Archive for the ‘What I’ve been reading lately’ Category
Review of The Inner History of Devices
The Inner History of Devices by [sic] Sherry Turkle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This volume is edited and with an introduction by Sherry Turkle, and each chapter is written by someone else, so the “by” in the bibliographic data should really read “ed.”. Anyway.
This work examines people’s personal relationships with technology through three formats: memoir, ethnography, and case report. In each case, the point is to understand how the technology either builds or elides a sense of self. Not surprisingly, results show that participative environments help people to build a sense of self, though this is frequently pathological. In other cases, the technology masks people’s humanity, usually with deleterious effects; the chapters on addiction and disease are the most striking examples of this. In these cases, a life and death dependence on technology such as in the case of dialysis can quickly lead to despair or feeling like a cyborg. It seems to me that a frequent criticism of Sherry Turkle is that she tends to see the pathological in people’s relationships with technology. My personal view on the matter is that she might be right, though of course I don’t change my own behavior to account for it. But even when new social or learning spaces are created as technology advances, we have to recognize their limits. The chapter “Cyberplaces” by Kimberlyn Leary had the example that most resonated with me. Melissa has just discovered that her “knight” in a medieval online RPG is really a 15 year old boy. He insists nothing has changed about their relationship. Melissa feels differently.
Most clinicians would not fault Melissa’s comment for showing a lack of imagination but would find it a healthy adaptive response. She has come to an important realization, absent in much of the over-enthusiastic literature on cyberspace: the computer makes multiple selves possible–but only to a point. Melissa can live on the surface, but at a critical moment, the need for depth returns. (pp. 89-90)
I am sure we could all name a similar “critical moment” in our own lives.
What I’ve Been Reading Lately: Trashy Novels Edition
It’s too cold outside to think about summertime pursuits. So let’s think about trashy novels!
First, as long promised, the novels of Philippa Gregory. Over the past few months I’ve read The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Other Queen. I’m right now almost done with The Virgin’s Lover. Obviously I’ve read basically just Tudor books, and not too much into the Stuart books yet, but isn’t that the way most people work with British history? The idea behind these books is to tell an imaginary and yet somewhat accurate version of history, but as much as possible from a first person perspective. And, when that first person is a woman, give her a feminist and yet not anachronistic voice. Don’t get me wrong, though– these are still very silly books. There is all the thrusting manhood and coral pink nipples you’ve come to expect from trashy novels. But if you, like me, can’t take the tittilation without at least some education (see Sarum and the novels of James Michener), these aren’t a bad series.
It’s hard to say the same for the next series of trashy novels. The Luxe is a young adult series, and is basically Gossip Girl (also published by HarperCollins) meets Edith Wharton. That’s pretty entertaining, but the plot is pretty simplistic. Girls wear expensive dresses and live on Fifth Avenue, but this time they have carriages and gas light. The extensive household staff, guarded family reptations, and complicated place setting also remain the same. This being YA (and 1899), the erotic encounters stay chaste enough. In this book we are told and not shown of a girl’s lack of virginity. But we have plenty of frenemies and parties, and who doesn’t like to be able to finish a 430 page book in 2 hours? There are now several books in this series, and I daresay at some point I’ll check out the next one, even though I have a pretty good idea of how it ends. The waiting list at the library is forever, so I’ll be waiting awhile.
Well that ends this edition of Trashy Novels. I’m now returning to my regularly scheduled program of non-fiction and snobbery. See you next time!
What I’ve been reading lately #5
Everyday Survival by Laurence Gonzales was a random selection from the library new book shelf. Actually I picked it up, looked at it, scoffed at the topic, and put it down. Then I couldn’t help myself and ran back over to pick it up.
The object of the book is describe what goes on in your brain when you do stupid things. There are a lot of authorial anecdotes, many of which are when he was in “vacation mode” and not really paying attention in a normal way, like getting lost in a small area while hiking, or mistaking a real snake for a fake snake. With each anecdote I was able to fill in my own personal experience of when I too was that dumb.
This is a very freeing book. Every page I have to say “Oh my god, I thought I was just stupid when I did that. I didn’t know it was hard-wired into humans!” Now many of you (I think just Mike) feel that my love of evolutionary psychology is misguided, but I just can’t help myself. Falsifiability be damned! Certainly this book is very compelling, even if it is a series of just-so stories. I will add, however, that the author started out as a rock-and-roll novelist, and also writes about travel and aviation. So I can’t vouch for the science in this book, only for the story-telling.