Two very different posts/articles have got me thinking about these internets of ours. One of them I read via my Reader, and the other in the New York Times. Both really show how technology and the internet have changed the way we work, read, and live.
First up: I really like Kassia Krozser's response at Booksquare to yet another article on how bloggers (and publishers) are ruining the book pages in the States. This is such a tiresome debate, and Kassia explains why. (Then again, Kassia could be merely reacting, instead of carefully considering context and various points of view. Just kidding.)
Now from the New York Times: "At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on Web," by Patricia Cohen. Here's the upshot: "Faculty members are scheduled to vote on a measure that would permit Harvard to distribute their scholarship online, instead of signing exclusive agreements with scholarly journals that often have tiny readerships and high subscription costs."
I think this is an exciting proposal and I hope it passes. Imagine if scholarship made it to the web. There would be more room for debate and discussion. Moreover, time to "publication" could be six months instead of six years as it often is in the Humanities. While I do see issues for scholars working with human subjects or in the biological sciences, I think online scholarship is the future in the Humanities. I'll be watching the vote with great interest.
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By: Kelly Herold,
on 2/12/2008
Blog: Crossover (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Gina MarySol Ruiz,
on 6/10/2007
Blog: AmoxCalli (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Ana Castillo, immigration, 48 hour book challenge, coyotes, juarez murders, border issues, Add a tag
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By: Kelly Herold,
on 2/12/2008
Blog: Crossover (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Gina MarySol Ruiz,
on 6/10/2007
Blog: AmoxCalli (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Ana Castillo, immigration, 48 hour book challenge, coyotes, juarez murders, border issues, Add a tag
The Guardians: A Novel
Author: Ana Castillo
Publisher: Random House
ISBN-10: 1400065003
ISBN-13: 978-1400065004
Ana Castillo is one of those writers that I always expect not just the best of, but the best of the best of. She certainly doesn’t disappoint in her lyrical new book The Guardians.
The book tells the story in four intersecting voices of the main protagonists. 50-something redheaded virgin widow Regina who is eking out a poor living on her desert land while working as an underpaid teacher’s aide and caring for her nephew is one of the voices. She’s a strong character and embodies self sufficiency, love and the desire to get ahead.
Regina’s raising Gabo, a deeply troubled and religious young man. His mother was murdered seven years before in a border crossing and her body mutilated for its organs. Now his father Rafa is missing and Regina begins a search. The search leads her to Miguel or Mike, a divorced teacher at the school where Regina works. Miguel becomes a friend to them both and helps Regina in the search for her brother.
These three and an unlikely fourth, Miguel’s grandfather Abuelo Milton form a strange band of searchers as they hunt for clues to Rafa’s disappearance. Each chapter is written in one of these fours voices and gives depth and an interesting spin to the story. We see the intersection and the different views of the people who are living it.
"I don't think they could come up with a horror movie worse than the situation we got going on en la frontera," as Abuelo Milton says.
Throughout the book is the story of desperation, the illegal crossings, the coyotes who take advantage of the people they bring across. Castillo weaves into this intricately elegant story the Juarez murders of women, the Minutemen, the politics and the desert border town. It’s an amazing feat. She compels with each word, breathes magic into her words and we’re there, in a border meth lab where border crossers are held hostage until their families can come up with the money to ransom them. We feel the desperation of crossing the desert, the thirst that kills, the desire to make it through, to come to a better life. The book stands as a political statement about immigration, the rights of women and I think most of all it is a cry of outrage.
Author: Ana Castillo
Publisher: Random House
ISBN-10: 1400065003
ISBN-13: 978-1400065004
Ana Castillo is one of those writers that I always expect not just the best of, but the best of the best of. She certainly doesn’t disappoint in her lyrical new book The Guardians.
The book tells the story in four intersecting voices of the main protagonists. 50-something redheaded virgin widow Regina who is eking out a poor living on her desert land while working as an underpaid teacher’s aide and caring for her nephew is one of the voices. She’s a strong character and embodies self sufficiency, love and the desire to get ahead.
Regina’s raising Gabo, a deeply troubled and religious young man. His mother was murdered seven years before in a border crossing and her body mutilated for its organs. Now his father Rafa is missing and Regina begins a search. The search leads her to Miguel or Mike, a divorced teacher at the school where Regina works. Miguel becomes a friend to them both and helps Regina in the search for her brother.
These three and an unlikely fourth, Miguel’s grandfather Abuelo Milton form a strange band of searchers as they hunt for clues to Rafa’s disappearance. Each chapter is written in one of these fours voices and gives depth and an interesting spin to the story. We see the intersection and the different views of the people who are living it.
"I don't think they could come up with a horror movie worse than the situation we got going on en la frontera," as Abuelo Milton says.
Throughout the book is the story of desperation, the illegal crossings, the coyotes who take advantage of the people they bring across. Castillo weaves into this intricately elegant story the Juarez murders of women, the Minutemen, the politics and the desert border town. It’s an amazing feat. She compels with each word, breathes magic into her words and we’re there, in a border meth lab where border crossers are held hostage until their families can come up with the money to ransom them. We feel the desperation of crossing the desert, the thirst that kills, the desire to make it through, to come to a better life. The book stands as a political statement about immigration, the rights of women and I think most of all it is a cry of outrage.
1 Comments on The Guardians: A Novel, last added: 6/12/2007
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Just stopping by to let you know I left you an award on my blog: blogginboutbooks.blogspot.com
Moi, reactionary? Perish the thought!
I am indeed tired of this debate, yet it's like a never-ending skirmish. Concede, print absolutists, concede. Really, there is no battle, but humans like a good debate. Or something. I wish traditional media would stop snarking and start doing -- it's not the where, it's the what.
And, yes, you caught me on ranty night!
Kassia: I'm just kidding anyway. Like I said, I thought your response was right on target.
Susan: Thank you :) I'm flattered!
That bit about publishing scholarly research online is very interesting, Kelly. I'll be watching how that develops. As for the bloggers destroying book pages debate, oh, I've had enough of that for one lifetime.