I somehow missed this article on Sunday, but the Philly Inquirer has a nice overview of poetry podcasts.
Month / September 2007
Take Care with the Noun Phrases You Type Into the Ether
Siva Vaidhyanathan: “Google’s not required to ensure that the search engine that would guide people to these books actually delivers good results. Google is not required to make sure that the scanning process actually gets every page of every book and makes it all clear. There are no requirements that Google use metadata effectively or the metadata certainly already attached to books. There’s no guarantee that Google will offer people the best possible results for their queries. And most importantly, Google does not do anything to protect user confidentiality and in the world of book searching this is a really important factor. It is an essential part of librarianship. It is an essential part of the ethics and policies of libraries. Users should not feel that their use of any sort of research material might someday come to light and be misinterpreted as some sort of nefarious activity. We should feel comfortable in our information seeking habits. And I’m afraid that Google corralling so many of our information seeking habits puts us all at risk.” (via Ron Silliman)
To Italicize Comic Strips Or Not to Italicize Comic Strips
Good Man Park asks, “Does one italicize comic strip names?”
I say, yes! A comic strip is a set of works over the course of many years, is it not? Therefore, if one is permitted to emphasize a television series, one should likewise be permitted to do the same with a comic strip or a comic book. Ergo, you would refer to the September 12, 2007 installment of For Better or For Worse, and not the September 12, 2007 installment of “For Better or Worse,” which is a bit like referring to the episode “Mirror, Mirror” of “Star Trek” (redundant, yes?) or “The Flying Machine” in Ray Bradbury’s “S is for Space” (likewise, odd to the eye!).
Nevertheless, I really had no idea that this was such a controversial issue. Or perhaps Mr. Park, as is sometimes his wont, is getting me unduly excited about something pedantic. I’d like to know if there have been any vociferous arguments with the copy desk on this subject. If there are any stylistic gurus who have ample justification for ghettoizing a comic strip to quotes and denying a strip’s rightful place into a grammatical terrain that, for crying out loud, is used in relation to Jackass and WWE’s SummerSlam, I’d be curious to hear from them.
(And, no, this assault on exclamation points will not do! It will not do at all!)
France Finally Learns That You Can Find Many Literary People Asking You to Super-Size Your Royale with Cheese Meal
The Times: “France’s cultural heritage is in peril because students are shunning literature in favour of more practical courses that they believe will help them to secure well-paid jobs, the Education Minister said….’We need literary people, pupils who can master speech and reason,’ he said. ‘They are always in demand.'”
Is This VHS vs. Betamax All Over Again?
The Independent: “Online bookseller Amazon has plans to unveil a wireless electronic book reader, a kind of literary iPod, which already has UK publishers scrambling to digitise their entire range of titles. The device, which sources claim could be launched as early as next month, would follow the recent US launch of the Sony eBook Reader, a machine the size of a hardback that stores digital copies of up to 80 books and lasts 7,500 pages on a single charge.”
So when’s JVC going to jump into the fray?