Dear Wafers/Waferettes:
Well, maybe miracles still do occur, in this modern age. SSIG finally made it onto Amazon and is available for purchase. They left out the endorsements part (below), but I'm assuming these will show up before too long. This sure has been a long time in coming. Hope you all enjoy it...mb
http://www.amazon.com/Spinning-Straw-Into-Gold-Straight/dp/1893075168/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374933437&sr=1-16&keywords=morris+berman
Praise for Morris Berman and
Spinning Straw Into Gold
Over the decades, Morris Berman has provided readers with compelling books whose topics range from spiritual awareness to probing analysis of America’s decline. In
Spinning Straw Into Gold he explores his own life trajectory as he stepped away from society’s traditional demands and measures of meaning, and found what was truly meaningful instead. The result is a powerful, timely, and mind-opening challenge for all of us to do the same.
—Nomi Prins, author of
It Takes a Pillage, Black Tuesday, and other works.
For years Morris Berman has been describing the downfall of America, an argument that shocked many by its apparent pessimism. But a sensitive reader will have discerned a very positive message at the bottom of his recent trilogy on the American decline: that we are the last survivors of a failed empire, and will witness the emergence of a better, more balanced relation to the world from the ruins of its destructive manias and obsessions. Berman writes in the tradition of Paul Goodman’s
Growing Up Absurd, Erich Fromm’s
Escape from Freedom, and the mother lode of all such individual wisdom in America,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is not your typical self-help manual, but a clear-headed, translucently reasoned account of how one individual broke free from a dysfunctional culture and now gives us a way to accomplish the same liberation for ourselves.
—Paul Christensen, author of
The Human Condition and
Strangers in Paradise.
Good news, I'll order a copy right away. BTW, did you ever connect with Javier Marías when you were in Spain?
ReplyDeleteDr B
ReplyDeleteI congratulate you for getting the new book to the market.
Here is a metaphor of what could happen to America - we could wake up one day to discover that our houses and country have been sold to someone outside USA - not necessarily out of evil motive, but rather because of hardship or fear or want or risk-taking that went out of control; think of the bankers and people in the wall street - they could decide to bet on the country without knowing what they are doing:
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/soldier-brandon-harker-discovers-dog-listed-for-sale-on-craigslist/51f305bafe34441a43000538
I ordered my copy! Can't wait to read it, although I'm just starting on Counting Blessings, which arrived earlier this week.
ReplyDeleteSince I haven't looked at the news today, I can blissfully go without posting a link to some report of continuing idiocy in the US.
I did watch William Friedkin's Killer Joe last night, described as a Southern Gothic black comedy and a redneck trailer park thriller. Apt descriptions. It's about stupid people doing stupid things while thinking they're all clever.
mb, Congratulations on the publication of SSIG.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile here's buffoonery:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2378915/Temper-tantrum-wife-Whitney-Mongiats-mother-says-daughter-feels-betrayed-viral-video.html#comments
mb, these people "have it all" but he works 60+ hrs/week & she's apparently immature. I don't think these ppl are happy. A bk like SSIG wld prob be incomprehensible to them. They are living the American Dream. And my gosh how ugly it is.
Greetings Dr. Berman and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteDr. Berman-
Congratulations on the publication of SSIG! I look forward to reading it and engaging in discussion about it on this blog with Wafers worldwide.
Dr. B, Wafers-
Over the course of this week, my wife and I experienced a Wafer Trifecta:
1. Sofia Coppola's film, "The Bling Ring." Why would a Wafer watch such a movie? Because it provides more evidence about "Why America Failed"; entertainingly and frighteningly so. Here's a review from The New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2013/06/sofia-coppolas-bling-ring.html
2. Woody Allen's latest, "Blue Jasmine." The 1%, 2008 Crash, the hustle personified, and Woody at his best. Here's another review:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2013/07/29/130729crci_cinema_denby
3. And a bite to eat at Canter's Deli, open 24 hours...
Toodles,
Jeff
Thank u all for yr support. This was originally supposed to be out in early April, but better late than never etc.
ReplyDeleteMr. D: Javier's work is discussed in SSIG. I'm going to wait for Spanish trans of bk to appear and then have my Mexican publisher send him a copy. If he then wants to get together, I'll be happy to (assuming I can get someone to pay my plane ticket to Madrid, ha ha).
Sanc: Well of course most Americans won't be reading SSIG, or even hear of it; and wd hate it if they did, since it's not an Oprah message abt how you can alter yr life w/a positive attitude, so everything's really in yr hands. On the other hand, friends of mine now use the expression "I'm having a Sig moment," for when some kind of ontological understanding breaks thru (e.g. yr at dinner w/yr family and suddenly realize what the b.s. is all abt). For most of the country, this is not possible, because Sig moments are hard to come by when yr head is impacted in yr rear end.
Jeff: Yes, I've already ordered Bling and Blue on Netflix, but they probably won't be in DVD for another year, sad to say. As for Canter's...I suffer greatly w/o them. I'm hoping their pastrami will be the source of many Sig moments.
mb
mb
Sadly, this is a tale about turning straw into a time bomb. Yesterday I witnessed a youthful friend, down our dirt road about a mile or two (Pearly Blue), turning into an automaton.
ReplyDeleteHe told me, "I want to go to war. I want to be a hero. Why do people clap for you in airports (told by the recruiters)? I cannot wait until I'm 18 to join the Marines. (He is 16 in a month or so.). You go for eight years and then you go to school to learn your trade. I want to be a hero. I want to go to war."
I was speechless. Just listened.
He had recently acquired a marine haircut for which he was very, veeeeery proud.
Apparently, warmongers will take anyone irrespective of school progress?
This young fellow can barely read (est. about 20-25 wpm) and stops, continually, asking what words mean. I had attempted to help him last year with the learner's permit just before his 15th birthday. He still has not passed a year later, although he was so excited about learning to drive. He is home schooled and sometimes he returns to his residence by 10 AM because the teacher doesn't show up. I asked him one time to give me a few titles to some of the books they read. Answer: the Bible. The husband was just fired but has an $8/hr job now. Nicest fellow u wud ever want to meet. So sad.
shep-
ReplyDeleteAmerica is this sad little guy, writ large. We have a history of turning gold into straw, and this is as gd an example as any.
mb
Mike D-
ReplyDeleteYou might find what yr looking for in a bk I wrote called "Coming to Our Senses." I'm currently trying to get Amazon to list the re-release, but it's been a long, slow fight. Meanwhile, u can buy a used copy off of them.
mb
Yes, yes. Gold into Straw. Now, I understand.
