Comments on William's Ramblings: Deep Focus and the New Dark Age (Part I)

Voland - You're quite right about the "infotainme...

2008-06-18T22:11:00.000-04:00

Voland - You're quite right about the "infotainment." I'll mention the often "dread" name of Theodor Adorno, who wrote a book titled, The Culture Industry. One of its many points is that culture, and everything that is a part of culture, has become an industry, a business, a commodity. To quote a passage form the book:

The culture industry fuses the old and familiar into a new quality, In all its branches, products which are tailored for consumption by masses, and which to a great extend determine the nature of that consumption, are manufactured more or less according to plan.

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In the broadest sense, we have a culture that needs to consume everything - information, material, time, entertainment. And the one of the means of feeding that need is by using "New and Improved" (the old resold as the new).

In respect to you comment about learning and knowledge, I see quite often the advertisements of universities stating that they "prepare students for a career." Institutions of education simply teaching the skills of occupation seems rather startling. Somehow that feels like "surface knowledge," as students are taught enough to work in a given field and not to go beyond it. Most surprising though is that students often rally behind this - feeling education that is not job related is a useless commodity (as many view "education" as a commodity).

MK - A well made point. As I mention in one of my above posts, even sentence length is under attack. I fear that many young adult novels are popular with adults, not because they are great works of fiction, but because they are easier to read. This doesn't mean that there is something wrong with YA novels. Rather, it seems worrisome for non-YA novels.

Steve - Diane Rehm has a great show, and I did lis...

2008-06-18T21:56:00.000-04:00

Steve - Diane Rehm has a great show, and I did listen to that episode a few times. I've also ordered one of the books, and will probably move along to the second once I'm done with the first. I make some gesture toward "deep focus."

Regarding the power, and your example of how we survive without it, you make a great point that I hope to touch upon in my next post - and I think Voland speaks to this somewhat. Our society is one of surface knowledge and commodity. We can buy what we need or the services we need. That is sometimes termed "superstructure." But I'll not venture into that area. :)

Jeff - You're right about the overwhelming about o...

2008-06-18T21:53:00.000-04:00

Jeff - You're right about the overwhelming about of information. This is the age of info and info-products. I suppose what I'm wondering about is are we moving in the right direction? Access to information is useful - or as useful as the information is. And it seems we need to be surrounded with random bits of data.

Of course, one of the early concerns about the thesaurus was that it would be misused by people who did not understand the words they were using (too much information with no depth of information; it was up to the user to understand the words). Perhaps we've run into the same problem but on a larger scale.

John - I think you're onto something there. If the answer agrees with an opinion, why look any further. I wonder how many times surface info on the Internet is taken as final proof? I know I've seen it many times in the classroom.

You're also correct about film and television. It is passing into fiction as well. Long sentences are considered by many editors to be too much for the general reader.

I know my own attention span has shrunk but it's a...

2008-06-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

I know my own attention span has shrunk but it's at least partially a function of what I'm doing. My attention span for internet information and TV is very short, but when I sit down to read a book my attention span automatically seems to increase again.

I think you're right that books can certainly be written to be fluffy and I see quite a lot of that out there. Still and all, books generally do require deeper focus and it's a skill that I hope we can continue to teach people to develop. Otherwise we'll soon end up with "ideocracy."

I would add to this discussion a quick look at our...

2008-06-15T12:05:00.000-04:00

I would add to this discussion a quick look at our own industry, specifically short fiction. When I started in this mess (we had fire but were still suspicious of the wheel), a short story of 10K was not too long to submit to the average magazine. Over the years, I've seen that limit drop to 7500 then 5000 and now 3500-4000 seems to be the coming norm. In addition, flash fiction seems to be a bottomless market that can never be satiated.

MKeaton

BTW, in case anybody wanted to listen to that show...

2008-06-13T12:32:00.000-04:00

BTW, in case anybody wanted to listen to that show
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/08/06/10.php#20324
There's a real player link and a windows media player link. Also, I think all of her shows are available as podcasts through iTunes.

