Tag: American Education

“Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?”

Or: “No . . . it was Beauty killed the Beast.”

Hadn’t planned to be blogging this but once again, I’m battling with the ongoing META embargo of news stories from posters residing in Canada and posting without using a VPN. Thinking that I may need to start using one on another computer to post things directly to “that other platform.”

Anyway.

Came across a piece by Thomas Pynchon, published in the New York Times back in 1984 (perfect for the timing!) about the Luddites and the history of the movement.

So here’s a link to the piece (archived, so you should be able to see it past their firewall)

Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?

Personally, I’m now inclined to answer that with a resounding “Yes.”

“These are not misprints”

Or: “Mistakes were made…”

As a long-lapsed rare books conservator, the lede caught my roving eye — “not misprints but beauties of my style hitherto undreamt of” — and I had to dig deeper. Of course I had to follow that link, and down the rabbit hole we went!

The first link in the MetaFilter story went to artnet.com and provides the source — from the Yale University Library — of the images below. The “Ulysses” image is especially nostalgic: the multiple copies of “Ulysses” held at the University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Center (I think there are twenty-two? I’ve forgotten the exact number) were the subject of some of the last treatments I performed when I worked there. I was responsible for cleaning the books and consolidating the paper dust jackets.

If you ever want to experience the very worst of the physical side of commercial paper-making, the 19th and 20 Centuries provide excellent examples. Given that the book was printed in between the two word wars, premium materials were not all that available and the paper dust jackets, seen here in the illustration, were made with some real crap. Yeah, a “technical” term to describe the highly brittle paper that was used. Fun times, indeed,

But the contents were also irresistible. The mother-in-law at the time and I discussed some of the eccentricities of Joyce’s linguistic games —“Agenbite of Inwit” has stayed with me the past forty years (Barb, you are missed by all).

So diving into these two articles was absolutely necessary!

The artnet story:
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/yale-errata-exhibition-2751007

The exhibition announcement:
https://events.yale.edu/event/beauties-of-my-style-errata-and-the-printed-mistake

Enjoy —




And what is the Internet for?

Or: “Prøn. Cats and prøn!”

Years ago — back in grad school, I think or shortly thereafter — there was some discussion about what were the “drivers” of the adoption of new technologies and people brought up the battles that video tape faced. Some went even further back and brought up book publishing/moveable type. It was a discussion I followed closely, in part due to my own interests in the history of bookbinding, as well as my interest in digital publishing.

A running joke at the time, yet still applicable today, was that “the Internet is for prøn, prøn and cats”, the deliberate use of the “ø” and misspelling to avoid immediate censorship by the more easily-offended. There is an amusing truth to the joke: adult entertainment drove the development of micro-payments that led to the monetization of anything put online. And erotica1 was among the earliest of Western European book publication. Quite simple, really, entertainment sells and adult entertainment sells very well.

And so, here we are:

We’ve already seen the AI cats, the nudification of celebrities and spiteful ex-partners, the slop that is spreading in all forms of digital entertainment.

  1. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18459/18459-h/18459-h.htm
    This links to the Project Gutenberg digital version of the classic. More explanation and background on this text, in the following link,
    as the “Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is the a example of these early “entertainments”. ↩︎

Heil Scouting Amerika!

Or: “Die neue Verband der amerikanischen Arbeiterjugend

Deep in the midst of watching the Watergate Hearings, several of us were talking about the fact that some of the Utah chapters of the Boy Scouts had received training in the use of automatic weapons — we joked a little about it, given the surreality of what was happening around us. Yes, there might have been the recreational usage of certain herbal preparations of suspect legality, but the facts were out there.

Fast forward to the Orwellian dimensions of the Current Regime and the recent announcement by the “Department of War” —


“WASHINGTON (AP) — Scouting America will alter several policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including one targeting transgender youths, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday as he pushes a campaign against military support for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested to the Defense Department in January, which included discontinuing its Citizenship in Society merit badge and introducing a Military Service merit badge as well as waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.”

https://apnews.com/article/scouting-america-pentagon-military-boy-scouts

This is verging on familiar territory, and not in a good way:

https://universityarchives.princeton.edu/2021/06/a-princeton-area-nazi-boys-camp-and-civil-liberties-in-new-jersey-in-the-1930s/

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/creator-of-taggart-reveals-the-human-stories-behind-an-unlikely-and-unsettling-alliance-on-the-eve-of-wartherell-be-no-more-murders-tv-sleuth-writer-rules-out-comeback/

https://www.scout.org/node/330

Gear Acquisition Syndrome

The dreaded Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or GAS as it is also known by, is a cousin to even more dangerous The Collector-Fetishist. Photographers and musicians know it all too well — it’s a constant battle against the impulse. The Fetishist is a real menace, keeping gear out of the hands of those competent to play/use it.

I think it falls most heavily on the musician, though, as parts of the instrument-making industry unnecessarily conservative when it comes to designing new performance instruments. This is especially evident when it comes to electronic/hybrid instruments that might incorporate new technologies. No, I’m not arguing that a 16th century violin needs that much innovation, but technologies surrounding electric guitars, synthesizers, and controllers are constantly changing and there seem to be an awful lot of small mammals racing around the scene.

I’m in the midst of a rethink about how I have used the guitar over the past 60-odd years and there are clearly still more changes ahead.

Watch/Listen to this space…

Now here’s a God Jul image to contemplate:

Image of snow covering buildings and the balcony.

