We held our first reading group session today for our fall semester text, The Diamond Age, at Dr. Fell's home. Many thanks again to the president for hosting us this semester. Dr. Courtney Bates suggested at our first meeting that we launch a discussion thread for those who cannot attend our afternoon sessions. We will start off with a thread on the main Power of Portrayal blog, and if the response is good, I'll start a separate linked blog to facilitate online discussion of the text.
Our next book group session, will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 10 @ 3:05pm at Dr. Fell's home. Our group is attempting to read through page 220 by this time.
Feel free to leave questions and comments about The Diamond Age attached to this thread.
You can watch Stephenson here on a video he made for Kickstarter:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kickstarter.com/projects/260688528/clang
I find Stephenson interesting as an author because he diligently enacts or encourages some of the futuristic elements that he depicts. Wanna be a better ractor? Then you'll need a better sword. Here he is, with his mouse army, ready to contribute the money needed to get the technology where they want it.
Second Life (an online platform, I'll admit, that seems to be out of style) was inspired by his version of the Metaverse in Snowcrash.
I look forward to the next reading group!
Dr. Courtney Bates
So, he doesn't want to just imagine the future--he wants to be at the edges of encouraging its formation.