Commonplacing

“There should be a special place in hell for the professors who—at the end of an advisee’s 10-year graduate program with no job in sight—say, “well, academe is not for everyone.”

Thomas H. Benton, “The Big Lie About the ‘Life of the Mind,’” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 8, 2010.

“I can’t help but fear that the open web wave has crested, and what we are enjoying so much right now is the retrenchment of proprietary platforms and the internet configured as a virtual shopping centre.”

Brian Lamb talking about some unfortunate choices Apple has signaled with its iPad, “They said it …” abject learning, January 28, 2010.

“Two centuries ago, our forebears would have known the precise history and source of almost every one of the limited number of things they ate and owned. They would have been familiar with the pig, the carpenter, the weaver, the loom and the dairymaid. The range of items available for purchase may have grown exponentially since then, but our understanding of their genesis has grown ever more obscure. We are now as imaginatively disconnected from the production and distribution of our goods as we are practically in reach of them, a process of alienation which has stripped us of opportunities for wonder, gratitude and guilt.”

Alain de Botton, “The Enlightening Bridge Between Art And Work,” NPR, Jan 12, 2009, quoted in boingboing. Hat tip: @robotnik; see also his second tweet.

“Now, you may, like Thiel and the other new masters of the cyberverse, find this social experiment [Facebook] tremendously exciting. Here at last is the Enlightenment state longed for since the Puritans of the 17th century sailed away to North America, a world where everyone is free to express themselves as they please, according to who is watching. National boundaries are a thing of the past and everyone cavorts together in freewheeling virtual space. Nature has been conquered through man’s boundless ingenuity. Yes, and you may decide to send genius investor Thiel all your money, and certainly you’ll be waiting impatiently for the public flotation of the unstoppable Facebook.

Or you might reflect that you don’t really want to be part of this heavily-funded programme to create an arid global virtual republic, where your own self and your relationships with your friends are converted into commodites on sale to giant global brands. You may decide that you don’t want to be part of this takeover bid for the world.”

Tom Hodgkinson, “With friends like these …” guardian.co.uk, Jan. 14, 2008. Hat tip: @academicdave.

“I don’t want a digital facelift for the humanities, I want the digital to completely change what it means to be a humanities scholar.”

academHacK, “The MLA, @briancroxall, and the non-rise of the Digital Humanities,” Jan. 6, 2010.

“Everything one needs to know to use the language clearly, correctly, and even stylishly is available in thousands of places, often free and rarely at a price of more than a few dollars. The nation is full of secondhand bookshops where $15 will get a used dictionary, an old copy of The Elements of Style, and a grammar handbook. Learning to write and speak clear, standard English is mostly a question of will. Some subjects require face-to-face instruction from an expert and hands-on practice under expert supervision. But when the subject is one’s own language, ignorance is a choice.”

Art Scheck, “Old Books, Old Stories,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 12, 2009.

“There must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything. If names are not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language is not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried to success.”

Confucius, quoted in Andrew Higgins and Anne E. Kornblut, “Ties that bind, and labels to keep in mind,” Washington Post Nov. 12, 2009, p. A10.

“Inspired by NYT story of reading a book a day for a year, I hereby commit to reading *tens* of tweets daily for a year.”

Dan Cohen in a tweet about “A Quest to Read a Book a Day for 365 Days”. This is tongue in cheek, of course, because Cohen is a historian. Still, it’s hard to find time to read, which explains the lack of quotes here recently.

“The city is the diplomatic equivalent of the bar scene in the first Star Wars. Its array of trading partners and business interests is a gallery of strange bedfellows.”

Jim Krane writing about Dubai in “American Nuclear Reactors for Dubai, Iran’s Best Friend,” Informed Comment, 8 Sept. 2009.

“Major news organizations need to cover hate the way they once did — as a standalone beat.”

Charles Davis, “Unhealthy silence: Best way to beat hatemongering is to report it,” Columbia Daily Tribune, Aug. 18, 2009