ReplyDeleteWAFers ... a twist on CRE ?
ReplyDeletehttp://calcoastnews.com/2013/07/drought-hits-norcal-pot-farms/
Sure, they'll blame nature, rather than a country that's gone to pot abandoning even that pursuit due to lack of economic feasibility.
@ MB ...More congrats on SSIG.
I had first thought it to be a treatise on modern alchemy, and not the personal bio / odyssey.
( Your early jobs of janitor, secretary, bank teller, chauffer reminded me of my first 'job'.
I was a paper delivery boy for the now defunct Chicago Daily News. I remember distinctly the day after the JFK assassination, where the entire back page was Bill Mauldin's iconic rendition of a grieving Lincoln.
I was eight years old, and decided that that was what I desired to be: political cartoonist. Only took me 35 years.
If I ever publish a collection, it just might be titled, "Turning Ink Into Ideas". )
AFA CREP marching music ...considered having some Black Flag / Henry Rollins, but probably too obscure.
Die Walkure ? How about "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" ?
Just ordered my copy of SSIG, and the Amazon review will be posted shortly after I receive & eagerly read it.
ReplyDeleteThe Paul Christiansen endorsement reinforces my own feelings about your overall work. I've seen many people describe it as doom & gloom, but it's never struck me that way. True, it's an honest, clear-eyed look at the way things actually are & seem to be going, rather than the comforting illusions so many would like to preserve at all cost -- but going all the way back to your human consciousness books, there's a strong & steady thread binding it all together, a thread that's clearly about meaning & quality of life. How are we to live a rich & multi-dimensional life, as opposed to skating across the surface of a flimsy, shiny surface? A surface that'll give way & swallow us up at any moment?
Shep, your sad story about your young friend is heartbreaking. Here's someone who's desperately looking for meaning, for a worthwhile life -- and the best America has to offer is the orchestrated applause for cannon fodder, offered by a populace that'll ignore & denigrate him when he returns from war a psychologically shattered shell of a person. Assuming he returns at all, of course.
Wafers: While there are all too many examples of crassness, ugliness, stupidity & self-delusion every day, let's not let ourselves be overwhelmed by them. To quote Elvis Costello, "Well I used to be disgusted / But now I try to be amused" -- a sometimes bitter amusement, to be sure.
At the same time, remember Surrealist poet Paul Eluard's famous line, "There is another world and it is this one." An NMI line if I ever heard one! There's beauty, art, nature, poetry, music, and at least a few like-minded people to nurture our bruised souls.
Best of luck to all of us.
Poet, Mike D-
ReplyDeleteBest to write to current post; no one reads the old ones.
shep-
Gold into straw = heads into rumps.
Here's an interesting para from Immanuel Wallerstein's short little bk, "World-Systems Analysis":
"We are in a capitalist system only when the system gives priority to the *endless* accumulation of capital. Using such a definition, only the modern world-system has been a capitalist system. Endless accumulation is a quite simple concept: it means that people and firms are accumulating capital in order to accumulate still more capital, a process that is continual and endless. [In other words, they are suffering from CRE.] If we say that a system 'gives priority' to such endless [asinine] accumulation, it means that there exist structural mechanisms by which those who act with other motivations [i.e., decent, intelligent people] are penalized in some way, and are eventually eliminated from the social scene [i.e. marginalized and ignored, the central argument of WAF], whereas those who act with the appropriate motivations [Thos Friedman, Lloyd Blankfein, Ovamit] are rewarded and, if successful, enriched."
It's a useful summary of WSA thinking, altho marred by the absence of any refs to Americans as self-destructive jackasses and complete and utter buffoons.
mb
Tim-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. I look for'd to yr review, esp. since I'm expecting a fair amt of hate mail. I don't try to make myself look esp. gd in this bk, i.e. hide the dark side. For most Americans, that's an opportunity to attack, not to self-reflect, as I'm guessing Wafers know all too well. Try to be vulnerable in this country and you'll regret it, is the lesson most of us learned pretty early, since the majority are driven by existential strain. Well fuck 'em, I decided to let it all hang out. There's no stopping douchebaggery in any case, no matter how hard u try.
BTW, you left out a word: Eluard wrote: "There is another world, but it is in this one." I.e., not coterminus w/this world, but inside it.
Wafers Rule, kiddo--Now there's a great Post-It for all of us!
mb
The citation to Eluard is a misattribution. Eluard was citing a citation.
ReplyDeleteSee the following for more information:
http://tinyurl.com/l3zp6wv
Oh, and for whoever might be curious, here's the French original by Ignaz-Vitalis Troxler (1780-1866) that Eluard quotes by way of Albert Beguin, and my translation.
ReplyDelete"Il y a assurement un autre monde, mais il est dans celui-ci et, pour atteindre a sa pleine perfection, il faut qu'il soit bien reconnu et qu'on en fasse profession. L'homme doit chercher son etat a venir dans le present, et le ciel, non point au-dessus de la terre, mais en soi."
"There is assuredly another world, but it is in this one, and to reach one's fullest perfection, this must be recognized and admitted. Man must seek his future state in the present, and heaven not above the earth, but in oneself".
Blue-
ReplyDeleteThanks for clearing that up; I've been losing sleep over it for decades. Frankly, if my name were Ignaz Vitalis Troxler, I'd just shoot myself and get it over with. Altho the guy did know Hegel and Beethoven, which is more than I can say for myself.
mb
Ellen,
ReplyDeleteRe: “No holocaust?”
A few years ago I happened on a website called “Things White People Like.”
E.g. “White people like New Balance Shoes.” You’re supposed to know who likes Nike shoes. Or, “White people like women who wear their hair in bangs.” You know whose hair doesn’t work for bangs. Then there was “White people like to compare everything they don’t like to Hitler.” Unlike leaders of our ‘Indispensable Nation’, Hitler was the mass murderer whose victims where White!
American foreign policy since WWII has been punctuated by one holocaust after another. Aside from the war of aggression against Vietnam itself being a holocaust, there were, as you point out, gruesome spinoffs.
