This report on defamation law reminds me that I wrote an essay on the intellectual and moral history of defamation.
Zadie Smith: “I think it’s important to be a bit more forgiving when they’re being those people online. I see that too — people I love, I see them online, and I’m like, who are you? This is not the same person I hang out with. This is a different person. But it’s really important to take the responsibility and the blame off individuals. It’s a behavior modification system. It’s meant to do that. It’s really well designed. People aren’t terrible. The system is terrible. You want to lift that off people, that sense of guilt or shame, and make it more about anger — anger toward the people who created this.”
“Hello, Public Safety? There’s some dude outside my office window, just sitting there and staring in. Sitting and staring. It’s creeping me out.”
Today Robert Caro’s The Power Broker is available as an e-book, and I would love to know how many copies it will sell in that format in the first 24 hours. Book sales are such a black box, I don’t even know where to put the over/under. Maybe 15,000 copies?
Adam Roberts, “Musée des Prole Arts.”
I LOL’d while reading this post by Phil Christman because it captures so perfectly a certain moment in a certain subculture I know intimately. (I’m too old to have gone through it myself, and anyway I wasn’t raised a Christian, but the “Christian-artsy-kid” world of 25 years ago is one for which I have great affection.)
I wrote this morning about the world’s best copy editor and offered your occasional reminder of how much I hate Microsoft Word.
Christine Rosen’s new book The Extinction of Experience — which I blurbed — is here also, and here’s a preview in podcast/interview form.
Jeff Bilbro’s new book Words for Conviviality — which I blurbed — is just out, and here’s a preview.
Hi! I’m back!
