WO I en de grote Britse fantasy-schrijvers
Het artikel van de week is (overtuigend) ‘ From the trenches to Mordor and back: World War I and Britisch Fantasy Literature ’. Daarin gaat Iskander Rehman op zoek naar hoe de boeken van Britse fantasy-grootheden als J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis en A.A. Milne beïnvloed zijn door de tijdsgeest. En vooral ook door hun ervaringen als Eerste Wereldoorlog-veteranen:
Britain’s most famed 20th-century fantasy writers came of age in a complex and interstitial era.
Zowel nationaal als internationaal broeide het:
With the rise of other great powers such as the United States and — more menacingly — Imperial Germany, there was already a crepuscular quality to certain discussions of international affairs, and a sense that the British Empire’s power was beginning to wane. Meanwhile, domestic debates were increasingly rancorous, centered on transformational and contentious issues such as female suffrage and workers’ rights. There was widespread concern over the long-term societal and environmental impact of mass mechanization and industrialization. Edwardian literature — and fantasy literature in particular — reflected these anxieties, along with the collective sentiment that those living through the early years of the 20th century were entering a risk-laden and unpredictable age.
Zijn WO I-ervaringen veranderden A.A. Milne’s kijk op het leven compleet:
Milne, afflicted with post-traumatic stress, became a militant pacifist. With the gentle, unthreatening universe of Winnie the Pooh, Milne chose the path of soothing escapism, providing — as one commentator notes — a war-weary and grieving nation with a “much needed solace in a time of great sadness, a connection to the intimate wonder of childhood, and a specifically British sensibility.”
Bij C.S. Lewis en Tolkien was de reactie anders:
Lewis and Tolkien may have witnessed industrialized warfare in all its dark, Boschian murderousness during World War I, but neither ever doubted the justice of England’s fight for freedom — whether against the armies of the Kaiser in their youth, or against the jackbooted legions of Nazi Germany in World War II. As Lewis was to declare in a famous speech entitled “Why I am not a Pacifist,” sometimes the prospect of armed struggle was necessary, for “the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well we can.”
Fantastic Story
What a fantastic story: “Did this unassuming small-town couple steal a $160 million Willem de Kooning painting?”
How Time Measurement changed Society
Interesting observation from Om Malik on how time (measurement) changed our society, and what that means for our future in the Age of the Gig Economy and Wearables.
Did Blogs Ruin the Web
On Kottke.org, Tim Carmody asks: Did blogs ruin the web? Or did the web ruin blogs?
Michael Kenna's Magical Trees
The Guardian published a beautiful gallery of landscape photographer Michael Kenna’s magical trees
From the lakes of Hokkaido to the forests of Abruzzo, the British photographer has scoured the world’s landscapes to capture their silent guardians.
Recommended.
I didn’t know this. Brilliant!! Marketing sauerkraut | Seth’s Blog
Forbes tested Amazon’s new facial recognition technology:
"So cheap, simple and speedy is Rekognition that it will likely transform the way we view our privacy online and in the ‘real world
The LEGO Movie 2 trailer is great. Hopefully the movie will be, too.
WWDC: “Bla bla bla”, “bla bla bla”, “favicons in Safari tabs…” Wait, what? Favicons? FAVICONS!! 🙃
Isn’t this great? I completely agree with Simon Kuestenmacher:
Artists who uplift the ugly corners of our cities are true urban heroes.
(Source: Reddit)
The Best Camera
The Online Photographer knows better:
The best camera is the one you've used for work you find gratifying.
Trapped by the feed
Om Malik hits it on head:
No matter where I go on the Internet, I feel like I am trapped in the “feed,” held down by algorithms that are like axes trying to make bespoke shirts out of silk.
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, they are all about the lowest common denominator. There is no real personalized value we receive from providing our data, we are just data sources for the popularity contests.
Photographing for Kids Festival Wageningen
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I spent my Saturday helping out at the Kids Festival Wageningen. That included shooting photographs for the website and social media.
Like last year, it was a great day! 📷😎
Are their more bloggers who, like Jason Kottke, share their media diet?
Politico created a GDPR power matrix, plotting both regulators, politicians and companies along axes for their influence and preparedness.
Understanding Fortnite
While reading How Fortnite Captured Teens’ Hearts and Minds in the New Yorker, I feel like I almost understand the Fortnite hype. I must be getting old. 😉
Amazon, your favorite surveillance company
Amazon is now also officially in the surveillance business:
The company has developed a powerful and dangerous new facial recognition system and is actively helping governments deploy it. Amazon calls the service “Rekognition.Marketing materials and documents obtained by ACLU affiliates in three states reveal a product that can be readily used to violate civil liberties and civil rights. Powered by artificial intelligence, Rekognition can identify, track, and analyze people in real time and recognize up to 100 people in a single image. It can quickly scan information it collects against databases featuring tens of millions of faces, according to Amazon.
@BenedictEvans used to say that all software expands until it includes messaging. In the same vein: every large cloud computing provider eventually becomes a surveillance provider.
Isn’t the cloud lovely? ☁️
Just installed Dialog on my Android phone. And it looks really good, @mikedotfm! Recommended!
How the old internet disappeared...
Dan Nosowitz hits the nail on the head in I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore:
And then, one day, I think in 2013, Twitter and Facebook were not really very fun anymore. And worse, the fun things they had supplanted were never coming back. Forums were depopulated; blogs were shut down. Twitter, one agent of their death, became completely worthless: a water-drop-torture feed of performative outrage, self-promotion, and discussion of Twitter itself. Facebook had become, well … you’ve been on Facebook.
Now it’s just ads and mediocre content marketing.