There appears to be fairly wide-spread consensus in the blogging community that there's a dearth of critical discussions of photography online. You wouldn't really know this from reading blogs, because nobody posts about it. However, the many email exchanges and conversations I've had with people tell me that there are lots of people who would actually like to see photography being discussed in a more critical manner.

The problem, of course, starts with what I mean by "critical", since being critical is widely seen as being negative, even though there is a vast difference between being critical and being negative. If I was to write "photographer XYZ is a dick" that would obviously be negative (and, just to make that clear, I have no interest in any of that stuff). In contrast, if I wrote something like "Photographer XYZ's show fails to fully work for me, in part because the prints are actually too large, which makes the photos lose some of their impact; and the choice of view points in the images also doesn't fully convey what XYZ is after" that would be critical.

A critical discussion is something you can disagree or agree with, something you can engage with (e.g. "No, Joerg, I think you're wrong. If the prints were smaller they would lose some of their impact, which is actually based on their scale and on their ability to allow the viewer to gain different perspectives by physically approaching the images"). If you have a blog you could write a counter-post and present your point of view. What is more, a critical discussion doesn't diminish either the photographer or her/his work.

When I talk to people about this - and I usually bring it up after having discussed some work in exactly the manner that I'd like to see online (believe me, everybody has an opinion about all the shows and Chelsea!) - I notice that most people are simply worried about their careers. I can't and I won't say that I do not understand this concern, and I'm actually not all that much interested in whether or not that concern has any merit (because, simply by it being a reality for most people, it simply does), but, instead, I am interested in why in our culture (by "culture" I here mean the larger context photographers, bloggers, etc. exist in), being critical is so closely tied to being negative and thus to being a risk for one's career.

Isn't that everybody's loss?

source: Le NouvelObs

Après des années de culture de l'endettement, les Américains plongés dans la crise finissent par s'intéresser à la frugalité dans un pays fondé sur le travail dur et le sens de l'argent, rappelle Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, auteure d'un rapport "pour une nouvelle épargne" publié par l'Institute for American Values.
"Il y a deux ou trois ans, dit-elle, si vous prononciez le mot 'épargne' tout le monde vous riait au nez et vous disait: 'Ca fait tellement XIXe siècle'".

La Fondation vaudoise pour la culture a attribué son Grand prix de 100'000 francs à la plasticienne Silvie Defraoui. Elle a également honoré Marius ...

The past few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of attending to my NewTeeVee duties from jolly old London, England — enabling me to indulge in playing with BBC’s Flash-based web player. While I’ve always had a high regard for Hulu’s smooth streaming and well-designed user interface, I’ve been really blown away by iPlayer — it takes the Hulu standard to a new level, emphasizing high quality to deliver the BBC’s radio and TV content for the web audience.

Video play is smooth and without stuttering (possibly even better than Hulu), and because the BBC is funded by licence fees and taxes, all episodes are commercial free, matching approximately with the content currently running on the broadcast networks — which is incredibly easy to navigate and search through, thanks to the clean layout and organization.

And the iPlayer solution to blocking non-kid-appropriate content is simple but user-friendly — it takes only two or three additional clicks to access the first episode of sexy period drama Fanny Hill, thanks to an opt-in parental control block that password-locks access to more adult programming when enabled.

The overall experience is that of a high-quality digital showcase for the BBC’s content, constantly refreshed by new programming. The one major feature lacking is the ability to clip episodes and send links to those segments to friends. But as a “catch up” service for TV fans, it’s really sublime.

According to people I’ve spoken with, there’s considerable pressure for the BBC to use its public funds to create original British shows, not just import American series — so the only American production being offered was Heroes (which runs on BBC2, the second-tier network). But if you’re a fan of British television, it’s definitely well worth the effort to locate a proxy server instead of relying on torrents (something I’ll be looking into upon my return to California). I sampled about three or four programs in the course of experimenting with this player. Despite the presence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Head, you’d be well-advised to steer clear of Merlin. However, the BBC/HBO co-production Little Britain USA is a pretty hilarious send-up of American culture.

The peculiar nature of its funding — unsupported by ads, free to all with a UK IP address because of taxpayer funds — means that it’s hard to imagine replicating this service in the United States. But a network like HBO, with the use of a simple sign-in procedure, would do well to emulate this system. iPlayer’s success can be transformed into one simple lesson: a working product is what matters.

