Geeks
Falando em leituras, finalmente acabei de ler "Quicksilver" de Neal Stephenson. Depois de devorar com muita calma as 950 paginas, agora "so" faltam mais dois volumes (cerca de 2000 paginas mais...). Achei o livro fascinante e nao vejo a hora de comecar a ler os outros. Jah devo ter cansado os leitores deste blog com as minhas ruminacoes a respeito do sujeito, mas descobri uma entrevista interessantissima dele na internet.
Achei que valia a pena menciona-la, porque Stephenson tece alguns comentarios sobre politica, o futuro dos EUA como produtor de tecnologia e a possivel ameaca a hegemonia norte-americana na area. Como os colegas sabem, venho pensando jah ha algum tempo sobre esses temas, que na minha opiniao sao centrais para entender o processo de globalizacao e o novo arranjo da informacao no mundo contemporaneo.
Especificamente a respeito dos livros, perguntado sobre porque decidiu escrever sobre o seculo XVII, Stephenson diz:
"The medieval is still very much alive and well during this period. People are carrying swords around. Military units have archers. Saracens snatch people from European beaches and carry them off to slavery. There are Alchemists and Cabalists. Great countries are ruled by kings who ride into battle wearing armor. Much of the human landscape—the cities and architecture—are medieval. And yet the modern world is present right next to all of this in the form of calculus, joint-stock companies, international financial systems, etc. This can’t but be fascinating to a novelist."
Um trecho sobre os EUA:
"For much of the 20th century it was about science and technology.(...) If the emblematic figures of earlier eras were the pioneer with his Kentucky rifle, or the Gilded Age plutocrat, then for the era from, say, 1940 to 2000 it was the engineer, the geek, the scientist. (...) It is quite obvious to me that the U.S. is turning away from all of this. It has been the case for quite a while that the cultural left distrusted geeks and their works; the depiction of technical sorts in popular culture has been overwhelmingly negative for at least a generation now. More recently, the cultural right has apparently decided that it doesn’t care for some of what scientists have to say. So the technical class is caught in a pincer between these two wings of the so-called culture war. (...) But science is all about diligence, hard sustained work over long stretches of time, sweating the details, and abstract thinking, none of which is really being fostered by mainstream culture."
Apesar de um pouco longa, vale a pena ler a entrevista. Recomendo.
Achei que valia a pena menciona-la, porque Stephenson tece alguns comentarios sobre politica, o futuro dos EUA como produtor de tecnologia e a possivel ameaca a hegemonia norte-americana na area. Como os colegas sabem, venho pensando jah ha algum tempo sobre esses temas, que na minha opiniao sao centrais para entender o processo de globalizacao e o novo arranjo da informacao no mundo contemporaneo.
Especificamente a respeito dos livros, perguntado sobre porque decidiu escrever sobre o seculo XVII, Stephenson diz:
"The medieval is still very much alive and well during this period. People are carrying swords around. Military units have archers. Saracens snatch people from European beaches and carry them off to slavery. There are Alchemists and Cabalists. Great countries are ruled by kings who ride into battle wearing armor. Much of the human landscape—the cities and architecture—are medieval. And yet the modern world is present right next to all of this in the form of calculus, joint-stock companies, international financial systems, etc. This can’t but be fascinating to a novelist."
Um trecho sobre os EUA:
"For much of the 20th century it was about science and technology.(...) If the emblematic figures of earlier eras were the pioneer with his Kentucky rifle, or the Gilded Age plutocrat, then for the era from, say, 1940 to 2000 it was the engineer, the geek, the scientist. (...) It is quite obvious to me that the U.S. is turning away from all of this. It has been the case for quite a while that the cultural left distrusted geeks and their works; the depiction of technical sorts in popular culture has been overwhelmingly negative for at least a generation now. More recently, the cultural right has apparently decided that it doesn’t care for some of what scientists have to say. So the technical class is caught in a pincer between these two wings of the so-called culture war. (...) But science is all about diligence, hard sustained work over long stretches of time, sweating the details, and abstract thinking, none of which is really being fostered by mainstream culture."
Apesar de um pouco longa, vale a pena ler a entrevista. Recomendo.
postado por Anônimo as 12:26 AM
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