Cyberflanerie: Literal, Shoshana Zuboff, Marc Demarest, Andrea Jones, Neil Postman, Colette Fu, Ollie

My review of Claudio Saunt's splendid West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776, originally posted here, is now live on Literal.

P.S. Check out Liz Covart's interview with the author for Ben Franklin's World Podcast here.

Global Warming Ate My Life by Shoshana Zuboff
The pivot as antidote to the error of predictability.

Andrea Jones' poetic, charming and informative Between Urban and Wild blog covers bluejays

Marc Demarest on how to know when the computer is coming for you: "The biolectric union between man and silicon"-- as seen in 1997.
> And see the Chasing Emma blog. (I was intrigued to find this since Emma was the editor of Art Magic, a book I found in Francisco I. Madero's personal library. You can view a first edition of Art Magic on archive.org. High octane stuff in there.) Be sure to click the tab to view the blog in "magazine" format, not "classic." In an earlier post he writes, "Why bother with another thesis on George Eliot, or another humdrum book on Aleister Crowley, when virtually the whole of Victorian occultism lies fallow in the noonday sun?" I say, here, here.
> And his page on Richard Dadd.

Ye Prophet of Yore Neil Postman on "The Surrender of Culture to Technology":

The Sociological Eye on Shutting Down the Internet in Time of War
Quote:

"The core problem is communication overload; the presence of information technology everywhere results in a situation that one general described as 'we’ve gone from network-enabled, to network-enamoured, to network-encumbered.'"

Soothingly beautiful popups by artist Colette Fu:

Ollie!

> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.

Haiku in the Guadalupe Mountains of Far West Texas

Spotlight on Mexican Fiction and Cadena's "The Apaches of Kiev"

Cymru & Comanche: Cyberflanerie

WEST OF THE REVOLUTION: AN UNCOMMON HISTORY OF 1776 by Claudio Saunt

Get this book from
Seminary Co-op
amazon
et al

Of late American readers have been well served by a veritable cottage industry of works about the Roman Republic and Empire, and their respective falls, and various aspects thereof, and what lessons we, with our republic (or empire, as some would have it), purportedly at the precipice of analogous fiscal, ecological, military, social and/or  political Seneca Cliffs, might learn from them. History may not repeat itself any more than we can wade into the same river twice, but, of course, we can step into rivers that look more than a sight familiar. Sometimes a nicely behaved river—let’s dub it the Goth Swan—turns of a sudden into a drowning horror. Indeed, a close reading of Roman history does suggest, in blurriest outlines, some analogies with contemporary trends and conundrums. But there are perhaps more valuable insights to be parsed from our own little-known and, relatively speaking, recent history. CONTINUE READING AT LITERAL MAGAZINE



> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.

Book Review: The Comanche Empire by  Pekka Hämäläinen

All book reviews by C.M. Mayo

On Writing About Mexico: Secrets and Surprises