Societe : COMPUTER FUTURES - Lieu de travail : 93 - Type de contrat : CDI - Salaire : Negociable - Detail : Ce poste est à pourvoir directement en CDI au sein d'une société utilisatrice. Je recherche actuellement un CONSULTANT FONCTIONNEL SAP MM/PP dans le cadre d'une embauche en CDI au sein d'une structure internationale. Rattaché au sein de la DSI mondiale vous prenez en charge le projet d'implémentation international sur le périmètre SAP MM/PP. De nombreux projets sont actuellement en cours: implémentatrions dans les filiales, up-date, évolutions du système SAP,... La société: - Société utilisatrice internationale - 750 millions de CA - N°1 sur son secteur - Intervention sur 3 marchés différents Le poste: Étant en charge de l'ensemble des applications SAP MM/PP, vous intervenez sur toutes les phases des projets: - Analyse des besoins utilisateurs - Participation aux ateliers de conception - Rédaction des spécifications - Paramétrage - Recettage - Mise en production - Assistance aux utilisateurs - Conduite du changement - Formation des utilisateurs Votre profil: - 3 ans d'expérience minimum SAP MM/PP en SSII ou société utilisatrice - Participation à au moins un projet d'implémentation - Anglais courant - Capacités de communication Avantages: - Rémunération attractive (salaire fixe + intéressement/participation) à définir selon profil et expérience - Avantages d'une société internationale: CE performant, culture d'entreprise, avantages Grand groupe - Possibilités d'évolutions rapides au sein de la DSI ou du côté Métier Localisation: 93 Si vous êtes intéressé par cette opportunité, n'hésitez pas à me faire parvenir votre CV ou à me contacter au 01 42 99 83 33. Jean Satgé Computer Futures Solutions 01 42 99 83 33

Rudolf Rocker, Nationalisme et Culture, Éditions CNT Région parisienne / Les Éditions Libertaires
Prix : 20 euros (frais de port : 3,85 euros)
Pour passer commande, écrire à : CNT, service librairie 33, rue des Vignoles 75020 Paris
ou edcnt@no-log.fr
Tél. 01 43 72 09 54
Chèques à l'ordre de : CNT, service librairie
Librairies : remise 33 % (pas de frais de port)
ISBN 978-2-914980-69-2
Né en 1873 à Mayence, une ville séduite par les idéaux de la Révolution française, Rudolf Rocker fut (...)

La flotte de la Capitale Européenne de la Culture-Cap Istanbul est arrivée aujourd'hui à Bozcaada, terme de la 4ème et avant dernière étape du parcours reliant Nice à Istanbul. Les 27 solitaires ont à nouveau disputé une régate d'un rare intensité sur la mer Egée au gré d'une brise soutenue et de calmes lancinants. Premier à fouler le sol turc, aux portes des Dardanelles, Erwan Tabarly (Athema) signe une victoire acquise de haute lutte sur les 300 milles du parcours. De la belle ouvrage !

DIGG THIS STORY!!

I am absolutely ticked pink to announce the winners of the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase!

For those of you living under a rock for the last few months, the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase was an initiative that we ran to showcase free culture artists in each version of Ubuntu. Each time we release a tasty new Ubuntu, we include a package full of example content (rather craftily named…example-content), and with Ubuntu being installed on so many computers around the world, it is a great opportunity to bring the Ubuntu ethos to the creative arts and showcase some free culture content.

To do this, a while back I announced the competition and we had a slew of entries. We then asked a carefully chosen panel of creative types in the Ubuntu community (Cory Kontros, Luis de Bethencourt, Luke Yelavich, Lydia Pintscher and Tony Whitmore) to pick their top three entries from each of the categories (Audio and Video) and then we sent the finalists to the Community Council to pick the winners. I am so proud to announce that the winners are:

Andrés Vidau (Audio Winner)

Download Entry

Andrés Vidau was born in Mexico City in the roaring 70’s. It wasn’t very long before he found his way into playing the drums. He and 3 friends formed the band: GasMoztaza. Starting in music with some punk rock and ska rhythms. A few years later got into electronic music and formed the band: Caravanacid which enjoyed a moderate success within the Mexican Trance Scene. From Mexico City he moved to the Caribbean where he made underwater movies for diving tourism and then finally moved to Barcelona where he resides now. Patas de Trapo is a track that was born in a one-track side project, and in collaboration with guitar player Mauricio Barron, current member of indie rock band A Colores. With Mauricio playing the guitar and Andres sequencing the rest of the song. Andrés is an Electronics Engineer and Ubuntu user since Gutsy Gibbon.

