remains the world's largest economy, and we have the largest military by far, the most dynamic technology companies and a highly entrepreneurial climate. But these are snapshots of where we are right now. The decisions that created today's growth — decisions about education, infrastructure and the like — were made decades ago. What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and '60s: the interstate-highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies."

Notice that the good things we have now are due to long term decisions that were made decades ago. Basically, the U.S. is not making those kind of decisions now. It is easy to see why. Such decisions take work, take vision, and often require sacrifice for something that will pay off down the road. Those things are not politically expedient; they will not yield votes for the politicians now. And heaven forbid we ask the current generation to make a sacrifice here and there for the sake of our children. Funny, since many folks in this generation do like to pander with the phrase "think of the children." Just as long as there is no cost involved it seems.

"But reducing funds for things like education, scientific research, air-traffic control, NASA, infrastructure and alternative energy will not produce much in savings, and it will hurt the economy's long-term growth. It would happen at the very moment that countries from Germany to South Korea to China are making large investments in education, science, technology and infrastructure."

The things we should be investing on, the things that will truly help our economy in the future, not to mention our long term viability as a nation, are the very things the U.S. is failing to invest on. These things do require funding and commitment, and deity forbid, maybe even some tax increases. But since the right wing in this country has pretty much demonized any tax increase, even when such an increase would actually be good for the nation, there will not be any serious investments in basics like education and infrastructure while the rest of the world basically moves forward and passes by the U.S. 

 

Hell, even the Corleones, well some of them, knew the importance of looking ahead and planning accordingly. As Tom Hagen said, "If we don't get a piece of that action we risk everything we have. Not now, but ten years from now." Why can't our politicians think in similar terms? I suggest my two readers go read the rest of the article to find out why. Some of the reasons are very much related to what I mentioned already: political expediency, but you will also find selfishness, a refusal to learn from others, a lack of reflection and honest assessment, and overall complacency. 

Wired comes up with 7 skills you should have

I started this post merely as a small note about the article for my commonplace blog, Alchemical Thoughts. What started as a small note turned into a short post, so I decided to crosspost it here to share it with my three readers.

* * * * 

I thought this was a pretty neat list. I don’t agree with all of it, but there are some very good items. The two items I would emphasize right away are:
The first one on statistical literacy. This is a must. We need as a society to do a much better job in teaching people about statistics, how to figure basic ones out, and how they are used and misused. I liked the suggested assignment of comparing a liberal blog versus a conservative blog. This assignment is very good, and it should be something an average, well-informed citizen, “well-informed” being the key concept, should be able to do:

Daily Kos Versus BigGovernment.com
Find three examples of the same set of numbers presented in entirely different ways on the liberal blog Daily Kos and Andrew Breitbart’s conservative Big Government site. In each case, show which source is using the more aggressive spin and determine which side—if either—is being more honest in its presentation of the facts.

How often are you watching the news, and you get pundits debating back and forth about the latest numbers of such and such from the CBO (that’s the Congressional Budget Office). You think to yourself, “well, the CBO is nonpartisan, so the numbers must be good.” Sure, the numbers are probably fine, but you have to pay attention to how they are actually being used. And then you have figures and polls from all sorts of agencies, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, so on, which often have a bias or a particular agenda. I am not saying that some of those agendas are bad (personally, I think working towards things like social justice are important), but you still have to keep those things in mind. Expanding on that, this is where I would add a good course on information literacy, where you learn to evaluate information, more than just the statistics. So, if it was me, I would do more than just statistical literacy. We need broad ranging information literacy.
Second, I definitely like the Post-state Diplomacy course. Folks in the U.S. need some serious education on international affairs and how the world works right now. The folks at Wired write:

“Power has always depended on who can provide justice, commerce, and stability. Successful insurgents aren’t just thugs; they offer their members tangible benefits—community, money, education, and a sense of order (even if the rebels are the ones creating disorder in the first place). We must learn how they gain loyalty, even if our goal is to undercut it.”

Again, I don’t think the folks at Wired go far enough. It is not only about diplomacy, although that is extremely important. The statement above is not really a new idea; it is an idea that not many people understand or may be aware of. But we also need coursework on global awareness and citizenship, and I would also add geography.

The rest of the article is worth reading as well. Each skill description does include a “reading list” (I put it in quotes because some of the suggestions may be links to videos or other non-print material) and some questions you may want to consider. Whether you do some of the assignments or not, thinking about them may help you expand your horizons a bit more.
 

