BERNEVAL

Svevo Brooks has produced a charming and simple book, The Art of Good Living. It is no easy task to accomplish the simple. This book subtitled “Simple Steps to Regaining Health and the Joy of Life” does that. Brooks covers five areas:

elimination
relaxation
happiness
sleep
flexibility

It is a listing that can tumble. That is, the elements can be shuffled in any order of priority. You don’t have to start at the beginning. It is important to realize that my short list doesn’t correspond verbatim to the table of contents in The Art of Good Living. Take for example, the chapter on elimination, it is called “Good Housekeeping”. In other words, there is a lot of charm at work.

And so for day 700
12.11.2008

I wonder if they exist and what they may call themselves. People who are early adapters of new technology in only some aspect of their lives and traditional about their technological choices in others. They might compose multimedia mashups and still send thank you notes written by hand. They may listen to radio and avoid television. They might have the latest espresso maker and still use cast iron (instead of nonstick) frying pans. I would venture to call them “mixed luddites” and suspect that many of them ride bicycles.

And so for day 699
11.11.2008

In clearing out some old boxes of papers, I came across the very beginnings of an outline of a course built in a comparative mode. Unfortunately all that exists of the proposed course is the listing of books by McLuhan and the names of authors to read alongside.

Mechanical Bride: Barthes Mythologies

Gutenberg Galaxy: Ong Ramus, Method & the Decay of Dialogue

Medium is the Massage: Baudrillard Simulations

From Cliché to Archetype: Frye Anatomy of Criticism

And the posthumous Laws of Media was paired with the far earlier Vico.

And so for day 698
10.11.2008

William Gibson. Spook Country. Chapter 29 “Insulation”. The character Milgrim is speaking.

“Are you so scared of terrorists that you’ll dismantle the structures that made America what it is?

[…]

“If you are, you let the terrorist win. Because that is exactly, specifically, his goal, his only goal: to frighten you into surrendering the rule of law. That’s why they call him ‘terrorist.’ He uses terrifying threats to induce you to degrade your own society.”

[…]

“It’s based on the same glitch in human psychology that allows people to believe they can win the lottery. Statistically, almost nobody ever wins the lottery. Statistically, terrorist attacks almost never happen.”

I like how the theme of gambling is woven into the theme of the degradation of the rule of law. It makes it as concrete as holding onto a lottery ticket. And as equally deflating.

And so for day 697
09.11.2008

Scrawl retrieved.

Got a name: Thomas Scoville

Got a phrase: “image culture burnout”

Conducted a search.

Found the article: The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature

His is hyphenated “image-culture burnout”. Mine is not. Displacing the emphasis. Thinking about the “image of culture burnout”. Somewhat justified by the locus of Scoville’s use:

I will admit NT made my life easier in some respects. I found myself doing less remembering (names of utilities, command arguments, syntax) and more recognizing (solution components associated with check boxes, radio buttons, and pull-downs). I spent much less time typing. Certainly my right hand spent much more time herding the mouse around the desktop. But after a few months I started to get a tired, desolate feeling, akin to the fatigue I feel after too much channel surfing or videogaming: too much time spent reacting, not enough spent in active analysis and expression. In short, image-culture burnout.

The physicality of it all is noteworthy. Scoville has much more to say about the freedom that the mastery of UNIX brings. Me, for now, I will stick to wondering about the proliferation of image culture burnout.

And so for day 696
08.11.2008

There are never enough explanations of the difference between communication and signification for the latter is a particularly challenging concept for students. The following seems to do well.

[S]ign activity takes place irrespective of specific functions and purposes, and therefore it is sometimes necessary to consider sign activity as a sort of idle, non-functional and unproductive semiotic mechanism.

From Susan Petrilli and Augusto Ponzio Thomas Sebeok and the Signs of Life in the series Postmodern Encounters edited by Richard Appignanesi.

And so for day 695
07.11.2008