We vote with our eyes--or our minds--about how we'll spend our (alas) finite time. If, at the end of the day, we're nourished by what we've exposed ourselves to, or done for ourselves, fine. If not, then we know we'd better make personal changes.
Oddly, in this day of electronic junk food of every description, book clubs are growing and sustaining themselves. This isn't just about reading. It's also about tackling with other human beings issues these books raise--the intellectual give and take that in itself is deeply nourishing on several levels. The regular posters on FRIAM find this forum nourishing, and irregular posters, like me, feel it's worth our while to lurk, sometimes to participate. I don't despair. On Mar 21, 2013, at 3:50 PM, Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Pamela - >> I'm going to assume the "Patricia" Steve mentions is me. Ten published >> books. Four of them novels. You write because you must. I feel blessed to be >> able to do what I love to do. > Absolutely... my apologies... I should have turned my brain over at least one > more time on that one. I *feared* was misnaming you! I did a scan of my > e-mail contacts and of course found no "Patricia McCorduck" and should have > trusted my instincts. And of course, just as we are many of us too > flitter-brained to read more than a few words at a time, some of us are also > unable/unwilling to focus properly on what we write (thus some portion of the > *wrong* connected to the *lofty* and *long*). Thanks for speaking up... > > I understand that "Writers Write" and I am thankful for that. In Glen's > vernacular, that (Writing) would be your Twitch I suppose? What I'm mostly > addressing is that even those of us who have been the most avid readers of > such writing in the past have undermined ourselves with a new texture of > stimuli that feeds (some of) the same needs. I fear, however, that it is > the white-sugar/white-flour/grain-alcohol of the intellect and emotion... and > it does not serve us. >> Like most authors, I'm always saddened to hear that literature doesn't speak >> "any more" to a certain group of people, but that's the way it is. I could >> argue that the numbers it ever spoke to were always small, so what's new. >> But my missionary work is past, so no arguments from me. > I am not arguing that the work embodied in good writing/literature/novels is > not worthy, but sadly that many of us are allowing our palates to go to pot, > as it were. We are reading headlines, bumper stickers and tweets where we > perhaps once read paragraphs. We are reading summaries and abstracts where > we once read short stories and articles. We are reading Cliff's notes, the > abridged version or "watching the movie" where we once read the novel. I am > far from reveling in this collapse of attention span from the epic tales ( I > recently toiled through the Illiad, but alas by listening on audio) to the > soundbite, the catchy phrase, the tweet! But it seems widespread. > > I hope that this in fact, as i mentioned last posting, can come full circle > and the storytellers don't all get buried or brushed aside in favor of the > "twitch emoters" (again to adopt/adapt something of Glen's terms) or the > tweeterers or the YouTube creators. > > I occasionally (surprise) get the response from folks "TLDR", an acronym for > "Too Long, Didn't Read".... and while I know it is a highly motivated > response (for I am lengthy and perhaps tedious and pedantic to some), I > believe that some of this is in the eye of the beholder. TLDR (as an > acronym) can be a self-admission to having given up one's ability to attend > to more than a phrase or a sentence or two before rotoring on to "the next > thing"? > > Please *do* continue to write, and maybe even a few of us will shake off our > twitching stupor, find our fingerprint-smeared and dusty readers and read > your work, cover to cover. > > - Steve >> >> Pamela >> >> >> >> On Mar 21, 2013, at 2:58 PM, Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Glen - >>> >>> Unfortunately I fear you are correct. *I* have probably *written* at least >>> one Novel's worth (a Michener or King's worth?) right here on the FRIAM >>> list, yet you don't see me buckling down to publish my own next to Doug's. >>> And in fact, I think Doug will acknowledge that even *he* wouldn't >>> (couldn't) write his novel today... it was enough focus just to dig it out, >>> re-asciify it, reformat it, edit, dust, clean, etc. enough to publish as an >>> e-book on Amazon. Patricia (and other published fiction authors here???) >>> might have another perspective of course! >>> >>> I don't play video games for 6 hour stints, even though I came of age along >>> with Pong, then Asteroids, Pac Man, Battlezone, and Missile