Andrew Higginson (Video WInner)

Download Entry

Andrew is not your typical English computer user. He is fourteen and produces artwork on his computer, with Free Software. The likes of Inkscape and The GIMP are his tools, all for the low price of nothing. He discovered Ubuntu in the latter part of 2006 and since then hasn’t gone back. Projects like Wikipedia allowed him to develop his artwork skills, something he is very thankful for, as it allows him to ‘wow’ his friends as he does now. He loves the fact that Free Software enables someone with his lack of an income, to produce such great pieces of work, at such high quality, without having to break the bank. Free software has not only introduced him to unleash his creative side in computing, but to be able to give back to such programs that initially helped him is an extraordinary experience, that only free software can offer. His creation – ‘Stop Motion Ubuntu’ that you see in the Examples folder, was his first venture away from still images to moving ones. Again he only used free software, available in Ubuntu – and his webcam. While not sure how it would turn out, he is surprised at how well it was received and will certainly continue to use video as a new medium. When he hasn’t got homework scattered across the desk, Andrew spends most of his time creating artwork, coding with Python, helping new Ubuntu users (like he once was) via Launchpad Answers and when he can, writing on his blog. Generally he moves from project to project, helping out wherever he can.

When we release Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, you will find both Andrés and Andrew’s submissions on the disc, exposing their work to millions of Ubuntu users. Congratulations guys!

Also, we are going to do this for every release of Ubuntu, so creative people…get those creative juices flowing ready for the Jaunty Jackalope Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase!

Affaire du mail visant les "non chrétiens" : plainte contre le FN
Libération - Il y a 2 heures
... le Front national accuse cette dernière de « soutenir l'invasion de notre Patrie et la destruction de notre culture et de nos valeurs » par l'islam. ...
Tentative de fichage des Musulmans de France Turquie News
2 autres articles

Most Christians today do not have a good grasp of the history of what they believe. They have no real idea of the "old paths," and this is the source of many errors among us. When you don't know where you have been, and where you are going, any road will get you there. "Thus says the Lord: 'Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it''" (Jer. 6:16).

We are addressing the history of the post-apostolic church (briefly), and there are two warnings to go with this. We should not infer from this that the Church began with the apostles. The Bible sees a fundamental continuity between the people of God in the Old Testament and the people of God in the New. Pentecost is the time when the church came into her maturity (Gal. 3:23-4:5); Pentecost should therefore be considered the Church's bar mitzvah and not her birth day. Secondly, we must acknowledge that we have no inspired account of post-apostolic history. Nevertheless, because God is sovereign over all history, we know that history has meaning. This means that our historical knowledge can be genuine (although not inerrant or exhaustive). Moreover, knowledge of God's faithfulness to His people is biblically required.

As we consider the first five centuries, let us note some of the great victories.

Carthage (A.D. 400): This is placed first because of its importance to the whole subject of Christian historical study. This is the council which recognized the canon of New Testament Scripture. The key word here is recognized. The Church does not create Scripture; the church testifies to it. At the same time, the canon of Scripture presents an insuperable difficulty for modern "anti-historical," "New Testament" Christians. The Bible is not the book that fell from the sky.

Jerusalem (A.D. 49/50): The first great controversy was over whether a Gentile could become a Christian without becoming a Jew first. The issue was settled in a godly way, and the way was opened for the infusion of the Gentile world into the Church -- which is why it assumed the character it did.

Nicaea (A.D. 325): At this council, the Church responded to the heresy of Arius, who denied that Christ is the uncreated God. The Deity of Christ was clearly affirmed.

Chalcedon (A.D. 451): With the Deity of Christ affirmed, a controversy arose concerning the relationship between His Deity and His humanity. Both Nicaea and Chalcedon represent critical points where the early Church resisted a compromise with intellectual paganism. The appeal was to revelation, and not to carnal reason.

Augustine (A.D. 354-430): Augustine was the great church father from this era, and his contribution to the way we think is incalculable. His greatest contribution came from his theological battle with Pelagius, a British monk and heretic. At issue was the depravity of man, and the sovereignty of grace.

