Month: July 2009

  • Qui Parle: Ethics and Anonymity

    Dr. J responds with her typical lucidity to my contribution to Chris Long’s podcast series. Using Derrida’s critique of the Platonic distaste for writing, she suggests that: “all written words are vulnerable to being de-contextualized and re-contextualized, such that the distinction between the meaning that the “author” intends and the meaning that the “reader” intends…

  • What sells books?

    What role does the critic play? Why do we need someone to stand between us and the art, analyzing, recommending, and denouncing? Why can’t we just have our own experience, unmediated by someone elses taste? In my last post, I managed to grab the attention of some folks in the sci-fi publishing world who are…

  • Digital Dialogue

    Last week I did a Skype interview with Chris Long for his podcast on Socratic Politics and digital dialogue.  We talked about Arendt, anonymity, and an attribution theory of identity. Listen here, or subscribe through iTunes. The whole series can be found at Chris’s blog, where he also posts personal reflections and has a blog on pedagogy and scholarship.…

  • The Science Fiction Industry Needs Reviewers, Not Awards

    I was just reading this interesting takedown of the shortlists for the 2009 Hugo awards. Apparently, most of the books on the list aren’t very good. I only know two of the nominees for best novel, and one of them, Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, was actually read to my wife and I by the…

  • Link Roundup: DC edition

    1. Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide is my new favorite DC thing. Ah, hell: just read the guy’s blog. 2. William Galston has a blog?!? Apparently he’s not too happy with the health care plan. 3. What about urban infill housing? EYA thinks that Hyattsville, MD can be the next U Street. 4. Is Afghanistan a…

  • Megan McArdle and Health Care

    So far, McArdle is definitely earning the praise heaped in her direction. She has a post today on health care innovation where she captures the market-based argument against single-payer health care without ever mentioning it. Citing two other bloggers, Glenn Reynolds (actually an op-ed at the Washington Examiner… blog, rag; tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to) and Andrew Biggs…