[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Xw8ARjhG6mdZqCIxpK59cJwcBfxfFyJo"] WHAT happens when we tear up the past, replace people with bots and culture with content? Those are some of the question on the mind of former New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier in his piece "Among the Disrupted." He begins this way: Amid the bacchanal of disruption, let us pause to honor the disrupted. The streets of … [Read more...]
“In Praise of Gatekeepers”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="7ocf4Du4J7q0MwSCTfQQr9rCt1ruYmRF"] ONE of the subjects that makes the disruption boys' hearts race is the idea that technology will get rid of the gatekeepers -- those record-store clerks and publishing-house editors and journalistic critics who just get in the way of the pure, frictionless working of capitalism. If you own a company -- esp a tech company that feeds … [Read more...]
Culture’s Perfect Storm: CC on the Radio
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="CN8b3Y5FZAeQMTZTsTtc0tupQqcwaJ9l"] WHAT do recent changes in technology, economics and social norms mean for the art, culture and the creative class? These are the topics that drive my book, Culture Crash, and they're subjects I discussed with the Jeff Schnechtman, the Napa, CA-based radio host whose show is called Specific Gravity. Here it is. I may … [Read more...]
Postmodernism and the Human Condition
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4fl6TsMH8aaXBjpQRlz6uE4TNBUnTl8E"] ONE of our favorite controversies over the last few moths has been the tussle over Excellent Sheep, the William Deresiewicz book that criticizes the obsessive pragmatism and money worship that's come to define the Ivy League experience. Simultaneously, one of our least favorite recent developments has been the destruction of the … [Read more...]
The Dark Vision of Neil Postman
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9SH7Jz0T3AVOjswZ9pMhaO2BBpIbBBbX"] ONE of my all-time favorite social critics is the late, great author of Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. (I'm even fonder of his book Technopoly, which came out in the early '90s but remains one of the great books about what the Internet would do to us.) So my senses were stirred when I … [Read more...]
The New Republic is Not About Politics
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Gjg4drHdDm8TMo6CAVQekqDcci6u6t5u"] FOR a few days now, I've been discussing the ideology of one of the nation's most storied magazines, with friends on both left and right; for many, it's best known as a policy journal. But the reason I am most saddened by the destruction of a great publication by a Silicon Valley coup has nothing to to with politics, no matter how … [Read more...]
Amazon and Hachette Put Down Their Guns
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="cbGdJO2smCNX5vcUPc2VBnWMyTRPboTU"] WELL, it's not clear who cried uncle first, but this fight between the online realtor and the French publishing company -- whose authors were being punished by late delivery and discouraged sales -- seems to be resolved. Here's the lead from today's New York Times story: Amazon and Hachette announced Thursday morning that they … [Read more...]
Techo-Utopianism and the TED talk
MOSTLY, I try to dig into the arts and culture in this blog. But there are times when digital technology demands attention; technology has become the water in which we all -- musician and scribe and architect alike -- swim. That's why I'm especially pleased to nudge readers toward a piece that's been floating around for a while which even some informed people may have missed: "We need to talk … [Read more...]
Paul Krugman on Amazon
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="EnEg7SR54tQeApaTB0TxyD3jWfVDaZ1e"] Is the online bookseller a monopoly? A monopsony? I'll leave the details to the economists, but will concur with the New York Times columnist -- and the recent New Republic story -- on the company's danger. The most succinct way to phrase it may be the way Paul Krugman opens today's column: "Amazon.com, the giant online retailer, … [Read more...]
More Death Among the Alternative Press
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="RwTNk9ycXONYXBOQztWFt8xWs1Cktyce"] AT a certain point, we won't even notice it anymore when a publication we've loved and learned to rely on fades to black. For a little while longer, though, we'll still register it. That's one of the reasons I'm grimly happy to have had the chance to weigh in on the loss of two more alternative weeklies -- the Providence Phoenix on … [Read more...]