Constantine (A.D. c. 288-337): Modern evangelicals find it easy to reckon the conversion of Constantine to Christianity as a unmitigated disaster. But the sanctification of culture is not an exact parallel to the true conversion of a man. True, many serious problems followed Constantine's his conversion, and so what else is new? It would not have been better had Rome continued to persecute Christians.

At the same time, during this time, there were seeds of future apostasies.

Images: The church was remarkably free of images through the first two centuries. And when images were introduced, they met with stiff opposition. Consider the comment of Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis (c. 315-403). "It is a horrid abomination to see in Christian temples a painted image either of Christ or of any saint." But the flesh was strong, and this pestilant superstition did enter the Church. The error did not find a firm footing in the church until 2nd Nicaea in 787.

Constantine (A.D. c. 288-337): Power does corrupt. It is easier to corrupt the Church through success than to destroy the church through adversity. The central problem can be described as one of . . .

Covenantal Presumption: In Romans 11:11-24, Paul warns the incoming Gentiles that they might stumble and fall in just the same way that the first Church (the Jews) did. That warning was not heeded by the Church at large, and the stage was set for the decline and apostasy of the medieval church.

As we consider the development of the Church, we should be aware of the fact that the lover of truth does not need to fear the reading of history at all. As R.L. Dabney noted, "In this connection no more is needed than to point briefly to the fact that the best arguments against bad institutions are drawn from their history. The readiest way to explode unreasonable pretensions is to display their origin. Such an auditory as this need only be reminded that the battle against popery in the Reformation was fought on scriptural and historical grounds. Many of the most mortal stabs which Luther gave to mischievous popish institutions were by simply telling the ignorant world where and when they arose."

"There is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world... not the United States," he said. "The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature... That ignorance is restraining."

Nobel literature prize judge Horace Engdahl comes down hard against Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, and other crazy American shit that just can't cross the waters.

[img]http://turbulence.org/networked/images/networked.jpg[/img]
[b]Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art)[/b]
A Juried International Competition
[b]Call for Proposals[/b]
Deadline: December 15, 2008
http://turbulence.org/networked

Five writers will be commissioned to develop chapters for a networked book about networked art. The chapters will be open for revision, commentary, and translation by online collaborators. Each commissioned writer will receive $3,000 (US).

[b]Networked Committee:[/b]

[list]Steve Dietz (Northern Lights, MN)
Martha CC Gabriel (net artist, Brazil)
Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures, The Netherlands)
Nick Montfort (Massachusetts Institute for Technology, MA)
Anne Bray (LA Freewaves, LA)
Sean Dockray (Telic Arts Exchange, LA)
Jo-Anne Green (NRPA, MA)
Eduardo Navas (newmediaFIX)
Helen Thorington (NRPA, NY)[/list]

[b]Networked Partners:[/b]

[list]New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA)
http://new-radio.org
newmediaFIX
http://newmediafix.net
LA Freewaves
http://www.freewaves.org/
Telic Arts Exchange
http://telic.info[/list]

[i]"A networked book is an open book designed to be written, edited and read in a networked environment." [/i]- Institute for the Future of the Book

[b]Networked Goals:[/b] (1) to commission five chapters and publish them online using Wiki/blog technology to enable the public to revise, update, debate and translate them; (2) to present public forums to publicize the online book and solicit participation in its development.

[b]Networked Objectives:[/b]

[list]· To develop and publish an online, trans-disciplinary book that will address recent artistic developments made possible by computers, networks, and mobile connectivity
· To present the book in an open, participatory and social form
·To document:
[list]a) the collapse of the traditional distinction between artist, art work and audience
b) the shaping of creative practice that is open, contingent and participatory
c) the building of virtual communities which, in the words of Howard Rheingold, "becomes inevitable wherever computer mediated communications technology becomes available to people anywhere." (The Virtual Community, 1993)[/list][/list]

We invite contributions that critically and creatively rethink how networked art is categorized, analyzed, legitimized -- and by whom -- as norms of authority, trust, authenticity and legitimacy evolve.

[b]Networked [/b]proposes that a history or critique of interactive and/or participatory art must itself be interactive and/or participatory; that the technologies used to create a work suggest new forms a “book” might take.