A few of the others that pop into my mind: US bombing probably killed a quarter of the population of North Korea (…bragged General Curtis LeMay). CIA policies in the former Belgian Congo resulted in millions of deaths over decades – as has the neoliberal globalization the US has been forcing on the rest of the world. The US has blessed every major South American country with a decade or more of military dictatorship, complete with torture centers and thousands of ‘disappeared.’ And please don’t forget the various near-genocidal projects the US has bestowed on Central America.
These are not abstract ideas. Look into the eyes of your children and think about these people!
From the Bible: “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Genesis 40:23). A Rabbi asks, “Why are both verbs used, ‘remembering’ and ‘forgetting’?” He explains, “There are events of such overbearing magnitude that one ought not to remember them all the time, but one must not forget them either. Such an event is the Holocaust.”
Well, such an event has been US world policy!
David Rosen
Dovidel, et al.,
ReplyDeleteMy point was that no holocaust resulted within America as it did in post WWI Germany as a result of the adoption of a stab-in-the-back-myth narrative being used to explain defeat in war. We did not put anti-war protesters in camps, and electing Reagan seemed to satisfy any thoughts of revenge for our defeat. Obviously the people of SE Asia suffered a holocaust largely thanks to us. But the Nazi experience does show what people are capable of once the have the proper narrative that allows them to justify their actions.
For instance:
GWB (now a grandfather) said Jesus actually told him to invade Iraq and drop depleted uranium everywhere. Now Iraqi grandchildren are being born with hideous deformities, but it’s OK, they are God’s enemies. Schooled by anti-semite Billy Graham (see the Nixon Tapes) on the Christian New Testament end-times narrative, Bush and fundy Christians can feel good about killing Muslim children, just as Nazis could feel good about killing Jewish children because of what their narrative told them. Onward Christian soldiers, Gott mit uns.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/05/22/bush-god-iraq-and-gog/
Mb,
ReplyDeletecould that be one of the shadow sides of the internet for you personally, putting you in touch with millions of angry dolts in a barrage of messages? Before the internet, you'd be blissfully ignorant of their existence, because most of them wouldn't bother to write, call, or visit you in person. So maybe dealing with the dolt barrage could be the shadow of the internet?
Shane-
ReplyDeleteA gd question. Really, all of u Wafers shd start a blog, just to get an idea of what's out there in America. It has been a real education for me. More than by stupidity, I'm impressed by the sheer amount of rage and pain carried by our fellow citizens. That ES theory proved to be more accurate than I ever imagined--not just douche bags, but very sad douche bags, it seems to me.
Let me give u just one example. We've had some recent discussions in wh/"Larry" participated. It turns out Larry was a troll. When "Christ Puncher" asked me abt my (currently nonexistent) sex life, that was Larry in disguise. So I gave Mr. Puncher a Portnoyish response, just for fun, then got a message from Larry to the effect that haha, he had gotten me to post 2x from the same person in the same day, and calling me a "Fucking asshole." (The other message was Larry asking me a whole series of questions that I cdn't be bothered with, and that he didn't care abt either, apparently.) What in the world? Consider:
1. Like many trolls and buffoons who have shown up here, he's got way too much time on his hands. Whereas my daily schedule is close to overwhelming, here's a guy w/nothing better to do w/his life than troll various blogs, and mess with them. I'm aware that American citizens are majorly unemployed these days, but why not fill yr time learning Sanskrit, or improving your tennis game? No, let's fuck with blogs instead. In the douche bag world, this makes perfect sense.
2. Exactly what kind of a triumph is it, to use a 2nd handle and thus manage to post 2x in one day? Shit, talk about Big Events in Small Lives. Larry was gloating; he actually regarded this as a triumph! "Kleine Geist," the Germans wd say of such a person.
3. Why gratuitously insult someone who has never insulted you? This is worse than Autonomous.
It's all abt ES, as I mentioned above. Pathetic people who are not very bright, in a lot of pain, and w/nothing better to do. It's a very sad portrait of America, to be sure.
(Now, of course, I'll have to put up w/a barrage of bitter messages from Larry or Christ Puncher or some other alias, wh/I'll delete w/o reading, as I typically do in such cases. What are the chances that the Larrys of this world will wake up to the misery of their lives, and actually deal w/it, as opposed to attacking some external 'enemy'? An interesting microcosm of US foreign policy we've got here.)
Clearly, CRE rules! Larry = America; there are millions upon millions of Larrys in our embattled, declining nation. What will they say to themselves on their deathbeds, as the lights are growing dim? "I trolled blogs, and thus led a fulfilling life"? So yes, yr rt: this is the shadow world of dolts and clowns that one discovers via the Net. This *is* the collapse of America.
mb
MB, Blue,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification as well. I was going by uncertain memory at the end of a tiring day, alas. Though the difference between the versions with & without "in" gives me something interesting to mull over, to be honest. Serendipity!
Shane,
I like that idea about the shadow aide of the Internet. I've always felt the combined immediacy & anonymity of the Internet provided a perfect outlet for the Id. There's no face-to-face interaction with an actual human being, just a digital abstraction. Attacking people online provides both a sense of security & of power, however illusory both may be in the long run. And we've got an entire generation growing up like that, right from the start!
As for the probable public reception of SSIG, I'll go with another quote, this time from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, which is heartily recommended reading for all Wafers:
"Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision."
A tasty sampler of Bierce here:
http://www.quotesby.net/Ambrose-Bierce
(I love that the site featured an ad link to Positive Attitude Quotes when I opened it.)
Dr. B--
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you rounded out your thoughts on Larry the troll by posing, "What will they say to themselves on their deathbeds . . ."?
For this reason, I carry around a copy of _The Death of Ivan Ilyich_ with me (as well as a copy of the _Denial of Death_) in my backpack . .. I can't help but smile and derive some detached levity when I consider the final hours of dolts ad infinitum, when they'll need to confront the idea that their lives were a waste.
Using everyday doltishness as a learning opportunity and source of entertainment, I've also acquired a new habit: I quite literally carry around in my backpack one of those small "Popcorn" bags (with the lettering clearly visible on the front) with some popcorn, so when ontologically limited folks blather on about tweaking the current system (e.g., increasing GDP, getting "the right folks" in office), I simply pull out my bag and begin to eat some popcorn . . .
