“Online culture, he goes on, “is a culture of reaction without action” and rationalizations that “we were entering a transitional lull before a creative storm” are just that — rationalizations. “The sad truth,” he concludes, “is that we were not passing through a momentary lull before a storm. We had instead entered a persistent somnolence, and I have come to believe that we will only escape it when we kill the hive.”

Jaron Lanier, “You Are Not A Gadget”

The NY Times has a review of Jaron Lanier’s controversial book, which discusses the dark side of anonymity on the net, how groupthink and ‘digital Maoism’ are shaping our culture and how web aggregators may kill off original thought once and for all. Check it out.

The author of my very favorite book has passed away. I was so fervently hoping for something new before he passed, but I’ll be content to re-read his masterpiece “The Dictionary of the Khazars” again and again. And it’s easy to re-read his work, considering how he built his novels:

“An academic whose field, perhaps unsurprisingly, was philosophy, Mr. Pavic taught for many years at the University of Belgrade. Dreamlike, playful and formally unorthodox, his novels were like hardbound hypertext in their insistence on offering readers alternate, nonlinear ways of navigating a story.

Mr. Pavic’s narratives do away with the forced-march, page-after-page strategy to which most readers are accustomed. They are profuse with self-reference, unreliable narration, authorial asides and “Rashomon”-like shifts in point of view. Stories nest within stories like the pieces of a Russian doll.

Mr. Pavic’s next novel, “Landscape Painted With Tea” (Knopf, 1990; translated by Ms. Pribicevic-Zoric), is partly organized as a crossword puzzle, with alternating sections titled “Across” and “Down.” Readers may approach the book chronologically by reading only the “Across” sections, or less chronologically and with more digressions by reading the “Down” sections. Either strategy gradually reveals the story of a soul-searching architect who roams a labyrinth of meditation and memory.”

Yes, books built like lexicons with interlocking entries, books to be “solved” like crossword puzzles, even books based on tarot cards to be interpreted in different patterns. Even though he has passed on, he has left a mysterious, beautiful literary legacy for us to untangle and solve as many times as we wish.

Above is a brief interview with my favorite author, China Mieville.

He is so dreamy.

He’s not only a brilliant author who also ran for Parliament, but he’s a giant geek. Excerpt from the Stranger below:

I’ve heard that you were a Buffy fan, and I wanted to ask you how you felt about the announcement that they would be remaking the original Buffy movie.

Good lord! I hadn’t heard about this.

It’s not related to the TV show and Joss Whedon [the creator of Buffy] is not involved.

He isn’t involved? What I suppose I would say is my alarm bells are ringing. Never underestimate the sheer crassness of Hollywood. It’ll probably suck. But you know, how about we don’t go to see it?

I don’t think that will work in geek culture.

I know, but I’m trying to propagate this as a meme in geek culture. How about we don’t go and see it and don’t talk about it incessantly? Because it’s just shit. How about we don’t go see Transformers: Rise of the Fuckin’ Whatevers and then complain about how Michael Bay fucked up our favorite franchise? Because you know what? He’s Michael Bay! Of course he did! Let’s not go there.

I think that’s a great idea, but I don’t know how it’s gonna take off.

You gotta help me viral it. Let’s Not Go. LNG.

You should make a website.

Letsnotgo.com. That’s a brilliant idea. You could have reviews by people who haven’t seen it explaining why you shouldn’t go, and the review could be simply based on the publicity machine.

So, Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” was made into a movie. And it was great!

Then, Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” was made into a musical. And, according to all the reviews, it was…not so great.

After some deep thinking and research, I think I’ve come up with the reason. Be warned, it’s not easy to follow, but do your best:

A 50 YEAR OLD WOMAN PLAYS CORALINE.

Mystery solved.

Thank you.