Monday, December 3, 2007
AND ARMORED POLAR BEARS, TO BOOT: Having not read any of the His Dark Materials trilogy, I can't say whether the uproar that the movie and books are necessarily anti-religious (and particularly anti-Catholic) has any real teeth. (Though the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury has praised the books indicates to me that there may be a bit of an overreaction going on here.) The argument that they have valuable things to say about fundamentalism and the dangers of believing anything without questioning strikes me as having enormous appeal, and the trailers for the movie look gorgeous. So, ThingThrowers, anything we should know before heading out to the movies, and are the books worth reading?
INDUCTION JUNCTION: Some interesting Hall of Fame news today. It looks like chili dogs will be on the menu at the Waldorf this spring, because according to Future Rock Hall, John Mellencamp broke the news at a concert last week that he has gained induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
And the Baseball Hall of Fame Veteran's Committee, perhaps sensing that this year's class of players might lack some spice and cognizant that people want to see someone inducted this summer, opened the doors for five former managers and executives, including former commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former Red Sox and A's manager Dick Williams (hope he wears a belt).
And the Baseball Hall of Fame Veteran's Committee, perhaps sensing that this year's class of players might lack some spice and cognizant that people want to see someone inducted this summer, opened the doors for five former managers and executives, including former commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former Red Sox and A's manager Dick Williams (hope he wears a belt).
TYPE SLOWLY: When you put almost a thousand miles on your odometer in less than a week of solitary driving, you tend to mull over the same questions for improbably long periods of time -- why haven't I been listening to Spoon more?; is Lompoc the largest U.S. urban area I've visited that's not on a major highway? (answer: no; that's Wenatchee, but close). Here are the two that troubled me the most:
- Is Pavement's Steven Malkmus a free-associating poet of the obscure, or is he just an author of pretentiously awful lyrics?
- How can there be so many people in the world, and specifically in San Luis Obispo County, who don't know the fundamental rule of freeway driving: the only excuse for traveling the same speed as or slower than the traffic in the lane to your right is that the person immediately in front of you is preventing you from speeding up?
YOU CAN JUST HANG OUTSIDE IN THE SUN ALL DAY TOSSIN' A BALL AROUND, OR YOU CAN SIT AT YOUR COMPUTER AND DO SOMETHIN' THAT MATTERS: Steven Johnson's Everything Bad Is Good For You attracted a lot of attention when it first appeared in 2005 -- partly because of its provocative argument, partly because of Johnson's impressive media-critic credentials as a founder of Feed, Plastic.com, and outside.in and the author of several other acclaimed books (a list now joined by a 2007 favorite for several ThingThrowers, The Ghost Map).
Johnson lays out his straightforward thesis on the very first page of Everything Bad: "popular culture has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging over the past thirty years." He amusingly dubs this phenomenon the "Sleeper Curve," after the Woody Allen movie in which scientists of the future are shocked to learn that late-20th-century Earthlings didn't realize the nutritional value of steak, cream pies, and hot fudge. For Johnson, though, the products with hidden brainy goodness aren't foodstuffs but rather pop-culture media: video games, television, the Internet, and film, all of which are increasingly providing their consumers with "a kind of cognitive workout."
Among these media, Johnson devotes the most attention to video games. As seen in the PBS documentary, The Video Game Revolution, games boast a long and complex history, yet they've received relatively little critical attention. Moreover, much of that attention -- as well as the more casual criticisms from political and civic leaders -- has focused on games' violent content and its potential impact on young players. Johnson, however, argues that we need to analyze video games less for their content and more for the cognitive work they demand. Drawing on the work of James Paul Gee, Johnson examines how players explore gameworlds through "probing" (figuring out the game's rules and goals) and "telescoping" (managing a complex, nested collection of objectives). The rewards in such games -- from Zelda and Myst to The Sims and Grand Theft Auto -- lie not in their stories but in the act of gameplay itself. As Johnson puts it, "It's not what you're thinking about when you're playing a game, it's the way you're thinking that matters." And that way of thinking, he argues, provides "mental exercise" with valuable benefits in "attention, memory, following threads, ... perceiving relationships, determining priorities ... [and] participatory thinking and analysis."
It's a compelling argument, to be sure, though it's not without flaws. Johnson basically brackets the "violent games" debate until the last few pages of his book, and while other experts like MIT's Henry Jenkins have persuasively rebutted some of the content-based critiques, Johnson prefers to return to his claim that games' "method" shapes their players more than their content does. In addition, my students felt that Johnson downplayed games' addictiveness and intensity of experience. Particularly in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and EVE Online, players can become utterly consumed by these virtual worlds, sometimes with serious "real world" consequences.
