I'm trying something new: I'm going to either link to my review, or a review I think is good at the end of the blog post so the whiners will stop whining about me not doing reviews. So there! Whiners.
For those of you who have read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, you'll be familiar with the concept of what I like to call the InterFace (i.e. the Internet you interface with). I really hate that idea. Oh sure, it looks cool, particularly the Holodeck version from Star Trek, but think of how much time certain people would waste with non face-to-face interactions. We already spend so much time hiding behind cell phones and computer screens, I can't imagine what it would be like to have access to "real" life experiences.
But then literature doesn't really give us the good aspects that I'm sure exist in the InterFace. For instance, I bet it would make certain science experiments a lot easier and safer. And there's something to be said about watching a historical moment in 3D. But look at all the non-research related/productive things the internet is currently used for. I waste so much time with media in my life that it's amazing I can keep up with this blog at all. In fact, I've been in a bit of a crunch lately because I have a temp job right now that completely wipes me out emotionally. I don't want to talk about it, because it just makes me angry and sad and confused and a bunch of other things I don't want to deal with, at least not right now and not in this forum.
It's kind of ironic that the thing that I use to produce my blog is also the thing that distracts me from it. I sometimes wonder what else it distracts me from. Maybe I would have written that great novel that I'm sure is floating around in my head somewhere, but then where would I do my research? This is probably the greatest catch-22 of our time, we have this amazing powerful tool...that is also a huge stumbling block for the development of our species. I can just imagine our species forgetting to physically breed if we ever create an InterFace. But then, maybe that's for the best too.
My review can be found on Goodreads.
Well, in my dream scenario, I have not one but two computers, and one has the internet and the other one only has a word program. So I do all my writing on the word program and then if I need to I do my research on the internet one, so that distractions are lessened during the actually drafting process (i always save the bulk of researching to the rewriting process). Of course, I have yet to implement this plan because I am unsure how well it would go. It might be a waste of money as I'd only ever use the internet computer, is my fear. Oh man it would also be nice to have an office, so I can pretend I am physically "going to work" when I set off to write. Yeahhhhh...dreamin'. :)
ReplyDeleteAh Dayna,
ReplyDeleteThere are times I remember unplugging the internet cable from my computer during my Senior Project writing. Most of my resources were already in physical form so I didn't need to rely so much on it. Maybe you don't need a secondary computer so much as a yanked cord.
Unfortunately with my blogging it requires so much connection with other digital work - grabbing the book cover and other images as necessary, grabbing book reviews, grabbing my own book reviews to put up on the BR page, etc. And occasionally I include factoids that I like to site so I don't look like an asshole if I'm wrong. Plus I frequently look up literary terms to make sure I'm using them correctly. In some ways it makes blog writing more difficult than academic writing, but on the other hand it's far more rewarding.
Perhaps some day you and I can have writing sessions together?