We hope to spark a conversation between researchers and practitioners, curators, artists, and academics in the fields of art (music, sound, dance, e-lit, visual art ...), architecture, convergence, mapping, urbanism, games, sociology, visualization, cultural studies, and environmental studies.

In keeping with the transdisciplinary nature of the book, authors may consider, but are by no means limited to, themes such as:

[list]· cyberspace and identity
· ubiquitous computing -- surveillance, politics, and privacy
· avatars, wearables, bioart and embodiment
· collective storytelling, audio narratives and sound art
· virtual worlds, mixed realities
· locative media -- place, mobility, augmented reality
· massively multiplayer online games -- networked play
· responsive architecture and relational environments
· social networks
· nomadism, psychogeography, and the city
· tactical media -- performance, agency and activism
· open source and crowdsourcing
· Originality, copies, remix, mashup[/list]

All papers will be reviewed by our international committee.

Commissioned chapters, as well as contributions by collaborators, will be subject to the Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0/Unported:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Once the chapters are published online, registered users will be able to revise, add to, and translate the existing texts. There is no end date for the project. When [b]Networked[/b] has attracted substantive participation, we will consider publishing a print version of the project, which may itself be updated over time.

GUIDELINES:

Submissions must be based on original, unpublished research. They should include:

[list]1. Name, address, URL, email and one page CV of author.

2. A 1000 word proposal that should be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 250 words and a list of keywords to indicate the subject area of the chapter. [Each of the commissioned chapters will contain text, images, videos, and/or audio.]

3. Three networked writing samples. Samples may include a blog entry, a Wikipedia article the applicant worked on extensively, or samples from any other participatory project (send URLs).[/list]

Acceptable Submission Formats: Either a web page (send url in an email) or a single text document (send as an email attachment)

Final chapters must be no less than 5,000 words.

Submissions and Questions should be sent to: jo at turbulence dot org

IMPORTANT DATES

[b]Deadline for Proposals:[/b] December 15, 2008
[b]Notification:[/b] January 31, 2009
[b]Deadline for Complete Chapters:[/b] April 30, 2009
[b]Online Publication Date:[/b] July 1, 2009

Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Once a year they come to Las Vegas. Not to party. Not to compete. Not even to play Street Fighter.
Perhaps they don't even realize it, but these few, these champions of a dying bit of pop culture, come to Las Vegas to scream into the approaching long night of arcade gaming.
Each year EVO gathers the best among fighting gamers to celebrate arcade culture, to stave off, at least for one week, the creeping death that has turned arcades into family fun centers, filled 7-Elevens with console games and not cabinets, swept public gaming from the face of America.
"Arcades have gone away but the culture is not gone," said Seth Killian, one of the group's founders. " It was such a great experience that we’re not willing to say it’s gone."
It's no surprise that a shared passion for fighting games is what sparked the EVO Championship Series.
In the early 90s games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter replaced pool as a viable way to shark for money. Most college arcades had its own Street Fighter muscle, Mortal Kombat expert.
In 1995 a group of top arcade fighters, sick of arguing over a newsnet who the player was, decided to gather at an arcade on Broadway in New York City to finally decide it.
"We all came from the street fighter arcades," said Seth Killian, director of EVO and community manager at Capcom. "Everyone coming to that thing was like the kingpin of their local arcades."
There were 40 people at that first throw down. It was played on Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
But turns out that didn't settle things permanently. The one-off gathering of cabinet gamers turned into an annual pilgrimage. They met in Boston, they met in California and finally the settled on Las Vegas as venue best suited for the match-up and inevitable side bets.
As the meet-ups grew each year it coalesced into something more formalized. Now the the group is run mostly by the community that gathers each year to play. Though a few like Joey Cuellar (administrator of the fighting mecca at shoryuken.com and former manager of famous Southern Hills Golfland arcade), Vik Steyaert (founder of Tekken-zaibatsu.com and elite French chef), Tom and Tony Cannon (aka ”the Cannon twins,” shoryuken.com cofounders, and Tony created the amazing GGPO.net), and Killian help keep things in order.
"It was all completely organic," Killian said. "The structure was born out of "Shit we have way too many people showing up to these things."
So they started introducing more traditional tournament rules, finally settling on double elimination, to help determine who the best Street Fighter was. The annual gathering also grew in reputation, soon attracting gamers from around the world looking to cut their teeth on a tournament known for it's skilled players.
With the growth, the group of gamers behind EVO have had to make some tough decisions. Because they run tournaments that require more cabinets than exist on the whole continent the group decided to start using consoles for game play four years ago.
"It was an extremely hard decision," Killian said.
The tournament, which used to hold four qualifiers a year in the U.S., last year held qualifiers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Sao Palo, Brazil and London. Its from these tournaments that famous moments, like the Daigo full-parry video, are born.
And the meet up each year in Las Vegas isn't just about competitive fighting games, it's also a chance for gamers to hang out, have fun and celebrate quarter on the cabinet arcade console.
"We’ve recreated this experience," Killian said. "The arcade experience is so awesome. People become friends. That’s part of why we started throwing this tournament.
"Its about fighting games and competitions, but arcades are the crucible that sparked the awesomeness. I don’t know what awesome is made up of, I don't know the physics behind awesome, but I know it when I see it."
Fighting games, in particular, are about direct confrontation, Killian points out, and playing in person magnifies that feeling, gives it more personality.
"If Street Fighter only came out on consoles and never were in arcades I don’t think it would have been as popular," Killian said. "EVO isn't about bringing back arcades, but preserving this fire, this passion, this connection.
"The arcade machine is such a ziggurat, you have to engage with it. It’s not disposable, it’s a statement.



