Revisiting Umberto Eco’s ‘The Future of the Book’
Sixteen years after it was presented at a symposium, Umberto Eco’s paper ‘The Future of the Book’ would seem to be ridiculously out of date and yet, surprisingly, it challenged assumptions and brought up questions that are just as relevant – sometimes more – today as they were then. The text of this paper is […]
On Reading Foucault’s ‘What is an author?”
By the time you read this, I’ll be gone from here. I will have left this stain on the page and you will call it me.
Author – Who Decides What a Text Means?
In preparation for putting together my PhD proposal, I’ve had to do a survey of the theories surrounding reading. At the core of it lies the question of who has the right to interpret and determine what any given piece of text means. You’d think this would be obvious, but of course it’s not and […]
Listening for Mistakes
I tweeted about this today, and several people thanked me and told me they’d never thought about doing this before, so – as it helps me so much – I thought I’d write a short post about it. After I write a story or, if it’s long, about halfway through, I use the text to […]
HeartEater Anthology
On May 14, 2010, I wrote a short piece of #twitterfiction called ‘Amnesia’s Heart‘. After tweeting it, I asked people to tell me what they thought the moral or the meaning of the story was, and CD Christian said: “Don’t let someone take and eat your heart”. It seemed like a great theme to use […]
Now I Know #twitterfiction #smutpoetry
Now I know how low I’ll go. Into the bottomless pit with the 600 and me there in the gore of the battlefield smug and mud-covered, cackling like a mad whore at a funeral. What dignity? I scream, clawing at my clothes as if they were jellyfish sent by Neptune to see if I’d budge. […]
Persona: Dreamgirls, Mister Rights & the Disappointment of the Real
Anyone who hasn’t read Big Ed’s post, “On hunger for connection and the ‘outing’ of Alexa” should go and read it, because it’s a very honest piece on the desire for connection and why, in virtual spaces, we are so often disappointed. In his post, he says: “men (or at least many men) crave authentic […]
Rough Justice & the Internet
First, I want to warn readers and commenters on my last Alexa post that I have gone through my post and the comments left and redacted the name of the person who has been accused of pretending to be Alexa. If it offends you that I have redacted his name on your comment and you […]
3-Minute Thesis Competition
For those of you interested in following along with my PhD adventure, I decided to participate in a seminar that poses a 3-Minute PhD Thesis challenge. Basically, it’s a sort of ‘sell your idea’ in 3 minutes thing. This is what I have come up with. Tweeted Wednesday, October 27, 2010 in 140 char chunks: […]
Sane Past the Veil
You, my friend, are sane past the veil. Easy to be sane before you know the depths to which humanity can plummet. Easy to be sane before the blinding light of banality sears the eyes shut. Easy to be sane before you’ve met the place where pain or confusion makes death seem a viable alternative. […]