Granted, I could eventually get killed behaving as such, but I figure--what the heck--I've already become skilled at dying (off to previous ways of knowing) . . . reminds me of the Cathers singing as they went into the flames . . .
Cheers (just ordered SSIG . . . can't wait)--
Brian
Brian-
ReplyDeleteIt's probably a lot smoother than carrying around an airplane barf bag, wh/wd certainly drive home the pt. Enjoy SSIG, muchacho.
mb
I just went to Amazon to find your new book, and it says it is out of print. How could it be out of print if it just came out?
ReplyDeleteWent to grab SSIG this morning -- and it's out of print. Looks like more than 20 WAFers grabbed a copy! Congratulations MB! I'm looking forward to it being back in stock!
ReplyDeleteJudy-
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking. Here's the scoop: From early April, when bk was supposed to come out, we've been having endless printer's errors. Why this shd be, I have no idea; but the problem persisted rt down to the listing of the book on Amazon. As I was reviewing the pdf, I discovered that a line had been omitted from a paragraph towards the end of the bk, rendering the meaning of that para senseless. Hold the presses!!, I yelled. Publisher alerted Amazon, wh/then listed the bk as out of print, and then corrected the last pdf. The bk shd be back in print and available for purchase w/in 24 hours, publisher tells me.
Abt 7 bks were sold yesterday, and a few of these might contain the error I'm talking about. For those of you who did order the bk yesterday, when it arrives pls go to p. 81. The very last word on the page is "do". This should be followed by the following line:
"it--would seem to be a variation on the Golden Rule, and we probably cannot violate it indefinitely." That will render the text comprehensible.
I want to apologize to those few of you who might have that line missing from p. 81 (in the corrected version, it's shoved onto p. 82). I hope this doesn't cause huge inconvenience (I suppose u cd think of yr copy as a collector's item). You can imagine what it's been like, working for 4 extra mos. w/a printer who somehow just cdn't get things rt. But at least--judging from the latest pdf I have from the publisher--it looks like it all got straightened out.
Anyway, thanks for asking. Bk shd be back on sale shortly, and thank you for ordering it.
mb
JPF-
ReplyDeleteThanks for trying. Pls see my reply to Judy. We shd be back in biz in 24, if all goes well.
mb
Ive been enjoying the blog for a while and just ordered 5 of yr books - with a number of Gore Vidals works. Looking forward to reading those.
ReplyDeleteshep - here is a little story about how much 'Murica cares about its valiant hero Marines. I hadn't been aware of it until I met two of the victims at the clinic where I receive chemotherapy treatments and they told me about it. I'll admit to being as cynical as they come, but this surprised even me:
ReplyDelete"The Camp Lejeune water contamination problem occurred at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987. During that time, United States Marine Corps (USMC) service members and their families living at the base apparently bathed in and ingested tap water that was contaminated with harmful chemicals. An undetermined number of former base residents later developed cancer or other ailments, which many blame on the contaminated drinking water. Victims claim that USMC leaders concealed knowledge of the problem and did not act properly in trying to resolve it or notify former base residents that their health might be at risk. In 2009 the U.S. federal government initiated investigations into the allegations of contaminated water and failures by U.S. Marine officials to act on the issue. In August 2012, President Obama signed the Janey Ensminger Act into law to begin providing medical care for people who may have been affected by the contamination.
"...15 specific ailments (are) believed to be linked to the contamination, including cancer of the esophagus, lung, breast, bladder or kidney; leukemia; multiple myeloma; myleodysplasic syndromes; renal toxicity; hepatic steatosis; female infertility; miscarriage; scleroderma; and/or neurobehavioral effects or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Lejeune_water_contamination
To date, upwards of a thousand former Marines and their family members have contracted deadly cancers and other maladies from this travesty. The two gentlemen I met, now in their 60s, both have Stage 4 cancer and are likely terminal. Yet it took the federal government a quarter of a century to acknowledge the problem and finally begin providing health care to the victims. "Thank you for your service" indeed.
Jasper-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks.
Attention all Wafers: SSIG is back! Check Amazon, and thank u again for yr patience.
mb
Great--copy ordered!
ReplyDeleteWhen does reality assert itself to Americans I wonder?
Detroit goes Bankrupt, many pension funds technically insolvent and of course there is Anthony Weiner--will he stick it out or will he go soft and disappear?
But seriously....over conversation with a cousin who is a psychiatrist came round to the well trod 25% on anti depressants. He hates em. He said people focus on the reasons why people take said pills--speaks to the bleakness of the nation etc. The real thing to consider is the consequences of 25% of adults on these things. Key side effect--being emotionally numb, less stress and anxiety and general senstivity to others and environment--as the song said comfortably numb. Add TV and electronic devises to this and viola the spiritual journey of MB as described in book is for just a very few of us. I thank you in advance.
@ MB, Brian, Shane, WAFers at large
ReplyDeleteRe: Larry the troll, et al ...
The impersonalization that the internet affords serves as the narcotic of the masses with empty minds ...or those minds consisting of cotton candy.
Many years ago, with the advent of PC's and various message boards, I participated on a mb that was purportedly financial ...geared towards the 'individual investor' ( what a joke, but it was 15 years ago ). Course, many of the topics became political.
There was another poster with the username "John Galt III" that would repeatedly flame with objectivist, ubermenschian crappola. CRE on steroids.
I had more than a few go rounds with Mr. JG III.
Turns out, one fine evening JG III was driving on rain slicked roads, and was evidently travelling too fast for conditions. Vehicle went out of control, flipped over, and that was the end of JG III on this planet.
I remarked how ironic and fitting it was for him to be engaging in such a solipsistic manner, and that he must have died a happy man.
I kinda fullfilled Wilde's admonition about 'telling the truth', because YKW got banned from the site.
Eh ... I thought it was funny !
We all have our own diversions / preferences that we choose for escapism.
There are the benign outlets ...such as a nice corned beef sandwich, a pleasing hobby, naval gazing or other ways of communing with nature, ...learning Sanskrit or improving your tennis game as Dr. B observes. I play the harmonica.
Then there are the nasty habits that can be and are often destructive that we are familiar with. Internet trolling falls in this category.
Trolls like Larry are unaware that their semi-anonymous externalising reveals how void they really are.
I suspect that most will never ponder their lives or existence. Heck, they don't do it now.
