NOVELISTS WHO DON’T LISTEN. I have encountered two strikingly similar comments on important novelists this week. Tom Wolfe says here about Norman Mailer, “Mailer cannot write novels. I’m sorry to have to say that. He has no ear for anyone other than himself. Just look at the dialogue.” And I read in the Times Literary Supplement for May 16 that Ernest Hemingway told Elaine Dundy (the author of THE DUD AVOCADO) “I liked the way your characters all speak differently. My characters all sound the same because I never listen.” If the characters talk the same, it is a little easier to view the characters as aspects of the author rather than as fully realized.
Archive for May, 2008
NOVELISTS WHO DON’T LISTEN.
Monday, May 26th, 2008THE SPREAD OF MOBILE PHONES (COMMENT).
Sunday, May 25th, 2008THE SPREAD OF MOBILE PHONES (COMMENT). I have been posting about what for me is the astonishing spread of cellphones—and the enormously important changes they are making in our lives. In response to this post, Dick Weisfelder e mailed me information about the rapid spread of mobile phones in Africa. In 2000, one in fifty people in Africa had a mobile phone; at the beginning of 2008, about one in three people had one. Subscribers increased by about 30 per cent last year. Seven countries—including South Africa, Botswana and Tunisia–have more than 70 phones per 100 people (which presumably includes children).
NOT MEETING THE BOSS.
Sunday, May 25th, 2008NOT MEETING THE BOSS. TECHNOLOGY CHANGE. I posted here on ways that cellphones are changing the way people work. In the article I posted on yesterday, Michael S. Malone cites surveys which show that about 20% of the professionals at Intel, IBM, Sun, HP, Microsoft and Cisco have never met their boss face-to-face.
CAREERS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION—OPTIMISM.
Saturday, May 24th, 2008CAREERS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION—OPTIMISM. A NATION OF ENTREPRENEURS? Michael S. Malone had an article in the Wall Street Journal for May 19 which claims that America is going to be the first country in which the “dominant paradigm is entrepreneurship.” He cites a Gallup poll that found that 70% of today’s high school students intend to start their own companies. And he believes that, rather than being anxious about the uncertainties of careers at established companies, “An upcoming wave of new workers in our society will never work for an established company if they can help it.” Polls show that half of new college graduates believe that self employment is more secure than a salaried job. Perhaps my generation is more anxious about the future than the new generation.
CAREERS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION—PESSIMISM.
Saturday, May 24th, 2008CAREERS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION—PESSIMISM. Robert Samuelson has an article in Newsweek for May 22 (link via realclearpolitics) about a massive report from the Pew Research Center about middle class anxieties. Samuelson doesn’t think the problem is a squeeze on income. He says, “The deeper source of disquiet, I think, lies elsewhere. Middle-class families value predictability, order and security, and these reassuring qualities have eroded. People worry about rising living expenses; but what really upsets them is the possibility that their incomes or fringe benefits — pensions, health and disability insurance — might vanish.” If companies have unpredictable lives, it’s easy to see how my generation would worry about their children’s futures.
THE UNCERTAINTIES CONFRONTING THE NEXT GENERATION.
Friday, May 23rd, 2008THE UNCERTAINTIES CONFRONTING THE NEXT GENERATION. Kids, it seems to me that you confront a much different employment situation than I did. In my generation there was a thought that many workers would stay with the same company for their entire careers. Companies tried to make lifetime employment attractive to new employees with pension plans and benefits. I worked for the same company for almost thirty years, and that company lasted 99 years. It is perhaps a sign of the times that the company did not make it to 100 years. Because of the rapidity of technological change, it’s hard to think of a company that a new employee could expect to be around for thirty years. Take, as an example, Microsoft. Or Google. How confident are you that either will be around in thirty years? Of course, there are always governments.
IS THERE MORE INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES THAN IN INDIA?
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008IS THERE MORE INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES THAN IN INDIA? Kids, measuring and comparing incomes in different countries is very difficult, and measuring and comparing income distribution is even more difficult. The Gini coefficient is probably the most commonly used measure of income inequality in a country. It has the virtue of simplicity. A lot of data is converted into a single number. This article by Mark Gimein in Slate points out that the Gini coefficient, which it refers to as “the standard yardstick”, shows that “India is substantially more equal than the United States. It is also a little bit less equal than Israel and Japan.”
MARX, FREUD, ALCHEMY, AND ASTROLOGY.
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008MARX, FREUD, ALCHEMY, AND ASTROLOGY. There was a time when educated people devoted enormous amounts of time and effort in studying astrology and alchemy. Now, only a few historians learn about alchemy, but enormous resources are still devoted to astrology. I wonder which route the study of Marx and Freud will go. At the moment, it looks like it will be the route that astrology went.
DID MARX AND FREUD LEAD TO DEAD ENDS?
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008DID MARX AND FREUD LEAD TO DEAD ENDS? I have seen it remarked that in the 1950’s intellectuals—and especially New York intellectuals—felt that what distinguished them from others was that they knew the ins and outs of Freud and Marx. Fifty years later, there are many who believe that Freud and Marx have been proved wrong. At least their systems are often rejected. For example, Carol Tavris in her review of PERSONALITY says, “Freud’s view of personality was passionate, controversial, sexy, unfalsifiable and wrong.” If the systems of Freud and Marx are in the end rejected, so much of that learning of the fifties was meaningless, an enormous waste of time.
ARE PERSONALITIES OF TWINS ONLY FIFTY PER CENT THE SAME?
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008ARE PERSONALITIES OF TWINS ONLY FIFTY PER CENT THE SAME? The research that leads to a book like Daniel Nettle’s PERSONALITY necessarily uses studies of identical twins that are raised apart. I am an identical twin and I have the impression that my brother and I have very similar personalities—certainly it seems to me that my personality is much more like my brother’s than like anyone else I have met. Our parents made strong efforts to treat us exactly the same, and we were roommates through law school, although seeing each other only a few times a year since then. If genetics only influenced 50% of our personalities and the environment in the home has only a slight effect on personality development, how did we become so similar? Or maybe we aren’t as much alike as I think….
