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October 9th, 2009 | Everyday, News
News from the other worlds of academic psychiatry and myth: Carl Jung’s unpublished Liber Novus (The New Book), a large heavy work bound in red leather binding and filled with esoteric illuminations and scripts is being published. Commonly known as The Red Book it was the result of an internal travelogue Jung took over several years, charting his anxieties and desires through mythic imagery. His heirs never allowed it to be published or viewed by scholars. The NYT has a long, interesting and detailed article describing the journey to publication this odd impressive work has taken.
» Continue reading » Jung’s Red Book Published
September 2nd, 2009 | Personal
It’s hard to imagine, but I’m still struck by the incredible lack of trees in most Canadian major cities. I say most since I’ve visited most, and recently, Vancouver and Victoria, both really surprise me by their lack of urban greenery. There are spots, like the UBC campus, which abut parks and have green belts, but otherwise from downtown Vancouver to Langley and its casinos there’s not a lot trees. It’s bizarre and disappointing. For example, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax have nothing and Vancouver, which is two and a half hours north of Seattle, which is suffused with trees and parks, has an incongruous forest of condos next to Stanley Park. In Halifax our urban forest was mostly destroyed a few years back from a hurricane and I haven’t heard if it’s being renewed or redeveloped. This is hard to understand, particularly for a country whose national symbol is a leaf. In contrast, New York has committed to plant 1 million trees in the next seven years. Surely Canada can match this?
August 31st, 2009 | News, The Written World
I don’t think Sebastian Faulks was trying to create controversy when he stated he was ambivalent about the Web recently in an interview in the Telegraph, but the response from the Internet Literati didn’t believe him. To be fair, he says he is worried by an increasing popular dependence on attention technology, and for a writer it’s a difficult problem. But the broader issues that touch publishing may escape him, or more accurately, may not interest him.
» Continue reading » Faulks’ Concern, What is the Web Worth?
August 26th, 2009 | News, Personal
Interesting denouement to the so-called Rushdie Affair. Salman Rushdie, well known Indian/British author, most famous for the Satanic Verses and Midnight’s Children, earned an apology today from writers of a tell-all spy book. The writers had included or manufactured anecdotes about Rushdie’s period of protection while he was under fatwah from clerics in Iran. One of the contested facts included, “That Rushdie sought to profit from the fatwa inviting Muslims to kill him for insulting the prophet Muhammad.” That’s hard to imagine when Rushide was principally hoping just to stay alive.
It’s 20 years ago this year that the Satanic Verses were condemned in Iran, and sparked the “culture war” that we are still trying to understand.
I remember my Dad was on a business trip to Ottawa when the news broke. He came home with a copy of the book. He said he was the only person that morning who had reached over and purchased a copy at a downtown bookstore. The cashier asked him, “Are you making a statement?” to which he confidently said, “Yes. Yes I am.” It’s good to remember these kinds of facts and history, particularly when it comes to censorship or just self-interested defamation.
August 5th, 2009 | Everyday, Personal
Sometimes I am really surprised by Art. I can capitalize the concept in this case, since these are experiences I really esteem and they are infrequent. Falling into an exhibit of Christopher Pratt at the AGNS, his massive paintings underground… that was memorable. Another happy discovery was Andy Goldsworthy.
» Continue reading » Andy Goldsworthy’s Travels
July 24th, 2009 | News, The Written World
A recent error in copyright has had an unfortunate impact on a few of Amazon Kindle’s customers. Without more detail I think it’s safe to say this won’t be the norm, and particularly where the text in question was 1984… well, I expect this wasn’t planned.
Sam Jordison in the Guardian the other day has put up his hand to ask questions about what this means for eBook readers in general. If the trend in publishing is to move to the Web, with or without DRM (queue Cory Doctorow) then how can customers be assured that their purchases are safe? Or more importantly, how will they know their privacy will be respected, their habits protected (e.g. lending books to family and friends), and most importantly, that their texts will not be censored or interfered with in any way (e.g. abridged and edited versions, and preferred translations over others)? These in my mind are some of the vital questions for the future of publishing.
July 8th, 2009 | Everyday
I recently learned there’s a re-make of The Prisoner in the works. Patrick McGoohan passed in January of this year, so sadly he will not be involved. No idea if he had any input. Apparently, Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen are both working on the 6-episode TV mini-series for the AMC channel in the US. That gives one hope. The Prisoner is both an iconic piece of television, but also absurdly hard to summarize, since it directly used the absurd to help enforce the terror and moments of dislocation the drama is supposed to bring. It will be interesting to see how it’s re-written and updated for our times.
July 6th, 2009 | Everyday
A radio program that’s been running for a few years off of BBC Radio 4 I think is worth highlighting. It’s “In Our Time”, hosted by writer and British peer, Melvyn Bragg. I know Bragg from the South Bank Show, the Adventure of English TV series and book, and he is a well published novelist and British commentator. Bragg and the program seem unique to me — incredibly informed, erudite, civilized sources of discussion.
The format of the weekly program is three different academics who assemble to discuss and summarize a particular topic. The themes range from Science, Religion, Philosophy, History and Culture. Some examples include programs about Infinity, Zoroastrianism, the life of Albert Camus, the Abbasid Caliphs, and Renaissance Astrology. The academics take turn in presenting a basic overview of the topic moderated by Bragg who has to keep the discussions from falling into too much detail. A podcast is available and wonderfully there’s an Archive where past programs can be streamed. It’s a great resource and very informative.
June 29th, 2009 | The Written World
I found an audio interview with Nam Le off of Bookninja that I will try and listen to someday. Le was a celebrated newcomer in 2008 with his short story collection, The Boat. I’ve read it and indeed a couple of the stories are noteworthy, particularly the first, the hallmark story “Love and Honor”. Here are some references.
References:
June 26th, 2009 | Essay
Previous: Introduction, Right to Privacy (part 1), (part 2), (part 3)
Claiming that privacy is about transactions and that being private is the recess of information is not immediately clear. Yet, the common logic that something is private so long as it is not published means that what we value and retain as confidential must concern what we can potentially divulge and obtain. The right to privacy and its conflicts are within this order. But to encourage another view – where being private is not tied to any one thing — allows us to consider another way of conceiving how privacy should be respected.
» Continue reading » On Privacy — Conclusion
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