Trouble at the Mill…

So once again, I fall victim to the greed of META — posted a link to a story about the Canadian archives and the tremendous difficulties they are facing presently, only to have be blocked. There was some weirdness associated with the blocking — it appeared long enough for a friend to comment, I saw her comments and was about to respond when it. Just. Disappeared. Along with some 7 hours of other posts — suggesting that my account might have been blocked. With META, who knows?

But the Internet, like water, refuses to be tamed by the likes of Suckerberg. SO without further ado, here’s a link to the article from one of my recent reading discoveries, The Walrus:

~~~

“Canada’s Archives Are in Trouble—and So Is Its History”

~~

So, I really hope that my friends who were able to see it, however briefly, will chime in on the matter from this link.

I’m counting on you, Lisa and Luciana!

Here’s two screenshots:

… and shortly after…


Just a placeholder

Countries A, B, C, (and others) have been in conflict for years now.

Country B invaded and seized land of Country K, who now been conducting a campaign of major initiatives for several years now. Country K carries out a highly asymmetrical attack against Country B that takes out over a third (about 2/5, actually) of B’s nuclear-capable air force, which had been used against K for some time. Country A and Country C have been duking it out with trade and not hardware, but the noises are being made constantly. Country A shares a close working relationship with Country B and has been repeatedly accused of helping B fight against K.

The press was gob-smacked, tho’ some of the lesser lights of the media pointed out that the idea has been around for several years.

The asymmetry of it all is what people need to be paying more attention to, and while a strategic issue has been raised (as it should be), we need to be focusing on other scenarios that benefit from such asymmetries.

Consider:

The Country C’s current regime has been slashing funding for agencies responsible for data and information gathering and analysis, counter-cyberwarfare, and meteorological data gathering and analysis and forecasting. So they miss the chatter taking place of an assault that takes advantage of the chaos of a government that is having issues passing budgets, cutting vital defensive services including the prediction and surveillance of their well-known summer storms. Given the increasing average severity of these storms, it is highly likely that any storm in the next season will be more than usually catastrophic.

But then if you no longer support the tracking and surveillance programs that the rest of the world is using, then you won’t know. But your enemies will and if they’ve been following along the past 15 years or so, they very well may have laid preparations. But you no longer have the intelligence-gathering capacity that you used to have because you’ve alienated all your previous allies.

Country K’s brilliant attack was some 18 months in the making…

Here’s a “Look! A squirrel!” moment to wash that previous away —

Unprocessed phone capture, near the Quartier des Spectacles, on a recent sojourn.

“… that which once was.”

I’m getting really tired of Suckerburg’s tiff with Canadian news sources… while I didn’t particularly notice while in Europe, now that I am here, it is a constant annoyance. I have taken to obfuscating the URLs, but this has meant that images, which are always more potent, were also unable to be displayed. So it looks like the blog will be getting a workout… today’s treat follows.

Take some time to drift through the images of Palestine before the nakkba of 1948. It reminds me of the stories of an earlier time further to the west, of Alfonso el Sabio.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2025/5/15/palestine-before-the-nakba-in-100-photos

Image of Druze family members in Palestine.

They Thought They Were Safe

Lots of comparisons being made between the current situation and emerging oligarchy in the US and what happened to Germany in the 1930’s. Some people are claiming that the Germans didn’t know what was happening. Consider, though, that Adolf was LEGALLY appointed as Chancellor in 1933. It is hard to claim that some didn’t know. What is troubling is that there were so many who thought it wasn’t a problem, since it was legal.

I encourage you to take a look at the link below… it’s a very slippery slope we are on.

https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm

Remember, those events didn’t happen in a vacuum: Mussolini as legally elected in 1923 and by 1925 had declared himself dictator in what he called a fascist government…

Enough With the Substack!

Seriously — you should know better. And yes, there are alternatives that will allow you to monetize your content without financially supporting a publication platform that supports racism and fascism. Don’t believe me or know how to do it? Start by reading the following linked article:

https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/substack-announcement-bari-weiss-free-press

“I hadn’t planned to write about Substack again, but part of me knew there was a rake somewhere just waiting to be stepped on. Despite the United Nations-worth of red flags, respected journalists, historians, creative writers, and others remain on Substack, sharing 10% of every paid subscription with the company—and now with a share for Bari Weiss. Subscribers can be easily exported to another platform, and people who monetize their newsletters will get a larger share of the revenue elsewhere. But Substack has managed to convince some that there is no life for a newsletter beyond them. This is simply untrue.

Since I left Substack for beehiiv in January, I went from making a little bit of money to actually making a living as an independent journalist with my own publication. I didn’t need Substack’s Twitter-esque Notes feature or its recommendation network to grow; I used social networks—mostly Bluesky—to successfully promote my work. That personal engagement created, I believe, deeper relationships with my readers than passive subscriptions via an algorithm. Most importantly, I’ve remained committed to producing work that I’m proud of, and publishing it via a platform that doesn’t force me to compromise my values.”


In the immortal words of Bob: STOP IT!
https://youtu.be/aAhA7KfbJgg?si=J2iK31Ldhs3li-4

Donors Choose…

If you live in the USA, you’ve probably heard something about the situation that teachers there face every year when it comes to support in the classroom.

So here’s something you can do about it —

https://www.donorschoose.org/donors/map.html

There ya go.

#Persist
#Resist
#StopSayingMandate
#TrumpEtAliaDelendaEst