books

I’ve been reading “Kafka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami. I ploughed through the first 3/4 of the book but on page 478 out of 615 it just all went downhill for me.

Nakata is my favorite character in the book and I loved the journey with Hoshino. But since Colonel Sanders turned up, it seems to fall into a repititve pattern where Colonel Sanders tells Hoshino what to do and we watch him do it - no uncertainty, no suspense, just following orders. I’m also bored with how Nakata suddenly seems to know exactly what to do with complete conviction, which seems very much contrary to his childlike mind in the first part of the book.As for Kafka’s arc, I find the philosophical discussions with the other characters anything but engaging. The sex scenes between a teenager and a 50 year old are just disgusting.

Is the ending worth it? I’m reading the French translation, sorry if the characters have different names.

Although (or perhaps because) I came to “administration” late in my academic career, I am constantly amazed at how obediently people accept explanations that begin with the words “The computer shows…” or “The computer has determined…” It is Technopoly’s equivalent of the sentence “It is God’s will,” and the effect is roughly the same.-Technopoly: The Submission of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman, pg. 115

Technopoly as a word is entirely Postman’s creation, he describes it as a “state of culture” and “state of mind” which consists in the “deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology.” As among the symptoms of this state of mind, he includes a conscious focus on more efficient machines without considering the cost of that efficiency, relying on statistics alone as the sole truth and the trivialization of old traditions and symbols of our past.

It is a obvious thing to see that in today’s tech-driven world, the more technologies we develop to communicate better, the more isolated and alienated we have become. This is slowly giving rise to a society where we are more comfortable with not thinking critically, of not having the power to make our own decisions and telling our concerns to AI rather than people we are close. This has not happened overnight, and according to Neil Postman, these visible differences in our psyche and daily lives have a long history that starts when we started letting technology take more prestige and power in our culture. This book is his hope that we become more aware of Technopoly’s effects in our lives and do something to resist them.

Neil Postman presents a number of evidence and arguments backed by his keen observation and thorough research about the dangers of letting technological innovation and the drive of progress consume our lives. He explains and shows circumstances that we have all seen and felt, especially more rigorous forms of advertising and consumerism than was present in his own times.

What he presents as a solution is less than enough however, his solution I might add is one he gives timidly but with a full sense of hope. It is one where education is the cause of our collective salvation and the only way to overcome this need to progress more efficiently. I however think that it cannot be so simple as that, because as capitalism and our own markets have proven again and again, a message designed to be a cautionary tale can be sold perhaps to even the same people that participate in the cultural submission to technology.

These points withstanding, Technopoly: The Submission of Culture to Technology is a great book to warm yourself to these thoughts that we are ingrained in the grid of consumerism and technology that we don’t even realize it.

Although (or perhaps because) I came to “administration” late in my academic career, I am constantly amazed at how obediently people accept explanations that begin with the words “The computer shows…” or “The computer has determined…” It is Technopoly’s equivalent of the sentence “It is God’s will,” and the effect is roughly the same.-Technopoly: The Submission of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman, pg. 115

Technopoly as a word is entirely Postman’s creation, he describes it as a “state of culture” and “state of mind” which consists in the “deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology.” As among the symptoms of this state of mind, he includes a conscious focus on more efficient machines without considering the cost of that efficiency, relying on statistics alone as the sole truth and the trivialization of old traditions and symbols of our past.

It is a obvious thing to see that in today’s tech-driven world, the more technologies we develop to communicate better, the more isolated and alienated we have become. This is slowly giving rise to a society where we are more comfortable with not thinking critically, of not having the power to make our own decisions and telling our concerns to AI rather than people we are close. This has not happened overnight, and according to Neil Postman, these visible differences in our psyche and daily lives have a long history that starts when we started letting technology take more prestige and power in our culture. This book is his hope that we become more aware of Technopoly’s effects in our lives and do something to resist them.

Neil Postman presents a number of evidence and arguments backed by his keen observation and thorough research about the dangers of letting technological innovation and the drive of progress consume our lives. He explains and shows circumstances that we have all seen and felt, especially more rigorous forms of advertising and consumerism than was present in his own times.

What he presents as a solution is less than enough however, his solution I might add is one he gives timidly but with a full sense of hope. It is one where education is the cause of our collective salvation and the only way to overcome this need to progress more efficiently. I however think that it cannot be so simple as that, because as capitalism and our own markets have proven again and again, a message designed to be a cautionary tale can be sold perhaps to even the same people that participate in the cultural submission to technology.

These points withstanding, Technopoly: The Submission of Culture to Technology is a great book to warm yourself to these thoughts that we are ingrained in the grid of consumerism and technology that we don’t even realize it.