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Le peintre Iba Ndiaye, considéré comme l'un des plus grands artistes sénégalais, est décédé à Paris à l'âge de 80 ans, a-t-on appris auprès du ministère sénégalais de la Culture...

Though this article discusses homosexuality, I do not intend for it to speak about the rightness or wrongness of such a lifestyle. I am sure my thoughts on whether homosexuality can be reconciled with the Bible hardly need explanation. Instead, today I want to look at one very interesting result, one very interesting development, that has come with the widespread acceptance of homosexuality. I have thought about this a little bit in the past but had my mind drawn to it again this weekend while reading Al Mohler's book Desire and Deceit: The Real Cost of the New Sexual Tolerance. In this book, like Culture Shift before it, Mohler compiles some of his best blog posts and articles dealing with a common theme. In this case he writes about contemporary issues related to sexuality. And while there is much to glean from the book, one issue in particular give me a lot to think about.

I have sometimes wondered if, when The Lord of the Rings was first published, people looked with a certain suspicion upon the relationship of Sam to Frodo and Frodo to Sam. Here are two characters who loved one another deeply and who had a relationship forged in the fire. It is clear that in these characters, Tolkien was describing friendship as he had seen it in soldiers who had fought in the World Wars. He described a kind of intimate friendship that somehow seems so odd to our modern sensibilities. And in modern times many people have read homosexuality into that relationship, wondering if Tolkien, either deliberately or subconsciously, was creating gay characters.

Similarly, I have wondered if, when people first learned of Abraham Lincoln's deep friendship with Joshua Speed, they raised their eyebrows. After all, Lincoln and Speed even shared a bed and wrote letters sharing their love and appreciation for one another. Recent historians have offered this relationship as proof that Lincoln was homosexual.

In both cases we're seeing clear evidence of postmodern thinking. Today we think nothing of imposing our own understanding on historical texts, interpreting them as we see fit. We think little of original meaning and much of contemporary interpretation. Thus there are feminist readings of literature, gay readings of literature, African-American readings of literature, and so on. Every group, every interest, is free to read history and literature as they see fit. In an age with few absolutes, who can tell anyone else that they are wrong? And in both bases I realize that I am showing evidence of the pervasiveness of homosexuality in our culture. The fact that I would even wonder such things reveals that the presence of homosexuality is always just beneath the surface in our culture. I am reasonably certain that I can answer my own questions. No! When people read The Lord of the Rings they did not see homosexuality and when they first heard of Lincoln and Speed they did not even question whether they had been having sex in that bed. And here is an interesting part of the fallout of the widespread acceptance of homosexuality. We see homosexuality everywhere around us, whether it exists there or not. Things that are pure and normal we see as somehow being evidence or potential evidence of homosexual behavior.