Tea Party is pretty much a GOP instrument

This is another one of those posts where I say that to find good journalism you have to go outside the usual news sources. I ask, as I asked before, why am I reading this in the music magazine of all places? Rolling Stone has a very good article by Matt Taibbi on the tea party. The author is certainly more brave than I am. He actually went out and spent a good chunk of time with tea partiers to learn what makes them tick. It turns out that there is not a whole lot of substance making them angry. It's mostly angry with some resentment over the fact that the country is changing. One of those changes is the fact that other ethnic groups, like African-Americans and Latinos, are becoming majorities. So the White folks are suddenly feeling persecuted. That, and a few other things that Mr. Taibbi explains a lot better. The article is worth a look, but sadly it is the type of good, solid writing that a lot of people will miss. Why is this kind of stuff not being covered in the main news channels? Why is it those channels pretty much give a free pass to whatever the tea baggers preach even when it is utter nonsense?

There are some passages from the article I want to note and comment on.

This takes place at a rally in Kentucky.

"A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can't imagine it." 

The irony of this practically writes itself. Of course, these hypocrites fail to see the irony for, as Mr. Taibbi points out, it's ok to cut programs as long as it is not their programs. These tea baggers are the only ones deserving of government largesse. Everyone else is a free loading slacker.

Taibbi goes on to say,

"But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them. At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry's medals and Barack Obama's Sixties associations. The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them." 

The hypocrisy is pretty much appaling, especially if you have half a brain. I ask not only why does the "regular" press not pick up on this, but why does anyone actually listen to these people? A lot of them are rejects from the past administration who pretty much fell asleep at the wheel when said administration was basically spending the nation into bankruptcy, and now suddenly they feel outraged. And they do it while collecting on the dole. These are people who, sure they may have a right to expression, but they should be laughed right out of the public square with other crackpots.

Taibbi then goes on to suggest that the rest of us who know how the American system of government actually works may end up getting the last laugh. Sadly, this is not good news. It is pretty tragic when you think about it, but it is something that people in this country have allowed to happen, again by falling asleep at the wheel. What the tea baggers fail to see is:

"But what they don't realize is, there's a catch: This is America, and we have an entrenched oligarchical system in place that insulates us all from any meaningful political change. The Tea Party today is being pitched in the media as this great threat to the GOP; in reality, the Tea Party is the GOP."

George Carlin said it so well (link to YouTube for the routine):

"I'm talking about the real owners now... the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. . . . "

Exactly. The two party system in this country, combined with a mostly selfish population that would rather vote on the results of American Idol or worry about Snooki's latest skank stunt, pretty much assures that nothing will really change in this nation no matter who you vote for. The tea party, when you really think about it, is pretty much the latest iteration of people being easily manipulated and then co-opted by the big interests, by the real owners.  It's kind of depressing when you think about it. Certainly does make you wonder if voting is even worth it at this point given that both parties are pretty much bought and paid for. I cannot help but wonder if the United States will ever get to the point where it is basically one big corporation, and the only way to "vote" is by owning stock in the corporation. This is certainly not a new idea. See the novel Snow Crash for instance, where the U.S. government pretty much has given the nation away to businesses and corporations. Or you can see the concept taking root in the film Robocop 2, where the OCP CEO says that every citizen, once OCP took over Detroit, would have a a "living unit" clean, quiet and safe, and as for voting, well, citizens could buy OCP stock. We are not that far from such a future, and it is inane, selfish fools like the tea baggers who will enable it all the while cheering the big interests on.

And back to the article, talk about a con job:

"So how does a group of billionaire businessmen and corporations get a bunch of broke Middle American white people to lobby for lower taxes for the rich and deregulation of Wall Street?"

It turns out it is pretty easy to do. It is easy when  you have those high interests making sure that the common folks (even though in some cases, if we look at the tea baggers, they are not that "common," but the label will work for our purposes) stay misinformed and pretty much mostly illiterate. We are talking about people who are pretty much incapable of critical thinking. Heck, the real tragedy is that they are not even aware of their own incompetence. By the way, here is a bit I wrote a while back that includes something on competence theory.

By the way, the article is worth reading just to get the list of five things you will hear from every tea bagger ever interviewed. Go on and read the article. Taibbi goes on to say that the tea baggers are not so much racist as they are narcissists. I think he is being charitable. These people are racists, and just because they are mostly clueless, does not make them any less racist. Remember these are the folks that, though they rail against bailouts, are happy to vote for rich people getting tax breaks while they blame poor Black homeowners for the economic crisis. Funny how that works.