Command. I do >>> occasionally fall into a hole dug by Tetris on my iPhone, however. >>> >>> But I *rarely* read a novel anymore. I was, as you were, was trained on >>> such... but the last 22 years (if you read my last post) have slowly >>> eroded that. 22 years ago I had a TV connected to a VCR in a cabinet with >>> doors, and I might have indulged in a movie once every week or two... maybe >>> two during a weekend. I rarely even turned the tube on, and then only to >>> maybe catch a local weather forecast. >>> >>> *Even* I didn't have a *laptop* until about 1998 and while I spent at least >>> half my time at work in front of a computer, I spent almost no time at home >>> on a computer and the other half of my work time arm-wrestling (other) >>> idiots in meetings or crawling around fishing cables under raised floors or >>> dropped ceilings. Today I spend (to this list's chagrin) 4-16 hours a day >>> (350/365 days) in front of this (or one or another) damned machine either >>> reading/writing e-mail, surfing the web (for very important stuff), writing >>> proposals, writing code, (occasionally) writing invoices, building 3d >>> models for proposals or for specifying physical parts of systems, or >>> streaming a movie or ... >>> >>> I'm lucky to pull my face out (2:14) of this machine for any significant >>> amount of time, it is only because I maintain something of a "homesteader's >>> lifestyle" that requires me to chop wood, carry water, repair a >>> dumptruck/tractor/trailer haul my own trash away, etc. I still spend >>> *several* hours a week arm wrestling (other) idiots in meetings but half of >>> them are on Skype! >>> >>> Someone needs to design a haptic-interface (and mediation protocols?) for a >>> USB attached device to facilitate arm wresting over the wire proper? Rob >>> Shaw's (also on this list?) brother (Chris) was involved in a startup 15 >>> years ago (Haptek?) that was designing pneumatic haptic "suits" for martial >>> arts games, unfortunately it didn't make it to the market. They got >>> distracted with People Putty (and more)... >>> >>> I *am* working with the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) to try to >>> help them develop/teach *immersive* storytelling in their Digital >>> Dome but I fear, even with full 360 surround environments and >>> full motion tracking, storytelling is losing something, unless it can >>> somehow transcend and come full circle. For those lucky enough to >>> experience Robert Mirabal's live performance (Po'Pay Speaks), you might >>> know that there is always hope for such! >>> >>> We (most of us) are of a generation that preceded all this, I can only >>> imagine what it has been like for the current generation of children who >>> were born *after* Al Gore invented the Internet and the rest of us invented >>> the rest of it. I only see MiniVans and SUVs on the highway with 2.6 (or is >>> it 1.8) kids in the back seat with 2 video screens (one on the back of each >>> parent's seat/headrest with either a movie or maybe a video game (or web >>> browser) running. I have quoted Jerry Mander with "Shoot your Television". >>> Obviously that was not enough, my computer snuck in and filled it's niche >>> to bursting! >>> >>> Off to a face-to-face meeting that will actually require walking around >>> outside waving our arms (Hi Jane) ! >>> >>> I've gotta stop this Twitch! >>> - Steve >>> >>> >>>> Steve Smith wrote at 03/21/2013 10:24 AM: >>>>> I'll see your "King's Men" and raise you a"Stone Junction" >>>>> <http://books.google.com/books/about/Stone_Junction.html?id=woneSCNLbrYC> >>>>> by >>>>> Jim Dodge >>>> Ordered! >>>> >>>>> When Glen writes his "great american novel" (surely to be also an >>>>> alchemical potboiler, a digital noir happening, an outlaw epic?) all his >>>>> (published on paper or internet, indexed by Google) forgotten influences >>>>> and sources will be exposed. His Twitch will be a folding of the >>>>> origami paper, or perhaps a pull of the taffy. >>>> Unfortunately, I think the novel is dead as a format for story telling. >>>> It may return if peak oil or a zombie apocalypse obtains. But overall, >>>> I think it's efficacy is dwindling rapidly. I still like them because >>>> that's the way I was trained. But I find them increasingly difficult to >>>> read ... the surrounding people, devices, and non-fiction books with >>>> good indices draw my attention away from novels. I'll play a video game >>>> for 6 hours. But I won't read a novel for 6 hours. Even when I do >>>> manage to read for a long time, it sparks ideas that I have to write >>>> down or pause to look something up in another book. I am no longer >>>> linear ... or even first order continuous. >>>> >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
