CultureCat - Technology and Culture

Jem and Le Tigre get Sealab 2021'ed

Clancy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:44:46 +0000

Via

I would love to see this done with a Go-Gos song.

Technologies of Writing

Clancy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:41:53 +0000

Wallace worked longhand, pages piling up. "You look at the clock and seven hours have passed and your hand is cramped," Wallace said. He'd have pens he considered hot — cheap Bic ballpoints, like batters have bats that are hot. A pen that was hot he called the orgasm pen.

Apparently in another article, something Jonathan had read, Wallace said something else about his choice to write with pen and paper, that his writing was better -- more complex and insightful -- when done with pen and paper than on a computer. Then I find this passage in Betty Friedan's autobiography, Life So Far, a great book, I might add. Friedan was in the process of writing The Feminine Mystique and had a writing carrel at the New York Public Library, where she stored her typewriter. One night after the children were asleep, she had done some reading and took out a pen and legal pad to write (p. 113):

On the living-room couch, I started writing the third chapter of The Feminine Mystique, "The Crisis in Woman's Identity," applying to myself, and the women I'd been interviewing, basic concepts about the self, and identity crisis, as they had not been applied to women. And I got to such a different level of thinking, writing by hand on the yellow legal pad that night -- the crucial chapter in The Feminine Mystique, where I spelled out how it had happened to me personally, a truth that other women could identify with -- that I have literally not touched a typewriter since, let alone a word processor.

I might have to give pen/paper a try, even though it sounds soooo tedious.

CCCCs' Use of the Web

Clancy — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:32:18 +0000

It's a little late to try to circulate this ad (deadline is tomorrow), but I'm going to do it anyway. CCCC is has started a series of posts titled

But if you know someone who's already doing research on this topic, kindly let me know so that I don't waste my time, and direct me toward the person doing the research so that I can read it with interest.

As bloggers, are we past the point of caring about eyeballs?

Clancy — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:36:04 +0000

Quick Mini-Review of Remembering Composition

Clancy — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:44:33 +0000

This morning I was going through some papers, and I found my copy of the film , but I now appreciate the "not the usual suspects" selection of interviewees. It's true that not everyone Bump Halbritter and Todd Taylor chose to interview is a big computers and composition person. It was interesting to get the perspectives of some of the comp people who aren't well known as techies. Administration was well represented, with Sidney Dobrin, Deborah Holdstein, Erika Lindemann, and Kathleen Blake Yancey (apologies if there are some I've forgotten). I especially liked the inclusion of students in the film; in fact, I wish they'd done even more with that.

Throughout the film, there were these interludes inspired by
"If you had to pick only one essay for a writing teacher to read, what would it be?"

"Inventing the University."

"Inventing the University."

"Inventing the University."

"If you had to pick only one book for a writing teacher to read, what would it be?"

"Errors and Expectations."

"Errors and Expectations."

"Errors and Expectations."

Interview in Computers and Composition Online

Clancy — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:43:11 +0000

I've been meaning to link this for a while. In the , I'm

In other news, I've beefed up my placeholder Facebook profile, which I've had for a long time, and started adding friends. I slightly prefer MySpace, but the thing that finally convinced me to pay more attention to Facebook is that an old friend from college found me via Facebook. That kind of thing happens every day, but this case was special as this old friend is from Indonesia and, I believe, moved back there after college. I never thought I'd find her again. So I figured if I could find Devi via Facebook, it must be pretty good.

It's also interesting that there are all these references to objects now on Facebook; I'm sure many others have made the comparison before, but it seems almost MOO-like.

Linky goodies

Clancy — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:35:59 +0000

New York's Park Avenue before 1922 (courtesy

New York's Park Avenue after 1922 "improvements" to accommodate automobile traffic (courtesy
New York's Park Avenue today (courtesy of

If I ever get a double boiler, it will be