Will social media and aggregated preferences sweep away book reviewing and literary culture? There’s nothing new about the death of literatureThe writer Caleb Crain is unhappy about “the intrusion of counting into the life of literature”. He believes that big data and predictive-taste algorithms are cutting humans “out of the loop”, and that social media are undermining our faith in “the mental states of other people” when those inner states aren’t acknowledged in tweets and likes. It seems we are mired in “a new kind of disenchantment”, he says, which is devolving our sense of literary merit. As big data blurs personal opinion into preference aggregates, and as Twitter-propelled article-surfing destroys reviewing communities and the authority of critics alike, Crain contends, we have no choice but to “declare war on counting”. So that, you know, “literature will survive”. Related: Computer says no: Amazon uses AI to combat fake reviews Bad criticism in public is a nuisance. Does it spell the end of days? Hardly [S]uddenly the cosmos seems like one vast plan after all, patterned in such a way that the novel you’re reading at bedtime connects to your astronomy lecture, connects to what you heard on NPR, connects to what your friend discusses in the cafeteria at lunch – and then briefly it’s as if the lid has come off the world, as if the world were a dollhouse, and you can glimpse what it would be like to see it whole, from above – a vertiginous magnificence. Continue... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With care and craft, the novelist and essayist seeks to summarize Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 art film 'Stalker,' finding elements that will keep the non- cinéaste onboard.Zona Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The death of language is explored via plague-carrying children and their horror-struck parents in a wildly inventive tale by Ben Marcus.Spend too much time with 24-hour news networks and it's easy to feel that exposure to that much talk can make you sick. Taking the idea a few steps further,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Research Triangle, NC –February 21, 2012 – iMedia Revenue Ltd., a company dedicated to delivering the latest advanced editorial and advertising solutions to local newspaper agencies, today announced the launch of a BloggingWriters ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'Enemies: A History of the FBI,' Tim Weiner ('Legacy of Ashes') offers a scathing indictment of the FBI, before J. Edgar Hoover and since.Each week, the FBI sends reporters an email of "top ten news stories" that it hopes will hit the headlines. The press releases usually highlight crooks... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tracie McMillan takes us to agricultural fields, Wal-Mart and Applebee's, where she works short stints and tries to eat healthfully on meager pay.The American Way of Eating Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thomas Mallon's novel deftly paints a picture of 1970s America and adds an imaginative back story to the characters.Watergate Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The author's short stories paint vivid pictures of growing up Filipino American.In a smoke-stained San Francisco hotel room, Felix Starro is making fake blood. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The murder of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey and a family's violent rise to prominence is given gripping life.On a morning in August 2007, a slender masked man ran up to Chauncey Bailey on an Oakland sidewalk and fired two shotgun blasts at the journalist. The first slug tore through Bailey... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quadrille has acquired a title by TV chef and owner of London restaurant The Star of India Reza... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Crime writer Peter James, Chinese author and screenwriter Bi Feiyu and children’s writer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Decitre chain of bookstores has created an online community to help consumers find books to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder has launched its first online science-fiction, fantasy and horror community, Hodderscape,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of writers in India have set up a petition calling for the lifting of the country's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber and Faber has set up a social media hub, The Spark, for teenagers to get involved in Faber... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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U.S. online ad spending is set to eclipse that of print this year by 15.5 percent, according to eMarketer, suggesting that the long-awaited print-to-digital inflection point may now be here for both content creators and marketers. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2012-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eight female novelists have made the Waterstones 11 2012 selection, with three novels each from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a b-to-b twist on the e-commerce craze, Penton launched an online auction site that can scale across all the verticals the company targets. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Capitol Weekly will stop producing a print edition as of Thursday. The publication devoted to California government said on its website that it will continue posting stories online. Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of Chinese writers has filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the company's App Store sells pirated versions of the authors' works. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Aperture, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting photography, is gearing up for a big year in 2012. In addition to celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, it has teamed with Paris Photo, the annual French photography fair, to launch The PhotoBook Review, a new biannual publication on... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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