Important recognitions
Just needed to post the obit for Saul Bellow. Fantastic writer and fantastic life.
posted by General Stan at 9:23 AM
7.4.05
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A potentially extinguishable blog that ostensibly deals with politics (how obscure), occasionally with literature (how pretentious), and with film awkwardly (how mundane.)
posted by General Stan at 9:23 AM
1 Comments:
Hey, you know, that happens. At least you can read the headlines. Literacy rates are falling in America, but also are the casual readers of literature. I remember reading something during the previous election about how few people read much of ANYTHING, particularly literature, and that political non-fiction at the time was an anomolous spike.
It isn't surprising that a Nobel Laureatte goes unnoticed by the masses. Or, that the passing of some certain contemporary poets has been lost in terms of the mindset of America. Take for example Robert Creeley who died very recently... how many of us can really claim we know much of his work at all?
I guess I worry that the loss of what I'd call something like valuable literacy is a tragedy worth noting. I feel like people like us have a significant leg up among the marginally literate of America. But then, we also feel that we are shamefully underread compared to how we should be.
Hm.
How should we address this in this blog? Online "reading club"? Recently read books, books we're reading now...?
What about films? lists of films?
Strange.
It does make me wonder how we'll index the readership of the internet. I think that basically the text-based medium that it is now requires sharply reduced readings, tiny little fragments of undeveloped thoughts that we all can absorb.
But can this be indexed as a kind of literacy?
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