I am going to jump to the end of the article, not because the rest of it is not interesting. Far from that. This is a must read. I am jumping because Taibbi's conclusion is something that definitely pisses me off as well. In large measure, it ticks me off because I make an effort to stay well informed. Sure, part of it is because I am a librarian, but it is also because I think that being well informed, thinking critically, and then speaking out are elements of the democracy, a democracy that is pretty much on its last legs unless some serious stuff happens (some serious education reforms may be a good start). I hate being a pessimist; I really do, but I am getting to the point where I just have to say certain things. Taibbi writes:

"Of course, the fact that we're even sitting here two years after Bush talking about a GOP comeback is a profound testament to two things: One, the American voter's unmatched ability to forget what happened to him 10 seconds ago, and two, the Republican Party's incredible recuperative skill and bureaucratic ingenuity. This is a party that in 2008 was not just beaten but obliterated, with nearly every one of its recognizable leaders reduced to historical-footnote status and pinned with blame for some ghastly political catastrophe. There were literally no healthy bodies left on the bench, but the Republicans managed to get back in the game anyway by plucking an assortment of nativist freaks, village idiots and Internet Hitlers out of thin air and training them into a giant ball of incoherent resentment just in time for the 2010 midterms." 

That is what really gets me. That people's attention spans are so short that they are willing to throw it all away just because change does not come in fast enough. And I am not defending the current administration. Deity of choice knows they have not delivered on a lot of what they promised, they  have been wusses pretty much when they should have been aggressive and enacted true reform, and they pretty much turned out to be the same corporate whores as the other guys. But that people are even willing to consider going back to the politicians and party that wrecked this nation for eight years is the epitome of stupidity. It's more than just masochism. It is plain selfishness and misdirected anger born of misinformation and willful ignorance. The evidence is there for anyone who wants to see it. Of course, for those like the tea baggers, it is easier to go to rallies on a Medicare paid scooter (paid by my taxes by the way) and rail against "big government and big government spending," than it is to think about the common good. And that I really find disgusting, disturbing, and offensive. And so should you.

A hat tip to Pharyngula.

Brief thoughts on civility and college

The video presented in this article from Inside Higher Ed, entitled "Rude Democracy," made me cringe. I hate incivility, especially in politics. Politicians who use rudeness, fear, hysteria, and bullying tactics to advance their agendas are pretty much thugs and should be run out of office. Those who support them should be run out of town too. If you can't behave like a grown adult, then go sit at the kiddie table until you learn some common manners and courtesy. The article makes a good point: civility has to be taught, and college, haven for the marketplace of ideas, is a good place to do it. As Susan Herbst writes, "thinking citizens would rather see real debate and a measure of respect among those who disagree." I would say that a lack of thinking citizens is a serious problem as well, but that may be for another post.

Herbst makes another point: you have to practice civility. Provide opportunities for debate and expression of ideas and model civil behavior as well. A civility code, which many colleges have, should not just be a document in some binder or a handout a student gets during freshman year at orientation. And while we are discussing orientation, and its cousin the first-year experience, we need to have programs and events for more than just the freshmen. It seems that in higher education, campuses lavish all sorts of educational programs on freshmen, and those are good programs, but they seem to forget their upper classmen and especially tend to forget non-traditional and/or transfer students. Teaching things like civility has to include all student and be integrated at all levels. After all, students will often really start campus involvement after the freshman year (once they get some experience and settle in).

In addition, Herbst suggests not overloading student leaders. She writes, "work on civility will need to be done in dormitories (not just in special "learning communities"), libraries, and cafeterias, with the mass of students." Hey, she mentioned libraries. Yes folks, we librarians can and should engage in this labor as well.

The comments posted to the story are worth reading over as well. Some raise good points about communication and giving students a voice. Others just let the anger of the writer show (whatever the reason for the anger). Then again, a lot of the comments (if not most), as in many Internet forums, are anonymous or pseudonymous. This means that a lot of folks go on to disregard civility since they feel free from personal responsibility for their words. Stuff like that is a big reason why I never comment in major forums; I hate trolls and cowards who throw flames in a forum. Discussing that issue could be a whole other discussion. For now, we could look at some of the comments as a teachable moment.

For reference and/or for those interested, here a link to the video in question (goes to YouTube).