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Category Archives: Popular Culture
Looking Backwards
In a few weeks, I’m going to be talking about how searching as an act changes when the digitized texts you’re searching through are either highly specialized in their content or are from a distinctly different era of rhetoric and … Continue reading
Geeking Out About Dragons and Alt-History
I’ve talked about Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series before, which is an alternate history focused on the premise that many of the major governments of the world between 1600-1800 have had access to intelligent dragons as military, economic and cultural resources. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Popular Culture, Sheer Raw Geekery
3 Comments
I Want My AuthenticiTV
I largely believe in the everyday critical capacity of contemporary audiences. In many ways, I think cultural consumers today are the most sophisticated in human history. To some extent, that’s because their toolkits, both intellectual and technological, have a lot … Continue reading
Four Reasons Why The World Is Better Because of the Internet
Cash Gordon Chatroulette in Ben Folds concert (via 11d) Hark a Vagrant Wikileaks ——— One of the things that drives me nuts about the stalwart defenders of old media and their closed-shop underpinnings is an unwillingness to concede that online … Continue reading
Posted in Information Technology and Information Literacy, Popular Culture
Comments Off on Four Reasons Why The World Is Better Because of the Internet
Release the Kraken!
I have a sneaking feeling that movie critics won’t be that impressed with the remake of Clash of the Titans, coming out this week. Maybe I won’t be, either, given that it has the potential to be a sort of … Continue reading
Posted in Popular Culture
5 Comments
Bad Books and Bad Commentariats
I’m far more deferential to general criticisms of professors than most academics are. At a certain point, however, it’s okay to just squawk about kneejerk anti-intellectualism. So, for example, take this response by Carolyn Kellogg at her LA Times book … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, Politics, Popular Culture
3 Comments
Batman Beyond
Going to geek out a bit here, so skip to the next entry (whenever that comes) if that’s not your kind of thing. There’s a good short piece by Allen Varney at The Escapist about some basic story-telling problems of … Continue reading
Posted in Popular Culture
12 Comments
The Gathering Twilight, Part the Second
Gary Jones at Muck and Mystery takes on a piece about Jaron Lanier’s new book that caught my eye as well. My negative reaction to Lanier’s views wasn’t quite as strong as Gary’s was, but I had some similar feelings. … Continue reading
Posted in Games and Gaming, Popular Culture
Comments Off on The Gathering Twilight, Part the Second
The Bestest Native of All
Some readers will remember that I defended District 9 against some of the criticisms levelled against it. I don’t know that I’d do the same for Avatar, at least not its plot. My position on the film otherwise is pretty … Continue reading
Posted in Popular Culture
5 Comments
Marshall, Will and Holly Sell Some Routine Tobacco Products
I’ve been talking a lot lately about the mismatch between levels or scales of social action and social knowledge. Mostly I think that’s a question that involves the design and organization of institutions, governments, and social networks. Sometimes, though, it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Popular Culture
4 Comments