Sunday, November 26, 2006

Citizen Dog: Exploring Canine Citizenship
The existence of this essay excerpted below proves that some of our silliest ideas can find profound states of interpretation. Presenting Canine Citizenship and the Intimate Public Sphere by Lisa Uddin, so now we can actually take the name of this blog seriously:

This essay is a speculative inquiry into the possibilities and problems of canine citizenship. Informed by a cross section of contemporary images of and relations to dogs in the United States, it asks to what extent, and to what effect, man’s best friend has become invested with a particular set of meanings about public participation. These are meanings worth exploring, I think, for three reasons. First, animals have a long history of symbolizing fantasies and anxieties about human life; we sometimes call this anthropomorphism. As a kind of surrogate human being, the American dog can help make the terms of being human, and more specifically the terms of being a citizen, more visible. Mine is a strategy of displacement that considers what these dogs reveal about the character of public life and its participants, or lack thereof. What can these dogs tell us about citizenship as a set of actions or inactions, as a definition of personhood, as a way of moving through and imagining the nation?


[LINK]

Saturday, October 21, 2006

The Dark Scans Of Deleuze
Some scans of a book containing an interview with the Big D can be read here.

Of particular interest to C*S*F are his thoughts on the relationship of the press with authors and intellectuals. A part of the diatribe Deleuze unleashes while speaking of "the new philosophers": Journalism has discovered an autonomous and sufficient thought within itself. This is why, if we pursue this line of argument to its limit, a book is worth less than the newspaper article written about it or the interview that comes after it. Intellectuals and writers, even artists, are thus forced to become journalists if they want to conform to the norm. [Tired of transcribing, read a crop from the scan..]

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Reuters reports from virtual world
In an very interesting development, Reuters has opened a "virtual bureau" in Second Life, called the Reuters Atrium.

Adam Reuters is Reuters' bureau chief in Second Life. In real life, he is Adam Pasick, a veteran tech and media journalist.


[LINK]

Friday, October 13, 2006

Newsbooks
Jack Shafer coins a new term - newsbooks, and about time:

Whoever said long stories put off readers hasn't scanned the New York Times best-seller list lately. Even though newspapers and magazines have crammed their pages with Iraq reporting, readers seem insatiable on the topic. The current Times list features four heavily reported and lengthy books about the Iraq adventure: Hubris, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn; Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks; State of Denial, by Bob Woodward; and Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

All four titles belong to the genre I call the "newsbook," which straddles the space between contemporary history and daily journalism and is usually hooked to Washington and politics. Unlike most conventional histories, newsbooks are written by journalists and they're composed at breakneck speed.


[LINK]