More than a few won't have time to, like JG III.
*** As for CREP theme songs ...recalled one of my faves:
"Golden Country" by REO Speedwagon.
Dr B
ReplyDeleteJust ordered SSIG. Been busy working my way through your back catalog. I appreciate the careful research in the works I've read to date. I don't find them pessimistic, but rather, clear-eyed.
I always refer to comments you made at a bookstore appearance I happened upon. When noting the absence of remedial suggestions in WAF, you said "let's face it, there's not alot you can do(as a nation) when you're stupid." I think, for those who don't think of themselves as commonly doltish, what I anticipate to see in SSIG may help me quite a bit.
I look forward to comparing it to Kunen's "Diary of a Company Man" in terms of insight into practical escape from Doltespheric corrosion.
Thanks again for the work.
Devin-
ReplyDeleteThank u for yr interest in my work, and I do hope u enjoy SSIG. As in the case of the Twilight book and the NMI concept, this book offers no solutions to the problem of America itself, because there aren't any: it simply has to go under, and it will. Marxism 101: structural problems require structural solutions, and our problems are structural. Since we have long passed the pt (historically speaking) where structural solutions are available, we're basically screwed.
However, the individual American isn't screwed--by which I mean, doesn't have to be--and this is what Twilight and SSIG are concerned with: given the social and political context, how do you negotiate the terrain, how do you live a life that isn't poisoned by the craziness of the surrounding culture? Very few people, I'm guessing, will read SSIG, because it isn't a New Age/Oprah/Individualism/Success-type of book, and in a culture that is defined (down to its socks) in terms of hustling, the latter is what Americans want to hear. In WAF I talk abt how America failed because it ignored its nonhustling, alternative voices. Well, SSIG is for that tiny, marginalized group, people who are *allergic* to hustling and think it's a sick way to live. So SSIG is perhaps the specific fleshing out of the NMI way of life, the nuts and bolts(to chg metaphors) of the whole operation. Quite honestly, I'll be extremely surprised if I make $1000 in royalties, all told, but I don't give a damn. I'm grateful to the folks at One Spirit Press for being willing to take it on, so that the ideas can reach a tiny handful of 'weirdos' who don't want to piss their lives away on chasing money and mainstream cultural fantasies of what constitutes 'success'. In a nation of this type, so demented in its value system, to reach 100 people out of 315 million may be the best one can do.
Anyway, enjoy the bk, and May The Sig Be With You! (MTSBWY--my latest T-shirt idea, along with: Is Your Life SIGnificant?)
mb
Oh, great, does that now mean we become SIGers instead of WAFers, like when it switched from DAA 20 to WAFers.
ReplyDelete'there is Anthony Weiner--will he stick it out or will he go soft and disappear?' --very droll, Mr Capo. :)
ReplyDeleteI read that bankrupt Detroit is being described as a 'sacrifice zone'. Here is where the money is going:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/all/
Closer to home, I was woken this morning by a distraught neighbour (she recently lost her husband and is still raw) to attempt to rescue a wild duck and 5 ducklings that were wandering in the traffic here in London and being attacked by the local colony of magpies. (Wild life is abundant here, they adapt too and fast food is the new staple for our foxes)
The police arrived, (a wonder, but as they said they had no riots or crims to deal with so early in the morning) we captured the ducklings and with the mother-duck circling overhead the two cops walked with a box of ducklings to the nearest park with a lake.
Just a random event which later made me think of Tony Soprano and his troubles with ducks. Brilliant writing on that show.
Brilliant writing from Becker too in 'Denial of Death', which is probably the motivating factor behind most quick-fix drug consumption, ---most fixing, full stop.
Sundays with ellen.
Its a tough life and we only get one, I cooked duck for dinner and watched this uplifting vid from some random old Dutch biker with a sense of humour, 'One ride, one take, one shot':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC0yzIYVnZ0
If your book makes it to these shores Dr B, I will buy and read it.
Here's another uplifting tune and great lyric from those now ancient bad boys, which caused an almighty furore and got banned in the US at the time. Hmm, its a puzzle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8
"Thanks for clearing that up; I've been losing sleep over it for decades".
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome regarding the Eluard quotation. Morris, but thanks are unnecessary. My very raison d'êtreis to improve your sleep patterns.
Thanks Dr. B. I ordered a copy of SSIG and am looking forward to reading it. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks ago I received a call from my neighbor across the street; she sounded horrible. When I asked her what had happened, she broke down and said, “My son is dead.” 22 years old, an honor student, pharmacy major, and dead of a heroin overdose. We went to the service last Saturday and it was the saddest one I’ve ever attended.
This was a big, fundamentalist Baptist church and everything was taken care of for the family - they didn’t have to worry about the slightest detail. The church is known for its strong community. But I found the “Statement of Beliefs” on their website depressing at best. For example: “We believe in God, the Father, an infinite personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love….” Of course they all jump through hoops, through defense or theodicy, trying to explain the existence of evil. As much as I’d love to be part of a community I just couldn’t participate in something like this.
Anyway, we just had our house re-roofed and were talking about this young man’s death with the contractor, who coaches a lot of teens in ice hockey. He said that for kids today it really isn’t about getting a high, but about using drugs to bring themselves up to feeling normal.
There really is no hope.
Bleu-
ReplyDeleteEvery morning, when u wake up, say to yrself: "What can I do today to contribute to MB's life?" This is a very gd raison d'etre, mon cher.
ellen-
Maybe you can get the Greater London Library to buy a copy, who knows?
Shane-
Oh no, it's Wafers forever. But it might be nice to sign off with MTSBWY!
mb
Constant drama on this blog! lol
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of a reality show, MB :-)
ellen- Glad you liked the podcast interview I linked (for those who missed it, search "fromalphatoomega podomatic".) I plan to check out the guest's blog/site (which was IIRC The Automatic Earth.) She had a very clear way of explaining some economic ideas that can be quite tricky to the layperson (especially when 99% of economist have absorbed the mainstream neoliberal dogma and are misinforming everybody about how money and finance works.)
On a practical, individual level, her talk gives one some thoughts about how the slow collapse might procede. Sort of catabolic, as John Michael Greer wrote once. Periods of relativiely short, sharp crisis, followed by a decade or so of some recovery and stagnation; then another crisis, and so on: gradually adjusting the "middle class" to a much lower standard of living.