In and of itself that may not mean too much. But according to Dr. Mohler, who follows the line of thinking from a Touchstone article written by Anthony Esolen, there is at least one sad consequence: it is marking the end of deep and meaningful friendships between boys. Writing about the scene between Sam and Frodo, Mohler writes "As Esolen suggests, a reader or viewer of this scene is likely to jump to a rather perverse conclusion: 'What, are they gay?'" This is an "ignorant but inevitable response" to such a situation. It is simply the way our minds work today. "As Esolen understands, the corruption of language has contributed to this confusion. When words like love, friend, male, female, and partner are transformed in a new sexual context, what was once understood to be pure and undefiled is now subject to sniggering and disrespect." I saw an example of this recently, in reading C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair with my children. There Lewis rights "Though [Jill's] tongue was never still, you could hardly say she talked: she prattled and giggled. She made love to everyone--the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, the ladies-in-waiting, and the elderly giant lords whose hunting days were past. She submitted to being kissed and pawed about by any number of giantesses, many of whom seemed sorry for her and called her 'a poor little thing'..." "Make love" has obviously been sexualized sometime between 1950's England and 21st century North America. How might people understand Jill's actions today?

Here is where it gets even more interesting and important. Says Esolen "Open homosexuality, loudly and defiantly celebrated, changes the language for everyone. ...If a man throws his arm around another man's waist, it is now a sign--whether he is on the political right or the left, whether he believes in biblical proscriptions of homosexuality or not. ...If a man cradles the head of his weeping friend, the shadow of suspicion must cross your mind." Gone is the innocence that would allow us to see a man love another man without assuming that their relationship involved sex or at least the desire for sex. Men and boys, including Christian men and boys, are suffering the fallout. "The sexual revolution has also nearly killed male friendship as devoted to anything beyond drinking and watching sports. ...The prominence of male homosexuality changes the language for teenage boys. It is absurd and cruel to say that the boy can ignore it. Even if he would, his classmates will not let him. All boys need to prove that they are not failures. They need to prove that they are on the way to becoming men--that they are not going to relapse into the need to be protected by, and therefore identified with, their mothers." And so boys feel that they need to prove to their peers that they are not homosexual. They do so by recklessly pursuing sexual experience with girls and by distancing themselves from meaningful friendships with other boys. Those who fail in both accounts are labeled as "fags" and subjected to the torment that follows. Boys have always had a lot to prove, but added to their burden today is proof of their sexual identify.

The proof that Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed did not have a homosexual relationship is in the very fact that they unashamedly wrote about their love and regard for one another. In a more innocent age they had nothing to prove and nothing to hide. They were able to be friends--close, loving, intimate friends--without bearing the burden of perverse assumptions. Their heterosexuality, their normalcy, was assumed. We make no such assumption today.

My mother has often remarked that men, and Christian men in particular, go through life lonely--forsaken by other men who should be their friends. And I think she is right. I wonder if we, too, bear the burden of perverse assumptions. Maybe we, too, from our early days feel the need to prove that we are not homosexual. And we do this by fleeing emotional or spiritual intimacy with other men, assuming that such relationships are unworthy of men--real men.

The societal prevalence of homosexuality is not going to lessen anytime soon. While Christians must continue to insist that homosexuality cannot be reconciled with Scripture (and you may like to read Dr. Mohler's book to learn more about why this is the case) we must also not allow it to usurp friendship and to reframe the way we, as Christians, and Christian men, view and understand friendship. We have far too much to lose.

http://www.beet.tv/2008/10/tina-browns-lau.html Tina Brown, a titan of magazine publishing, has just launched her first online venture with the backing of Barry Diller's IAC. The Daily Beast is a site and daily email about cultural movers and shakers, a world she knows very well as past editor of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Talk. Here's the take on the new launch by Staci Kramer at paidContent, along with a Q&A with the star editor. I've re-posted an interview I did with Tina in December at Michael's restaurant in Manhattan. -- Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

Auteur : BeetTV
Tags : barry diller daily beast tina brown
Envoyé : 06 octobre 2008
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L’ECRIVAIN DANS LA CITÉ

Lundi 20 et mardi 21 octobre 2008



Lundi 20 octobre



10h00 : Ouverture du forum par le président de la SGDL



10H30 Introduction par Bruno Blanckeman (Professeur de Littérature contemporaine à l'Université Rennes II).





Ecrire et Vivre



11h00 - Qu’est-ce qu’un écrivain aujourd’hui?

