Global Frequency

Warren Ellis’ new comic book series _Global Frequency_ (four issues out so far) isn’t as mindblowing as _Transmetropolitan_ was, but it’s pretty much fun in the way it matches high-concept with low pulp. You see, Global Frequency is a worldwide organization, with 1001 members, which intervenes in crisis situations…

Warren Ellis’ new comic book series _Global Frequency_ (four issues out so far) isn’t as mindblowing as _Transmetropolitan_ was, but it’s pretty much fun in the way it matches high-concept with low pulp. You see, Global Frequency is a worldwide organization, with 1001 members, which intervenes in crisis situations…
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The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell’s book _The Tipping Point_ is in many ways popular science writing at its best. The book is lucid and intelligent, and it gives concrete examples for its arguments–without being condescendingly simple-minded about those examples in the ways popular science books often are. The subject matter of the book is both fascinating and important: how the logic of epidemic contagion applies to social phenomena, often causing things to develop in ways that are nonlinear, and hence deeply counterintuitive. All in all, a worthwhile read. And yet I find myself having complex reservations about the arguments of The Tipping Point— though my problems are less with Gladwell himself, than with (I guess) the zeitgeist…

Malcolm Gladwell’s book _The Tipping Point_ is in many ways popular science writing at its best. The book is lucid and intelligent, and it gives concrete examples for its arguments–without being condescendingly simple-minded about those examples in the ways popular science books often are. The subject matter of the book is both fascinating and important: how the logic of epidemic contagion applies to social phenomena, often causing things to develop in ways that are nonlinear, and hence deeply counterintuitive. All in all, a worthwhile read. And yet I find myself having complex reservations about the arguments of The Tipping Point— though my problems are less with Gladwell himself, than with (I guess) the zeitgeist…
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Michael Jackson Unmasked

Tonight’s NBC Dateline special, Michael Jackson: Unmasked, was disappointingly lame; it was poorly edited and full of hot air, neither showing any intelligence nor feeding my morbid voyeuristic fascination. Still, it led me to some new thoughts on the situation…

Tonight’s NBC Dateline special, Michael Jackson: Unmasked, was disappointingly lame; it was poorly edited and full of hot air, neither showing any intelligence nor feeding my morbid voyeuristic fascination. Still, it led me to some new thoughts on the situation….
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Jacko TV

“The more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war…. The real pity is not that television has no shame; it is that there are not still more Michael Jackson specials scheduled beyond the Fox event on Thursday.” Thus
Alessandra Stanley in today’s New York Times; I couldn’t agree more. Let a thousand Jacko specials bloom.

“The more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war…. The real pity is not that television has no shame; it is that there are not still more Michael Jackson specials scheduled beyond the Fox event on Thursday.” Thus
Alessandra Stanley in today’s New York Times; I couldn’t agree more. Let a thousand Jacko specials bloom.

Pattern Recognition

William Gibson’s new novel Pattern Recognition (which I have finally finished reading) is very likely the first work of literature to use “Google” as a verb (as in: “If you Google him, you’ll find…). What’s important, however, is not that Gibson is savvy enough to note how everyone’s favorite search engine has entered the vocabulary, but rather the absolute ordinariness, or taken-for-grantedness, of this usage: it’s a detail, precisely, that doesn’t stand out in any way in the novel. And that is what makes it significant….

William Gibson’s new novel Pattern Recognition (which I have finally finished reading) is very likely the first work of literature to use “Google” as a verb (as in: “If you Google him, you’ll find…). What’s important, however, is not that Gibson is savvy enough to note how everyone’s favorite search engine has entered the vocabulary, but rather the absolute ordinariness, or taken-for-grantedness, of this usage: it’s a detail, precisely, that doesn’t stand out in any way in the novel. And that is what makes it significant….
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Writing Machines

N. Katherine Hayles’ new book Writing Machines is a brilliant and important work. Hayles uses the vantage point offered her by recent “electronic texts” to rethink our understanding of literature in general…

N. Katherine Hayles’ new book Writing Machines is a brilliant and important work. Hayles uses the vantage point offered her by recent “electronic texts” to rethink our understanding of literature in general…
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Russian Ark

Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark consists of a single 90-minute-long Steadicam shot (realized on digital video, and then transferred to film). It’s an amazing technical achievement, to be sure, but it isn’t just technique that makes Russian Ark such an astonishing film…

Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark consists of a single 90-minute-long Steadicam shot (realized on digital video, and then transferred to film). It’s an amazing technical achievement, to be sure, but it isn’t just technique that makes Russian Ark such an astonishing film…
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Maurice Dantec

I just finished Maurice G. Dantec’s first novel, published in 1993, La sirene rouge (The Red Siren): a superior thriller, but nothing more. (Though I’d like to see the film, if only because it stars Asia Argento). But Dantec is also the author of the mind-boggling SF novel Babylon Babies (1999), unfortunately not (yet) translated into English…

I just finished Maurice G. Dantec’s first novel, published in 1993, La sirene rouge (The Red Siren): a superior thriller, but nothing more. (Though I’d like to see the film, if only because it stars Asia Argento). But Dantec is also the author of the mind-boggling SF novel Babylon Babies (1999), unfortunately not (yet) translated into English…
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