3 ms·

What a great essay, one of the first I’ve seen that actually addresses a fundamental issue of the “plagiarism” issue. It cries out for a parallel essay linking

by gumby 3y ago

What a great essay, one of the first I’ve seen that actually addresses a fundamental issue of the “plagiarism” issue. It cries out for a parallel essay linking “permissions culture” (and “remix culture”). After all what is Shakespeare but a bunch of old stories rewritten by someone who lived after the printing press? And to read him today is to read a mass of clichés…most of which were original when he wrote them. I do disagree with one point which I hope was intended to be hyperbolic: > You’re experiencing the agony of the dead word of the book, where the future is already set down, waiting for you on the final page, where nothing changes… The novel, to me, is the ultimate in multimedia experience, where a scene set in winter can make me feel cold, while a video of the same is too flat, perhaps in some ways too descriptive, stripping the interpretation from the experience. Reading a book for a second time years after the first can unearth a completely different story, like revisiting a city you haven’t visited for years, but in the case of reading only one of you has changed.

rogual 3y ago
I came here to quote the same passage, except in my case, to agree with it. It struck me as an excellent description of how it feels for me now to pick up a book, at least before I manage to stay with it long enough to settle into it and experience the multisensory panorama you speak of. Books are no less potent now, for me, but they are more impenetrable; there's a thicker shell of resistance to break through before I can have that experience; and Sam Kriss's words here describe it exactly.
- ramblerman 3y ago
  > but they are more impenetrable; there's a thicker shell of resistance to break through before I can have that experience That's more likely from dopamine being fried from screens and instant gratification than a statement about the quality of books. I got back into reading about a year ago, and it took me a month before I could read like I used to as a kid, fully immersed, let the world disappear kind of thing. I was looking up every minute before that with a strong urge to grab my phone.
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    People have trouble getting fully immersed in anything anymore. I had family over recently and we decided to watch a movie in the living room. Started it up and within 5 minutes everyone was on their phone scrolling and typing. I felt like the only one watching the movie. Shit, if people can't even sit back and passively consume a 1.5 hour movie, there's no way they can get immersed in a book anymore.
    - wharvle 3y ago
      Honestly: some movies are better that way. I realized during a pre-Endgame re-watch that I liked a lot of the marvel movies better at home than I had in the theater, and after some reflection figured out that it’s because when I get really bored in the middle of one of their not-very-good 20-minute fight scenes, or awkward too-long exposition, I can just screw around on my phone. On further reflection it occurred to me that this kinda replicates the experience of watching a mediocre movie with a close friend group and just talking over a bunch of it. Lots of movies are better when half-ignored! Of course, there are plenty of movies where you’ll have trouble following them or miss cool, interesting, very-good, or important elements if you don’t give them your full attention. But I do think there may be a case for phone-in-hand film-watching. Some might argue that you should just skip any movie that gets better if you partially-ignore it, but I’m not on that boat.
  - AlwaysRock 3y ago
    It's a bit strange that we all are surprised our attention spans have seemingly shrunk. Almost everyone has multiple screens and notifications yelling at them all day long now. We are training our attention spans to be shorter and react to notifications. Of course, reading a book is going to take some training. The nice part is that if one reads for 15 minutes to a half hour a day, it becomes fairly easy to focus on a book within a few days. As long as the book is engaging/interesting to its reader. Turning the phone on silent and/or keeping it in another room while reading helps a lot as well.
aftbit 3y ago
>Reading a book for a second time years after the first can unearth a completely different story, like revisiting a city you haven’t visited for years, but in the case of reading only one of you has changed. So true! I most felt this with Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. The first time through, I was interested and engaged in the space procedural part but the wacky Stephenson bit at the end lost me. The second time I read, I was constantly dreading the events of the first few acts, but strongly engaged in the high concept section at the end.

by gumby 3y ago

rogual 3y ago

I came here to quote the same passage, except in my case, to agree with it. It struck me as an excellent description of how it feels for me now to pick up a book, at least before I manage to stay with it long enough to settle into it and experience the multisensory panorama you speak of. Books are no less potent now, for me, but they are more impenetrable; there's a thicker shell of resistance to break through before I can have that experience; and Sam Kriss's words here describe it exactly.

ramblerman 3y ago
> but they are more impenetrable; there's a thicker shell of resistance to break through before I can have that experience That's more likely from dopamine being fried from screens and instant gratification than a statement about the quality of books. I got back into reading about a year ago, and it took me a month before I could read like I used to as a kid, fully immersed, let the world disappear kind of thing. I was looking up every minute before that with a strong urge to grab my phone.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  People have trouble getting fully immersed in anything anymore. I had family over recently and we decided to watch a movie in the living room. Started it up and within 5 minutes everyone was on their phone scrolling and typing. I felt like the only one watching the movie. Shit, if people can't even sit back and passively consume a 1.5 hour movie, there's no way they can get immersed in a book anymore.
  - wharvle 3y ago
    Honestly: some movies are better that way. I realized during a pre-Endgame re-watch that I liked a lot of the marvel movies better at home than I had in the theater, and after some reflection figured out that it’s because when I get really bored in the middle of one of their not-very-good 20-minute fight scenes, or awkward too-long exposition, I can just screw around on my phone. On further reflection it occurred to me that this kinda replicates the experience of watching a mediocre movie with a close friend group and just talking over a bunch of it. Lots of movies are better when half-ignored! Of course, there are plenty of movies where you’ll have trouble following them or miss cool, interesting, very-good, or important elements if you don’t give them your full attention. But I do think there may be a case for phone-in-hand film-watching. Some might argue that you should just skip any movie that gets better if you partially-ignore it, but I’m not on that boat.
- AlwaysRock 3y ago
  It's a bit strange that we all are surprised our attention spans have seemingly shrunk. Almost everyone has multiple screens and notifications yelling at them all day long now. We are training our attention spans to be shorter and react to notifications. Of course, reading a book is going to take some training. The nice part is that if one reads for 15 minutes to a half hour a day, it becomes fairly easy to focus on a book within a few days. As long as the book is engaging/interesting to its reader. Turning the phone on silent and/or keeping it in another room while reading helps a lot as well.

aftbit 3y ago

>Reading a book for a second time years after the first can unearth a completely different story, like revisiting a city you haven’t visited for years, but in the case of reading only one of you has changed. So true! I most felt this with Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. The first time through, I was interested and engaged in the space procedural part but the wacky Stephenson bit at the end lost me. The second time I read, I was constantly dreading the events of the first few acts, but strongly engaged in the high concept section at the end.