Que souhaitent les écrivains pour eux-mêmes quand la fonction d’écrivain se banalise (tout le monde se mêle d’écrire) ? Comment l’écrivain est pris en compte dans notre société ? Quel est son rapport à l’œuvre? Avec les témoignages de :



Sylvie Germain, Brigitte Giraud, Philippe Ségur, Pierre Senges



Modérateur : Xavier Houssin, écrivain, journaliste.



Ecrire et être lu :



14h00- Quel contexte pour l’écrivain dans la cité?

La place de l’écrivain dans notre société, les modalités de création littéraire : en quoi consiste aujourd’hui l’environnement social, économique, éditorial des écrivains ? Avec :



Gilles Haéri (directeur général de Flammarion, membre de la commission Patino sur le numérique)

Dominique Le Brun (écrivain, vice-président de l’Agessa)

Renny Aupetit (libraire, Le Comptoir des mots, Paris)

François Samuelson (agent littéraire, fondateur d’Intertalent)

Modératrice : Catherine Pont-Humbert, journaliste, productrice à France Culture

















16h00 Vers une nouvelle donne culturelle:



Quels sont ces nouveaux comportements de lecture, ces nouveaux usages de l’œuvre, dont l’accessibilité se fait par fragmentations successives (feuilletage promotionnel, vente au chapitre…) ?

Comment valider des contenus littéraires dans la masse foisonnante du web ?

Comment les libraires indépendants peuvent concrétiser leur volonté de mutualisation des services, valoriser leur rôle de conseil ? Avec :

Jean-Marc Savoye (éditeur, lepublieur.com)

Jean Claude Bologne (écrivain, secrétaire général de la SGDL)

Nicolas Cauchy (écrivain, fondateur du site Auteurs.tv)

Guillaume Husson (Délégué général du Syndicat de la Librairie Française)

Modératrice : Annick Rivoire, journaliste, fondatrice du site Poptronics









Mardi 21 octobre



Ecrire et transmettre :



10h30 L’écrivain révélateur du lien social

L’écrivain et le livre ont un rôle à jouer dans la connaissance du monde, dans l’interrogation et la transmission.

Qu’est-ce qu’un écrivain qui s’engage, qui trouve le lien entre son intérêt privé (la poursuite d’une œuvre) et l’intérêt général (un temps de parole dispensé dans les écoles, les universités, les prisons, les bibliothèques, etc.) ? Avec :

Philippe Auzet (Ligue de l’enseignement/pôle culture)

Dominique Bondu, directeur du CRL de Franche-Comté

Arnaud Cathrine, écrivain

Noëlle Châtelet, écrivain



Modérateur, Alain Nicolas, journaliste



























14h00 Nouvelles formes de médiation par le livre, expérience de la littérature :



La médiation littéraire emprunte aujourd’hui des chemins divers : multiplication des manifestations qui prennent le temps de la lecture, de la pause (Les Correspondances de Manosque, Une saison de Nobel, La fête du livre de Bron, etc.) expansion de l’espace virtuel dédié à l’écrit favorisant la fragmentation, l’instantané, l’extrait, (Sites, blogs, résidences virtuelles…) et implication de passeurs ou médiateurs qui amènent les plus défavorisés à la littérature. Avec :



Sylvain Bourmeau (fondateur du site Médiapart)

Olivier Chaudenson (Directeur des Correspondances de Manosque)

Michèle Petit (anthropologue, CNRS, Université de Paris I auteur de Eloge de la lecture, la construction de soi, Belin, 2002)

Tiphaine Samoyault (écrivain, universitaire)



Modérateur : Fabio Gambaro, critique, essayiste et correspondant pour La Repubblica





Ecrire et s’engager :



16h00 Quelles ambitions pour l’écrivain du XXI ème siècle?

Comment redonner à l’écrivain sa place active dans la société ?

La communauté des écrivains « une collection d’individus », comment allier le collectif et le singulier, qu’est ce qu’une prise de parole citoyenne ou intellectuelle ? Avec les écrivains :

Aurélie Filippetti

Pierrette Fleutiaux

Anne-Marie Garat

Pierre Jourde

et Didier Pourquery (directeur délégué de la rédaction de Libération).



Modérateur : Frédéric Bonnaud, journaliste



18h00 Conclusion par Alain Absire


Date Evénement : Du 20/10/2008 au 21/10/2008
Lieu : SGDL
SGDL – 38 rue du fbg-St-Jacques-75014 Paris

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www.sgdl.org