But here I need to turn the discussion over to you, because I'm not a gamer (though don't tell the kids, but we're getting a Wii for Christmas). For those of you who do play video games, does Johnson's analysis ring true? More generally, why do you enjoy gaming -- the games' content, the gameplay experience, the virtual community of other gamers? For those who don't play games, why don't you?
Johnson lays out his straightforward thesis on the very first page of Everything Bad: "popular culture has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging over the past thirty years." He amusingly dubs this phenomenon the "Sleeper Curve," after the Woody Allen movie in which scientists of the future are shocked to learn that late-20th-century Earthlings didn't realize the nutritional value of steak, cream pies, and hot fudge. For Johnson, though, the products with hidden brainy goodness aren't foodstuffs but rather pop-culture media: video games, television, the Internet, and film, all of which are increasingly providing their consumers with "a kind of cognitive workout."
Among these media, Johnson devotes the most attention to video games. As seen in the PBS documentary, The Video Game Revolution, games boast a long and complex history, yet they've received relatively little critical attention. Moreover, much of that attention -- as well as the more casual criticisms from political and civic leaders -- has focused on games' violent content and its potential impact on young players. Johnson, however, argues that we need to analyze video games less for their content and more for the cognitive work they demand. Drawing on the work of James Paul Gee, Johnson examines how players explore gameworlds through "probing" (figuring out the game's rules and goals) and "telescoping" (managing a complex, nested collection of objectives). The rewards in such games -- from Zelda and Myst to The Sims and Grand Theft Auto -- lie not in their stories but in the act of gameplay itself. As Johnson puts it, "It's not what you're thinking about when you're playing a game, it's the way you're thinking that matters." And that way of thinking, he argues, provides "mental exercise" with valuable benefits in "attention, memory, following threads, ... perceiving relationships, determining priorities ... [and] participatory thinking and analysis."
It's a compelling argument, to be sure, though it's not without flaws. Johnson basically brackets the "violent games" debate until the last few pages of his book, and while other experts like MIT's Henry Jenkins have persuasively rebutted some of the content-based critiques, Johnson prefers to return to his claim that games' "method" shapes their players more than their content does. In addition, my students felt that Johnson downplayed games' addictiveness and intensity of experience. Particularly in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and EVE Online, players can become utterly consumed by these virtual worlds, sometimes with serious "real world" consequences.
But here I need to turn the discussion over to you, because I'm not a gamer (though don't tell the kids, but we're getting a Wii for Christmas). For those of you who do play video games, does Johnson's analysis ring true? More generally, why do you enjoy gaming -- the games' content, the gameplay experience, the virtual community of other gamers? For those who don't play games, why don't you?
SCOOPED BY PERISCOPE: Join us in joyfully welcoming the newest member of our family, Phoebe Pearl Bonin, who reportedly has an incisive wit and left-leaning tendencies. Mazel tov to Adam and Jen!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
I'M MUCH MORE METHODICAL THAN YOU: This leg of the Race had something for everyone--much Airport Fu amounting to very little (and I find it hard to believe that there wasn't the opportunity for more such Fu in Paris), navigational difficulties both on foot and by auto, people nearly getting hit by a bus, helpful local navigation aides, the obligatory Travelocity product placement, and a detour that automatically gets points for reminding us of Lori and Bolo counting bears in Ikea (perhaps explaining why folks were so reluctant to do the counting at least at first). Discuss.
SIX DEGREES OF...DA COACH: I wrote a fun story in the Sunday Chicago Tribune linking Mike Ditka to this holiday season's biggest movies a la the Kevin Bacon Game. Because of space considerations (and I urge to check out the print edition--p. 5 of the Arts Section--as it doesn't translate quite as well on the Net), a few of the movies got cut, so I thought I might as well share those with you here...
"Lions for Lambs" (Opened Nov. 9)
This contemporary political drams was directed by and stars Robert Redford
The Chicago Sting of the North American Soccer League played many of their home games at Soldier Field
Soldier Field has been the home field of the Chicago Bears since 1971 and on game days from 1982-92 the home team sidelines were patrolled by…Mike Ditka
"Walk Hard" (Opens Dec. 21)
This mock bio of a rock legend was co-written by Jake Kasdan
As a child, Kasdan appeared briefly in his dad Lawrence’s film, "The Big Chill" (1983)
The main characters in "The Big Chill" all met at the
University of Michigan alum Jim Harbaugh was the Bears first-round pick in 1987 and though he had some successes as a Bear, is perhaps best remembered for throwing an interception that led to the firing of…Mike Ditka
"There Will Be Blood" (Release date TBD)
This story of oil corruption in the ’20s was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Sandler more typically was in the remake of "The Longest Yard," which also featured wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
McMichael was previously married to former Bears defensive tackle Steve "Mongo" McMichael, a longtime starter on the defensive line for the Bears teams led by…Mike Ditka
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