Daily Thoughts 4/4/2010

art piece at title page of William Blake, painter and poet by Richard Garnett Publisher: London, Seeley, 1895.

Daily Thoughts 4/4/2010

This morning, I finished reading The Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick. It was quite compelling. I had a hard time putting it down. The writing is quite compelling.

I am reading Raj Patel's The Value of Nothing. What caught my attention was a rather interesting claim by a cult that Raj Patel was the messiah. It made me interested enough to want to read his book. I don't think he is the messiah, but he probably has something worthwhile to say. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/19/raj-patel-colbert-report-benjamin-creme

Daily Thoughts 4/3/2010

The Owl and The Pussycat, an illustration by Edward Lear, 1871, from the Book of Nonsense II.

Daily Thoughts 4/3/2010

While I was at Barnes and Nobles, I saw a hardcover copy of Live Free or Die by John Ringo which is libertarian military science fiction. I went to Baen's webscription site to see if it was available as an ebook. The ebook cost $6 through their webscription service. There is a cover price of $26 for the hardcover book. I have already read several sample chapters in the ebook. Financially, it makes more sense for me to buy the ebook if I cannot find it at my library. Ebooks are cheaper than books if you want to buy something to read immediately.

I have been reading The Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick which is the sequel to The Red Wolf Conspiracy. It is proving to be an enjoyable piece of fantasy writing.

A Better Pencil Readers, Writers, and The Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron

A Better Pencil Readers, Writers, and The Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron

Dennis Baron is a professor of linguistics at the University of Illinois. He is writing about how technology expands and creates new varieties of communications. He includes his own experiences with early computers, Wordstar, and word processors. He is writing about the history of technology from the point of a social scientist.

He starts with what it means to transition from an oral culture to one where everything is written down. I liked Plato's idea that writing everything down limits memory. Written records started as a means to record business transactions.

In succession we learn about the development of writing tools and methods; pencils, clay tablets, handwriting, typewriters, early wordprocessors and computers, and the modern digital revolution are covered. In each section there are interesting anecdotes. Henry David Thoreau designed lead pencils. Pencils are still the most used writing implement.

There is a theme that each successive generation of communication technology expands the variety and amount of communication that occurs between people. It does not necessarily improve the quality of communication or education. More people are reading and writing, not necessarily writing better things. Another analogy is the move from the letter to the telegraph to the telephone. There is more communication with more people. Is it better?

If we think of the Google Books Project for example, the objective is to make all the books in a number of universities and libraries available to the public. Because the book is in the library it must have some value and be scanned into a database. Initially the goal is to push all the information into one place. The attempt to organize and clean the data was not the first priority. The idea is that it is a good thing to have everything available. There are benefits and drawbacks to this approach.

Dennis Baron includes arguments for and against the advancement of writing technology. He argues that digital technology is another step in a continuous line of progress from the pencil to the typewriter to the computer. Is it good that everyone can now be an author? Are face pages like myspace and facebook safe places for people to communicate? Is Wikipedia a reliable source of information? We get a sense that how we choose to use the technology is as important as the technology itself.

A Better Pencil includes many illustrations, black and white photographs, and anecdotes. He quotes many different people including Plato, Sartre, Thoreau, Shakespeare, and many others. There is an extensive index and notes. The book is easy to read, well laid out, and entertaining. If you are interested in the history of the written word, this is well worth reading.

Daily Thoughts 4/2/2010

Reading and Writing Room on the A-Deck aboard Titanic.1912

Daily Thoughts 4/3/2010

I finished reading A Better Pencil today. It is an overview of the different technologies of writing covering pencils, clay tablets, typewriters, blogs, word processing, and other forms of communication across time. I will write some more about it tomorrow.

I took some time to go to the park today to walk around and look at the geese, the pond, the turtles, and the willow trees. It was relaxing sitting on the benches and walking around. Today was a very nice day to relax.

I felt like watching some nonsense today, so I watched Chariots of the Gods on dvd by Erich Von Damiken. It seems utterly silly today. There are better explanations for Easter Island, building the Pyramids, and Troy than they had when Erich von Daniken was writing his book. Jared Diamond's book, Collapse does an excellent job of explaining Easter Island.

Some people claim that Erich Von Daniken created his ideas from the fantastic horror writer H.P. Lovecraft which is rather entertaining. Still it was interesting seeing the various sites which he visited.

We do not get as many requests for books on pseudoscience, cryptozoology, and aliens as we used to. There are also a lot less requests for tea reading, esp, and astrology. People seem to be caught up in technology far more than they are in imaginary places. There are also a lot fewer requests for books on mythology and monsters. It is sad in a way. People have lost their sense of wonder. Science fiction is not as popular as well.

Maybe it has something to do with the loss of interest in the high frontier as well. People seem to be very focused on making money, learning about technology, and surviving. The every day things. It may seem odd that I would link this together. But, there is a turning inward from more abstract goals in the United States. A real loss of a sense of wonder. The United States has pulled way back on its space program while the Russian program keeps on moving ahead.

We are not buying that many books on space as well. There are still requests for books on the Apollo program. I am not seeing many new books being published either. Mainly people are interested in more immediate technologies, especially alternative energy and electronics.

Daily Thoughts 4/1/2010

The keyboard of a writing ball, seen from above. Rasmus Malling-Hansen inveted this writingmachine in 1865. Also called the Hansen writing ball.

Daily Thoughts 4/1/2010

I read some more of A Better Pencil on the way to see the dentist this morning. There is quite a bit of interesting material. Dennis Baron describes the experience of writing in clay tablets telling us that no tablet comes out the same and that they are often quite hard to read. He describes his early experiences using Wordstar one of the first word processors as well.

I especially like Dennis Baron's commentary on how as early as Gutenberg, people chose the author and publisher over the format of the writing. It did not matter so much that a book was printed on papyrus, vellum, or paper, the content was what was important to people. What Gutenberg did was make the content more available to people. The main detraction was that vellum and papyrus lasted over a thousand years leaving a more permanent record. Even in the 15th century "content was king."

This idea still has relevance to us today. It is the content that matters. The package is more of a convenience and a preference of tools than a necessity. There are benefits to printed works on paper as well as electronic works. I think there will be less paper books, but those that are printed will be better laid out, have higher quality paper, as well as better illustration to compete with digital books. They also will be printed more quickly, be more easily recyclable, and be easier to get. At least, this is my hope. Ebooks will make many more books available to people. This is especially true for books that are creative commons or no longer under copyright. Both the ebook market and the print on demand market are the two fastest growing segment of the publishing world.

I had a chance to stop by the library after my dental visit where I work to pick up two more books, Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran, and The Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick which is a fantasy novel.