In the short to mid-range term, there could be periods of *hyper-deflation* (rather than the common fear of hyper-inflation) as all the credit money, which only exists as debt from one party to another, goes "poof" in a period of crisis (when it is suddenly realized by everyone that it's impossible to pay back, and debts are called in, hard assets confiscated.) Then you will want to be holding cash or gold, or actual valuables (vodka?) of some sort, as any "virtual" money/savings is at risk of being seized as part of some bailout (see: Cyprus) or other scheme. Of course you can't *buy* much anyway at that point, probably, so what you really want is to be "off the grid", preferably part of a community of like-minded people using permaculture techniques to live off the land, or some such. Kind of difficult for most of us to do...
Here’s a report on your book sales from the major independent bookstore where I work.
ReplyDeleteWAF has sold 28 copies new, 8 used. I think that’s pretty good for non-fiction over $25. No new copies have been ordered since last year, they may be waiting for the paperback. To my surprise they have been buying DDA remaindered, and it sells well. They bought 2 copies of QOV, both sold. I notice a lot of good non-fiction sometimes never gets reordered. The manager who hired me got fired years ago for buying too many books, that didn’t cleave closely to the J. K. Rowling mold. We’ve got an order for 900 of her latest. I was rereading WAF last night and I really think it would do well in paperback, I mean if we’re selling DAA after seven years, gimme a break, it’s just absurd that it’s not coming out in pb. Maybe with a provocative cover with that self-destructing steamroller you talk about painted in red, white, and blue with smoke and flames coming out of it, or a flag with the colors draining away. I think covers really matter, some of these publishers are buffoons (why such a muted cover?), WAF needs a dramatic cover that will attract anger from right-wing and progressive buffoons when they see it in your house. That’s part of the the fun of owning a book.
Ordered it. I just finished Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" and was looking for my next read. Gracias.
ReplyDeleteZ-
ReplyDeleteI tell u, my agent is pulling out all the stops, and no one wants to do the pb edn of WAF because they think it won't sell. I may eventually hafta self-publish it, I dunno. It's a drag; it's--America!
Hack-
Arnold Toynbee claimed that the decline of civs followed a pattern such that while the overall trajectory was down, there might be an upward, 'rallying' trend for a while that cd be deceptive, and that this cd happen more than once. But obviously, it was the overall trajectory that mattered, not the temporary 'remissions'.
But speaking of independent bkstores, I'm going to be in NY Nov. 20-25 and am trying to get some store to host a gig for SSIG ("a gig for Sig," get it? sheer poetry), which I figured I might do between sessions of utter debauchery at various delicatessens around town. I wrote the Community Bkstore on 7th Ave in Bklyn, where I did a rdg for DAA in 2006, and was cruelly rebuffed. Then I wrote the corporate office of B&N (I've also done a # of gigs at B&N stores), but am expecting to get turned down as well. I'm wondering if any of u NY Wafers have any ideas of an indep bkstore in Bklyn or Manhattan that I might approach. It wd be fun to do something while I'm in town; I just can't seem to get any retail outlets to agree w/me on that. It's a drag; it's--America! (Another possible T-shirt.)
MTSBWY!
mb
Zosima,
ReplyDeleteIvan Illich was a Christian heart and soul, to his bones. He considered Western-capitalist-modern society to be a corruption of Christianity, and his motto was “CORRUPTIO OPTIMI EST PESSIMA” (The corruption of the best is the worst.)
Every religion and every secular ideology has flaws within it that can used to corrupt it. A religion of peace, love, and forgiveness becomes one of hatred, war, and intolerance. A secular ideology of liberation becomes one of oppression.
I agree with your description of the American Christian right – I don’t like it either. But, what’s happened is that Calvinist Puritanism was transformed into America’s secular religion which is failing and leaving people with empty lives. As the stupefied majority of Americans turn back to religion they retain the secular religion while picking up the worst of Christianity.
I don’t think the flaws in Christianity (which exist and are serious) make this inevitable, or are even causing it. The capitalist world system is now in serious decline, and all over the world religious fundamentalism is on the rise as a response – even in religions like Hinduism and Buddhism which aren’t usually prone to such things.
American Christian fundamentalism is simply the poisoned icing on the rotting cake of capitalism’s secular religion of Progress.
You are right that American liberals and ‘progressives’ in the Northeast and on the West coast don’t know their own country. In a lecture on ‘The Decline of the American Empire’, Johan Galtung relates that he sometimes has to drive across the American South and how he stops for a hamburger – sometimes two hamburgers – so he can listen to the apocalyptic thinking that permeates the heart of the country.
As America’s slow-motion collapse proceeds, whatsoever things are true, just, or lovely will be turned into crap.
David Rosen
Note to MB,
ReplyDeleteAside from Brooklyn consider Red Emmas in Baltimore the worker owned bookstore. Close for summer but moving to North Ave in Fall--good place as far as places in B-more. Politics and Prose in D.C. perhaps..
Capo-
ReplyDeleteWill only be in NY, so that won't work, I fear.
LW-
Well, this is a quick one, so u might wanna read it 2x. If yr looking for a great novel: Lionel Shriver, "Big Brother."
mtsbwy!
mb
MB: Just purchased SSIG (along with Guy McPherson's Walking Away from Empire). I'll review it soon!
ReplyDeleteAs for a bookstore in NYC, maybe try this place (http://wordupbooks.wordpress.com/). I haven't actually been there though, perhaps one of our NYC based WAFSSIG-ers could report back.
Greetings Wafers,
ReplyDelete>> The Camp Lejeune water contamination problem occurred at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987... <<
Also, there's a very good, recent documentary along these lines: "Semper Fi". A 25 year Marine veteran, a master sergeant, investigates the environmental coverup at Camp LeJeune after his young daughter develops leukemia and dies.
Here's some info...
http://semperfialwaysfaithful.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1863372/
JWO-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. I'll check out the bkstore as well. BTW, we're still Wafers, altho Sig can be used in a signoff, as in:
MTSBWY--may the Sig be with you!
mb
1) The current Mayor of San Diego was in the US Congress for about 20 years before becoming the Mayor:
ReplyDelete"Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on Sunday joined a growing list of Democrats calling on San Diego Mayor Bob Filner to resign after allegations that he sexually harassed women, intensifying the pressure on him to step down.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, head of the Democratic National Committee, last week called on the 70-year-old Filner to step down, as have a number of San Diego-area Democratic officials, including Reps. Scott Peters and Susan Davis.