Mark E. Smith of the UK indy band "The Fall" coine...

2008-06-13T12:28:00.000-04:00

Mark E. Smith of the UK indy band "The Fall" coined the word "Infotainment" in the mid-Eighties to describe the phenomenon. The popular media are presenting information as a consumable product - it must be constantly renewed, constantly consumed. The number of people I meet who feel compelled to watch the news religiously in order to "keep up with events" is quite shocking - particularly as most people consume news "shows" (I use the word advisedly) at face value, without seeing their sociopolitical agendas - the old terrorist-vs-freedom fighter dichotomy.

Likewise I've been taken aback by the number of people in the UK constantly fiddling with their mobile phones - texting, ceaselessly photographing and sending photos, phoning one another. Just what substance does all this spasmodic communication have?

Personally I think this is a temporary phenomenon, tied in with our era of compulsive and increasingly mandatory consumption. First was the TV as status symbol; next the PC; next the Internet; next the mobile phone. These gadgets enable a simulation of information - essentially flashing lights - which feeds a corporate-inspired lack, the need to feel "in touch", "one of the crowd", in short - to belong.

Is it the onset of a new Dark Age? To be honest, I don't think past ages have been all that light either, so probably not. All we are seeing is one of the hallowed precincts of intellectual activity - "Learning and Knowledge" - commodified and shoved out for mass consumption in a society which has never been overly impressed by substance, especially when set against a garish eye-candy form. It will be galling for those of us who define ourselves in terms of our knowledge to have our own learning apparently appropriated by discourses which care nothing for its sophistication, but instead use it in glorified social grooming activities, but that has ever been the fate of those valuing learning.

The symptom of the self-aware consciousness is a nagging feeling that everything is about to go to the dogs. This time, with annoying ringtones and flashing lights, I fear is no different. Plus ca change...

I loved that Diane Rehm episode, I've replayed it ...

2008-06-13T11:02:00.000-04:00

I loved that Diane Rehm episode, I've replayed it twice already. Both guest were excellent. (and I love that show, especially because she interviews a lot of writers)

As for the power going out, I remember an episode of Connections where the host started with the premise of "the power has gone out, permanently. How do you survive?" What followed next was a whole series of "more than likely, you'll die here. But lets say you (find, use, know, etc, something to get you past this hurdle), then you have this (new hurdle) waiting for you. Eventually you make it to an abandoned farm. While then ended with the question, "Do you know how to use these tools, could you survive until you had a garden growing, and do you know how to replant seeds?" (my wife has advanced biology degrees, that last part of the question isn't as flip as it may sound).

The Information Age is leading to the Uninformed A...

2008-06-13T09:04:00.000-04:00

The Information Age is leading to the Uninformed Age precisely because we have so many choices. We can find people who agree with our standpoints, and, having found validation, we look no further. There is so much information available that we must be well-informed, right?

I don't know what to do about short attention-span. It's damned difficult to combat the average shot time in a film is below five seconds, even less so on television.

Hmm? I know I wanted to type something, but my att...

2008-06-12T17:14:00.000-04:00

Hmm? I know I wanted to type something, but my attention was diverted by a Flash animation in another window open on my screen. Ha ha.

Oh yes...now I remember. First, I wanted to say, I hope you brought some manuscripts along with some books to Starbucks, given your workload right now!

On to the actual topic. What usually happens with me is, I am overwhelmed by the amount of subjects and data available out there, which leads not so much to a shallow focus but a lack of focus! As in, "Wow, there is so much I'd like to learn about...where do I start? Never mind, I'll just turn on the TV." I love to learn, but I am frustrated because it's impossible to learn EVERYTHING, isn't it? (Although this may not apply to the black boxes over at Blackmoore Global.) My struggle is to pick a narrow topic in order to be able to apply some deep focus.

-Jeff