Comments on: Tools of Change: Bob Stein & Peter Brantley http://www.edrants.com/tools-of-change-bob-stein-peter-brantley/ a cultural website in ever-shifting standing Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:01:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Book Blog - Likely Stories, by Keir Graff - Booklist Online » Blog Archive » Can’t I Just Be Alone with My Books? http://www.edrants.com/tools-of-change-bob-stein-peter-brantley/comment-page-1/#comment-250861 Book Blog - Likely Stories, by Keir Graff - Booklist Online » Blog Archive » Can’t I Just Be Alone with My Books? Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:03:54 +0000 http://www.edrants.com/?p=10373#comment-250861 [...] More thoughtful. [...] [...] More thoughtful. [...]

]]> By: Christina http://www.edrants.com/tools-of-change-bob-stein-peter-brantley/comment-page-1/#comment-250845 Christina Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:49:42 +0000 http://www.edrants.com/?p=10373#comment-250845 Seems to me "a place where readers (and sometimes authors) congregate" is to "book" what Choose Your Own Adventure is to "narrative" (in principle, anyway). Thank you so much for taking the care to post and link to the three examples and experiment mentioned in Stein's talk. Intriguing stuff. Seems to me “a place where readers (and sometimes authors) congregate” is to “book” what Choose Your Own Adventure is to “narrative” (in principle, anyway). Thank you so much for taking the care to post and link to the three examples and experiment mentioned in Stein’s talk. Intriguing stuff.

]]> By: William http://www.edrants.com/tools-of-change-bob-stein-peter-brantley/comment-page-1/#comment-250842 William Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:09:17 +0000 http://www.edrants.com/?p=10373#comment-250842 Your knee-jerk rejection of Brantley's assertion that "A book is a machine to think with,” is surprising, even if your reaction to his robotic presentation is not. Many serious, non-beret sporting people have said something similar. Consider the poet Frank Bidart, quoted in the December issue of <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/feature.html?id=182587" rel="nofollow">Poetry</a>: "I had to learn how to use the materials of a poem to think..." ...Given, this is a reference to the act of writing poetry, not reading books (writ large) and he refers to a poem as "a mind in action," rather than a machine. The point still seems to hold. Say what you will about the idea of a book as a "social construction." Say what you will about his pretense, but don't cast off the idea of a book as a "machine to think with." In the same way, don't cast off the idea that we "reach into books," as new-age gibberish. It's only so if taken literally. The idea that reading is (or can be) participatory from the perspective of the reader is something to consider, not merely the representation of a belief in a "Realm of Possibility" or whatever the fuck the "Fifth Circle" is to be defined as. Your knee-jerk rejection of Brantley’s assertion that “A book is a machine to think with,” is surprising, even if your reaction to his robotic presentation is not. Many serious, non-beret sporting people have said something similar. Consider the poet Frank Bidart, quoted in the December issue of Poetry:

“I had to learn how to use the materials of a poem to think…”

…Given, this is a reference to the act of writing poetry, not reading books (writ large) and he refers to a poem as “a mind in action,” rather than a machine. The point still seems to hold. Say what you will about the idea of a book as a “social construction.” Say what you will about his pretense, but don’t cast off the idea of a book as a “machine to think with.”

In the same way, don’t cast off the idea that we “reach into books,” as new-age gibberish. It’s only so if taken literally. The idea that reading is (or can be) participatory from the perspective of the reader is something to consider, not merely the representation of a belief in a “Realm of Possibility” or whatever the fuck the “Fifth Circle” is to be defined as.

]]>