Filner, a member of Congress for 20 years before being elected mayor in November, has said that although his behavior toward women has been bad, he does not believe he has committed sexual harassment."
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Feinstein-urges-San-Diego-mayor-to-quit-4692489.php
2) Anthony Weiner was in the US Congress for more than 10 years (Jan 1999 to June 2011) before his attempt now to become a mayor of NY. Yet, he continues to behave like a todler with no sense of decency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Weiner
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/28/anthony-weiner-campaign-manager-quits-danny-kedem/2593395/
These show that being a lawmaker does not mean you understand the law or that you are no longer an American with an inborn right to be a fool and a thug.
Dear Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on SSIG! I look forward to reading it.
I just thought I will share the following even though It is not related to SSIG because I think this is one of the few blogs where readers may appreciate it:
I finished reading the book "The Wolf at Twilight" by Kent Nerburn last night. It is about an Indian Elder's (his name is Dan) quest to find his lost Sister. The thought that has remained with me after I finished the book is in the preface of the book where the author says "This is then - The Wolf at Twilight....It is the part of Dan's life I had left untold. It takes us to places that for too long have been hidden in shadow and reveals the truths about what has been taken from Native people and what the rest of us have lost in that taking." The line "what has been taken from Native people and WHAT THE REST OF US HAVE LOST IN THE TAKING" has stayed with me. Perhaps there is something in it for all of us to ponder.
Thank You,
Himanshu
Himan-
ReplyDeleteAmerica never figures out that it has lost anything. As I discuss in WAF, the enemy (Native Americans, Mexicans, USSR, the South, whatever) is always painted as the Vilest of the Vile, so we never manage to understand anything positive they may have had w/in their cultures. This failure has crippled us severely, and we are now paying the price for a monolithic way of life. As Gore Vidal once said: "Americans never learn; it's part of our charm."
Edward-
How these guys are walking around w/dry shoes continues to amaze me.
mtsbwy!
mb
Glenn Greenwald has more to say this week:
ReplyDeletehttp://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/07/glenn-greenwald-low-level-nsa-analysts-have-powerful-and-invasive-search-tool/
The future's so dark I might as well be wearing shades:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/poverty-unemployment-rates_n_3666594.html
What's truly frightening & depressing about trolls like Larry is that their trolling is undoubtedly the high point of their existence. That's what an individual, fleeting, precarious, precious life comes down to for them -- nothing but revealing their fear & impotence online in attempt to sustain an illusion of power.
I remember the late John Holt writing in one of his 1960s books on education that he felt the reason so many people littered was because of anger & fear & hollowness. He envisioned someone tossing an empty soda can out the driver's window while speeding down the highway & snarling, "Take that!" Basically an enraged, powerless Fuck you! to the world.
Larry & his kind are the digital equivalent. They simply can't see any possibilities beyond that. In fact, they don't want to.
Holt said something else that's even more true today: "Beware the man who feels himself to be a slave. He'll want to make a slave of you, too."
Which is why, if you point out alternatives & unexplored possibilities to so many Americans, they react with anger & attack you -- the existential strain. They'd prefer to drag you down with them rather than risk climbing out of the abyss of their own decaying souls. Above all, they don't want to know that they don't have to be what they are. Anything but that!
Tim-
ReplyDeleteYeah, a rather sad form of ES, to be sure. I expect more messages from Larry, and in general, more from the Larrys of this world who really do have nothing more in their lives but to troll the blog of an insignificant intellectual who can't even make it onto the radar screen in the US. Talk abt pathetic. There is, of course, always the choice u talk abt: instead of assuming I (or some external target) am the problem, to bite the bullet, read the poem by Keats (or whatever), and climb out of that abyss. Which is terrifying, of course. The alternative is to continue being a troll or a buffoon, and then, like Ivan Illych, lie on yr deathbed and say to yrself, "Shit, I wasted my life. I'm a fucking troll." This is known as LME--Last Minute Enlightenment. Cold comfort, indeed.
mtsbwy!
mb
Im currently reading the late Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting With Jesus". He has a chapter about Christian fundamentalism that is fairly detailed, his brother is a minister.
ReplyDeleteThis American life dept.
ReplyDeletehttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-4-5-us-face-175906005.html
4 out of 5 living near poverty...nice work! all that technology really made our lives better didn't it...
I ran into this event a few minutes ago. I do not know how many of you have seen it in the past - Chris Hedges was booed off the stage in 2003. I think the content of the speech did not connect specifically to the graduation theme, BUT the behavior of the people in the crowd looks awful today:
ReplyDelete1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAWMgYyAtHU
2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO6g9aH31Es
3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOZUi9vFKhc
4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_5XSUWJdM
Jesse-
ReplyDeleteYes, Americans are little more than pigs. To his credit, the president of Rockford College had to explain to the Youth of America that college was a place where one was expected to entertain diverse arguments and opinions, and that it behooved them to be courteous. What exactly had they spent 4 yrs doing, anyway? (We know the answer.) It's a drag; it's--America!
Pol-
Sure, but they all have cell fones, and are therefore so hip. Why worry abt anything else?
Dan-
Alas, Joe is no longer with us. I did correspond w/him a bit b4 he died. Check this out:
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2011/05/extreme-isolation.html
mtsbwy!
mb
My Hero:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/the_kiss_20120729/
At the risk of exposing my abysmal ignorance, what does "mtsbwy" stand for?
ReplyDeleteAt barbers today. Young man in chair next to me looking at his phone device thingy exclaims--wow how cool NPR's Scott Simon is at a hospital live tweeting his mothers death!
ReplyDeleteIf my children did that I would summon all remaining strength and hit them over head with bed pan and change my will and leave everthing to the cat.
Hard to contain myself from grabbing the straight razor from the barber.
The U.S. is a sick sick place.
Hi Dr B.
ReplyDeleteAm I reading the SSIG on Amazon correctly - the price is $19 and the book is only 92 pages. Why such a high price on your new book when all your others are much more reasonably priced. Any chance of a Kindle version coming out?
