Blogworthy: The Great Incomprehension

Okay, here is the third edition of 'Blogworthy'. I am a dork, I know.

1. "If Only Literature Could Be a Cellphone-Free Zone" [The NYT]

This is one of the most amusing, and clever pieces I have read recently. Imagine if Romeo and Juliet lived in the cellphone era!

2. "The iPhone Gold Rush" [The NYT]

Speaking of cellphones, the recession might be kicking everyone's butt. But, software engineers, and programmers can find some sort of refuge under the Apple umbrella.

3. "Generation OMG" [The NYT]

So what of the youth shaped by what some are already calling the Great Recession? Will a publication looking back from 2030 damn them with such faint praise? Will they marry younger, be satisfied with stable but less exciting jobs? Will their children mock them for reusing tea bags and counting pennies as if this paycheck were the last? At the very least, they will reckon with tremendous instability, just as their Depression forebears did.

I remember the '90s. The huge bonus checks, and the I.T. bubble. But, my generation, which is the oldest of the recent "Recession Generation", does not have the luxury to make grand plans about the future. I know three people who got laid off this past week. And, one of them has decided since the job market is so bad for the engineers of the world, he would be better off going back to school, than finding another job.

Things are bad, and this article discusses the affects the recession is having on the recent graduates, university students, and the high schoolers. We do not know how long this recession is going to last, and what sort of lifestyle changes we would be required to make. But our youth culture is embedded in commercialism, and consumption. I wonder, if people can make the same sacrifices that our predecessors did in the '30s.

4. "Help, My Degree Is Underwater" [Slate]

The article poses the question, "In the recession, does advanced education really pay off?" More people are going into "safer" professions, such as teaching. When the tuition is sky high, and over-qualified university graduates cannot find jobs, does it really pay off to go to university?

5. "Torture Versus War" [The NYT]

When the Central Intelligence Agency obliterates a dozen suspected terrorists, along with assorted family members, with a missile from a drone, the news rarely stirs a strong reaction far beyond Pakistan.

Yet the waterboarding of three operatives from Al Qaeda — one of them the admitted murderer of 3,000 people as organizer of the 9/11 attacks — has stirred years of recriminations, calls for prosecution and national soul-searching.

What is it about the terrible intimacy of torture that so disturbs and captivates the public? Why has torture long been singled out for special condemnation in the law of war, when war brings death and suffering on a scale that dwarfs the torture chamber.

Obama has strongly condemned waterboarding, and other terror tactics that the previous administration used, to interrogate "enemy combatants". However, he supports the drone airstrikes, which have killed hundreds of Pakistanis, children and women included. This article explains what makes torture the subject of public outrage, and the airstrikes unworthy of the same outrage.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

According to this "Stuff White People Like" satirical post, all white (and by "white" the blog's author means upper-brow elitist) like to travel to Europe, after university :). They believe, visiting Europe would alter their life, and would make them more culturally and artistically unique.

This is what we see in Woody Allen's latest movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Watching the movie is like reading a beautiful novel, where the characters have fluidity, and are not just some caricatures we usually see on our cinema screens. I really liked the movie, and strongly recommend it. It reminded me of Woody Allen's other marvel, Match Point. A brief note about the acting: Penelope Cruz's character, Maria Elena, was the key catalyst in this movie, but it was Rebecca Hall's performance, and character, Vicky, that resonated with me.

The movie showed, we look at the Old World in wonderment, and while we are there we look at our North American materialistic lives with contempt. We hope that by being in Europe we are better than the rest of the people back home. We believe Europe would make us more culturally and artistically aware, and subsequently we would be able to escape the redundancy of the 9 to 5 quotidian.

The movie raised the question of love. Something Woody Allen has been playing around with, since Annie Hall. The reason love is such a well-discussed, and yet enigmatic topic is because it varies with a person's expectations. There is the innocent-not-so-tainted teenage love. But, as we grow older and our responsibilities start to pile up, our definition of love also becomes more realistic. Maybe the love you eventually settle for is not something you had fantasized about. Depending on what you are looking for, love could be rational, practical, and predictable. Or, maybe you are sure what love should not be like, but unaware of what it actually is. A Venn diagram would be oh so very handy in this case.

Then, supposedly, there are these mythical people who know from the get-go what they are looking for, and can identify it when they see it. Enter this David Gray song: "Be Mine".

I think, Woody Allen summarized the state of relationships cynically, and yet realistically, in the last scene of Annie Hall:

Blogworthy: I'm How I Read

I apologize, if this post reads like a snoozefest. The first three articles explore the evolution of our reading and writing habits in the so-called Internet age, which is mainly governed by the imperious Google. I have also added someecards for aesthetic reasons :).

1. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" [The Atlantic]

"Then again, the Net isn’t the alphabet, and although it may replace the printing press, it produces something altogether different. The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking."


This article raises a very interesting point. I have noticed that Internet has changed my reading habits. The difference between Internet reading and actual traditional book reading is that I am not using my imagination as much. Words don't have the same effect if they are not on paper. I find, when I am reading in a secluded corner, I can imagine what the characters look like, and what the setting would feel like. I can better associate with the characters, and sometimes I can even see myself in the protagonist.

I read the newspaper online, but I am always switching between the articles. Or I get distracted by my MSN conversations. And, now I suffer from ADD. I find it a lot harder to read a book at home. I get better reading done on the subway. Or wait for summer to finally make its appearance so I can go out to read in my backyard.


"The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines is not only built into the workings of the Internet, it is the network’s reigning business model as well. The faster we surf across the Web—the more links we click and pages we view—the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements. Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link—the more crumbs, the better. The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction."

The article also points out that we "read" more than we used to. But, we actually learn and reflect less than we did before. Relying on one source, our computer, for entertainment, academics, and leisure reading cannot be good for our brains.


2. "All Hail the Information Triumvirate!" [Britannica]

"Three things have happened, in a blink of history’s eye: (1) a single medium, the Web, has come to dominate the storage and supply of information, (2) a single search engine, Google, has come to dominate the navigation of that medium, and (3) a single information source, Wikipedia, has come to dominate the results served up by that search engine. Even if you adore the Web, Google, and Wikipedia - and I admit there’s much to adore - you have to wonder if the transformation of the Net from a radically heterogeneous information source to a radically homogeneous one is a good thing. Is culture best served by an information triumvirate?"

Again, a very true observation made by Nicholas Carr. Over the years, most of our Internet activity has become limited to Google and Wikipedia. And, Internet has become the primary source of information; and there is nothing wrong with that. Perhaps, it is a good idea if everyone around the world is relying on Wikipedia to learn about obscure things. We know that Internet has brought us closer. But the question is, how is our shared source of information affecting our political and social views?


"In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, 'cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.' And because they would be able to 'receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,' they would 'be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.' They would be 'filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.' Socrates wasn’t wrong—the new technology did often have the effects he feared—but he was shortsighted. He couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information, spur fresh ideas, and expand human knowledge (if not wisdom)."

The other thing I am really curious about is, what would the next generation or some future civilization say about our blogging habits. I feel, and this is a sentiment shared by many, there are more writers out there than there are readers.


3. "Handwriting is on the Wall" [The Wall Street Journal]

"Typing and texting have caused cursive skills to atrophy, and schools regard standards of style and legibility the same way they regard standards of dress. There may even come a day when longhand writing can no longer be deciphered by ordinary people -- you'll have to bring those old letters in the attic to some fussy museum curator. In 2006 only 15% of students taking the SAT wrote out their essays in cursive script; all the rest -- no doubt to the relief of the examiners -- used block letters."

I have to admit, when it comes to handwriting I prefer printing over cursive script. I feel reading another person's handwriting is an intimate experience, especially these days when it has become such a novelty. I thought this article was interesting, because it got me thinking, when was the last time I actually sent a handwritten note to someone. Oh, how I miss passing notes in class!


4. "The hijab gets an eco-friendly makeover" [The Toronto Star]

I buy scarves from H&M and use them as head-wraps, or the Muslim headscarf, or the hijab (whatever you wanna call them :D). According to this article, a Canadian girl came up with the idea of making eco-friendly hijabs, locally. These hijabs are not only good for the environment but have also created jobs at home; helping our flattering economy. So, I am glad to report that hijab just got green :).

Nikolai Gogol: Diary of a Madman

One of my resolutions for this year is to read Russian literature. I was sharing this ambitious and rather suicidal goal of mine with my sister; and here is her response: "Make sure you also put down 'MUST NOT KILL MYSELF' as a resolution too." My dad, who is fluent in Russian, has been encouraging me to read Nikolai Gogol (in English, of course) since I was in middle school. He got me Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls when I was a mere tween. And, people wonder why I am so morbid. So I finally caved in to parental pressure, and gaily cracked open my first Gogol: Diary of a Madman.

Diary of a Madman is a satirical and the most hilarious tragedy I have ever read. This short-story was written by Gogol in 1834, during Tsar Nicholas I's oppressive regime. Gogol wrote, ironically, to Pushkin: "Diary of a Madman met with a rather unpleasant little snag from the censor yesterday. But thank God things are a little better today. At least, all I have to do is throw out the best parts."

The story is set in imperial St Petersburg, my favourite Russian city. Gogol mocks Russian government offices, clerical staff, and social hierarchy through the insignificant eyes of the protagonist. Ivanovich, the Madman who writes these entries in his diary, sometimes refrains from writing about his love for the General's daughter.

