Posted in Pop Culture, Writing & Reading on Apr 13th, 2009 3 Comments »
Twitter is a mixed bag. You have to applaud the way in which it shrewdly draws on Facebook, SMS, and social networking. If you have ever yearned to feel connected to the actions and thoughts of others at any or all moments in time, your prayer has been heard. Through Twitter’s interface, communication has simultaneously become more personal, concise, [...]
Posted in Pop Culture, Writing & Reading on Mar 20th, 2009 4 Comments »
I have to bite my tongue whenever someone argues that fiction is inherently harmful. Often, he or she employs a sprinkling of anecdotes to argue that literature, television, and movies weaken humanity’s collective “grasp” on reality or that readers rely on these forms of fiction for escape from reality. That isn’t to say that discussing [...]
Posted in Marginalia, Pop Culture, Writing & Reading on Feb 25th, 2009 7 Comments »
Horrid pessimism threatens the liberal arts as much as any economic downturn. Profs no longer scare potential applicants away with tales of sweat, poverty, and misery. Instead, they prophecy the demise of a certain “American Dream,” one involving humanist ambitions: “The truth is, chances of acceptance in your field are slim, 5% to be exact.” [...]
Posted in Marginalia, Pop Culture, Words, Writing & Reading on Feb 18th, 2009 No Comments »
When cutting-edge technology and incorrigible youth collide, language reinvents itself. Desperate British parents, take heart: you can soon reference Collins English Dictionary in order to decode what your teen’s “stunting” about being “shifted” really means. Of course, American parents can take refuge in any one of a number of online shortlists of SMS vocabulary, [...]
Posted in Marginalia, Pop Culture, Uncategorized on Jan 13th, 2009 No Comments »
To some, marginalia is heresy. Every time I touch my pencil to a margin I hear Patrick Altick retching, although the well-hidden and oft-rebuffed historian within me vehemently disagrees with the beau idéal.
How many times have you been annoyed by the marginalia left by some idiot–huge and redoubled exclamation points, uncomplimentary expressions (”absurd,” “oh, come [...]