Dr. MB and fellow WAFers:
ReplyDeleteToday, I'd like to call your attention to one of the founding fathers of WAferism, James Howard Kunstler writing at: http://kunstler.com
Quoting from his blog today:
" Many of those aforementioned swindled, misled, and debauched lumpen folk (having finally sold off their Ford-F110s) will eventually see their prospects migrate back into the realm of agriculture, or at least their surviving progeny will, as the sugar-tit of federal benefits melts away to zero, and by then the population will be much lower. These days, surely, the idea of physical labor in the sorghum rows is abhorrent to a 325-pound food-stamp recipient lounging in an air-conditioned trailer engrossed in the televised adventures of Kim Kardashian and her celebrated vagina while feasting on a KFC 10-piece bundle and a 32 oz Mountain Dew. But the hypothetical grand-kids might have to adopt a different view after the last air-conditioner sputters to extinction, and fire-ants have eaten through the particle-board floor of the trailer, and all the magical KFC products recede into the misty past where Jenny Lind rubs elbows with the Knights of the Round Table . Perhaps I wax a little hyperbolic, but you get the idea: subsistence is the real deal-to-come, and it will be literally a harder row to hoe than the current conception of “poverty.” "
It's the highlight of my week, he posts every Monday morning, it's a must read.
Professor,
ReplyDeleteJust read your latest book, man! Left a rotten taste in my mouth. Wound up rippin' the pages out and using 'em to wipe my butt! Some time later my toilet overflowed. Water flowed into the living room. Turds settled on the carpet. Now I'm pissed! This is your fault, you sonofabitch! Why didn't you get your books printed on thinner paper!?
Rufus T. Silsby
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeletePlease excuse the extra post. Really no need to post this:
I can’t find your original post about your trip to NY and your quest for a bookstore gig – but…
Have you tried the Book Court in downtown Brooklyn? They seem to have in-store events every day, including Edward Said’s daughter, Najla Said. They are at 163 Court Street, their number is 718-875-3677, and their website is www.bookcourt.com.
They say, “Only the dead know Brooklyn” but the last time I checked I’m still alive.
Good luck,
David Rosen
DR-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks; I'll check them out.
Rufus-
I cdn't agree w/u more. From now on my 'books' will actually be rolls--of toilet paper. On sale in the bathrm of yr nearest bkstore.
Trout-
Re: Kim: check out my next post.
Austin-
Price reflects the original artwork that I and the publisher commissioned: 6 beautiful watercolor illustrations. Hence, not possible to sell for less. Sorry, amigo. In addition, I'm opposed to Kindle and e-bks: people don't read them, they scan them, and this is definitely not that kinda bk.
Capo-
So many shoes need urine, eh?
Sar-
mtsbwy = may the Sig be with you!, where Sig stands for SSIG, my latest bk. Sig also refers to ontological insight, as well as a penchant for deli meats.
So to all I say: mtsbwy!, and check out the next blog post toot sweet.
hugs,
the berm
Dear Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteTim--there's a more complete article you might be interested in reading on the appalling poverty/unemployment numbers:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/28/19738595-ap-4-in-5-americans-live-in-danger-of-falling-into-poverty-joblessness?lite
"Higher recent rates of unemployment mean the lifetime risk of experiencing economic insecurity now runs even higher: 79 percent, or 4 in 5 adults, by the time they turn 60.
By race, nonwhites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.
By 2030, based on the current trend of widening income inequality, close to 85 percent of all working-age adults in the U.S. will experience bouts of economic insecurity."
I talked to a cousin a few nights ago who has a very good job with a large corporation. She's been fighting cancer for 5 years (successfully, thank God) and would like to go ahead and retire but was told she will be losing benefits and they won't be so sympathetic to time off in the future either. She's been a staunch Republican for many years and is fairly shocked by their lack of compassion. People don't understand how much we are at the mercy of this machine until it turns on them.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I read my Kindle in the same way I read books. I think the study you're thinking of was referring to the way people read when they're browsing the web. The reason people scan text on the Web probably has to do with it being a mixed media (video, pics, games, ads, text, etc). The Kindle lets you sink into the book-reading frame of mind without pulling your attention into graphics/animation/instant-messaging/etc. It's just black text on white/grey background. Unless it's the Kindle Fire. I've never used that one, but it's probably just like an IPad, and so in that case people might be more likely to scan.
ReplyDeleteNaked Jogger
NJ-
ReplyDeleteYou cd be rt, I dunno. There has been so much lit over past 10 yrs on the damaging effect of screens on the mind that I tend to lose track. I seem to remember an essay arguing that rdg on a printed page was a very different experience than rdg on a screen. In addition, I think it likely that we have become so conditioned to the scanning and basic inattention of web page rdg, that this wd spill over into iPad and Kindle rdg. But I can't be sure.
mb
On the topic of paper books versus digital books...
ReplyDeleteYou can't (easily) put notes into the margins of digital books, can you? I've always scribbled notes in the books I read. Then I come back, re-read them, and scribble more notes - especially if it's a provocative read. Eventually, I've completely re-written the original book, which then becomes a series of footnotes . It's how I make them my own.
I really don't want to give up this practice.
Pil-
ReplyDeleteTouche; one thing the kindle folk don't seem to understand. In future, better to post on the most recent post, since no one reads old stuff.
mb
Speaking of the US Suez moment, spite theory, and destroying the US $, discussions are underway about not raising the debt ceiling and defaulting. Let's hope the tea party holds fast this time and refuses the increase. We'll show them! We'll destroy our own stinking currency, we don't need no furriners to do it for us!
ReplyDeleteShane-
ReplyDeleteBetter to write to most recent post. No one reads the older stuff. Thanks.
mb
On behalf of all the other Larry's in the world i would like to apologize for the Larry who is harassing you. Your blog has helped me to put up w/the stupidity of our country and just enjoy it. At a recent family reunion a distant relative told a group of us that honeybees were in decline because of abortion and the reelection of Obama. Nobody disagreed. I would have in the past but now I just grin and walk away. I will look for your book at Bookpeople our local indy bookstore.
ReplyDeletePaul-
ReplyDeleteBest to send messages to most recent post; no one reads the old ones. Also, Bookpeople won't have it; SSIG hasta be ordered off Amazon. Larry has happily gone elsewhere, so rt now the blog is not being bombarded by trolls; tho I tell u, they are such awful human beings, I miss them. Your family is like any other American family: dumb as a stick.
mb