The protagonist, in some ways, reminded me of the recurring character on SNL, Penelope, played by the amazing Kristen Wiig. Penelope is awfully hilarious yet a very annoying one-upper, whose brags miraculously turn out to be true, in the end.

The layout of the story reminded me of blogging. Ivanovich's journal entries begin with the corresponding date. In one of the entries he states that our desire to write comes from our innate need to share with others. As my high school English teacher used to say, "People inquire about your day not because they care. They ask so they can ramble about their own day."

There was an article published in the Atlantic a few months ago, wondering about the existential question many bloggers have faced: Why I blog? Here is my favourite excerpt from the article:

"As you read a log, you have the curious sense of moving backward in time as you move forward in pages—the opposite of a book. As you piece together a narrative that was never intended as one, it seems—and is—more truthful. Logs, in this sense, were a form of human self-correction. They amended for hindsight, for the ways in which human beings order and tidy and construct the story of their lives as they look back on them. Logs require a letting-go of narrative because they do not allow for a knowledge of the ending. So they have plot as well as dramatic irony—the reader will know the ending before the writer did."

My first posts were more impersonal, more about the impending humanitarian crises that concern me, such as Darfur. But with time I have been able to relinquish personal inhibitions, and, embarrassingly enough, have succeeded in broadcasting my single-status boo-hoos here. Blogging has also allowed me to connect with people who share similar interests, allowing me to associate with like-minded people. In some ways you guys know more about this so-called nerdy/dorkish side of me that I don't really reveal in real-life encounters. The reason I started this blog was because I realized I was running a risk of losing friends :). You see, I was boring them with my regular political rants. In fact, I have only told a couple of my friends about my existence in the blogosphere. I would find it really embarrassing if people who I associate with read my Random Ramblings.

"You can try to hide yourself from real scrutiny, and the exposure it demands, but it’s hard. And that’s what makes blogging as a form stand out: it is rich in personality. The faux intimacy of the Web experience, the closeness of the e-mail and the instant message, seeps through. You feel as if you know bloggers as they go through their lives, experience the same things you are experiencing, and share the moment."

Blogging, dorkishly enough, also defies the space-time continuum. People in the blogosphere are linked by time, but separated in space. (Sounds cheesy, right?) For instance, look at the time when Obama got elected, almost all of us wrote our myriad views on what his victory meant to us. This one event in time linked us, and prompted us to write something - positive or negative. A few years from now we can go back, and comb through our blog posts, and experience the immediate rawness we felt when these significant events, we blogged about, were unfolding...

Mayflower

Movies like Second Generation and books like The Namesake express the melancholic nature of disassociation, 'immigrant children' feel whilst growing up away from their parents' birthplace and ancestral homes. Where our parents and relatives back home, in our parents' country, like to remind us, how different and Westernized we are, they often refuse to see, at the core of our existence we do place a lot of importance to their cultural honour and entitlement. But our effort to be more accommodating to their values, and the struggle to find a balance between their culture and our culture often go unnoticed.

I think most of the second generation children try to evolve their own culture which is an amalgamation of both our parents' values, and the opportunities we are provided in the 'new world'. Regardless of what the misconception is, we are not out there to defy them. As explained in a previous post, the marriage procedure that I opted for, where I meet boys introduced by my parents (this may sound a bit whorish), and then get to know them is an example of finding that perfect balance between the custom my parents grew up with, and the dating scene my friends are a part of. However, I would be lying to myself if I said that the process didn't seem forced, or that I didn't wonder if I would ever be able to find someone who would take me as I am. I know the latter is a concern everyone has, regardless of their ethnicity, finding a partner who would accept them for who they are, and share their passion in life.

The hardest part might be the fact that I don't personally know anyone who is going through the same stuff as me, so I'm always trying to read about other people's experiences who were able to survive this excruciating process. I came across this blog entry, where the blogger kia explicitly mentioned details, about her arranged marriage ordeal, that I had never heard anyone talk about before. I was glad that someone had the courage to come out and discuss the 'taboo' things I have always wondered about.

http://www.kia-abdullah.com/files/suitableboy.pdf

For instance, she mentions that during the process, where she met numerous potentials, she found herself drawing comparisons between them, and picked the guy who was relatively better than the rest of the bunch.

She also points out, the events leading up to marriage become more about the families, and the rituals than the two people who are actually going to be building their lives together. And, that reality sinks in when all the wedding rituals are over, and you close that door, and find yourself alone with the person you have committed to love, for the rest of your life. I have always wondered how two strangers who have never held hands go about doing the deed on the first night, especially if it is the first time for both of them. So for the first time, I read about the awkwardness that ensues when two strangers are about to have the first real contact without any parental involvement and meddling.