< lit >
"THE DIE - New Readings in Culture, Literature, and Philosophy Spring 2004 Issue
edited by Joe Smith
(free – donations of cash or stamps appreciated – from Joe Smith / Red Roach Press / PO Box 764 / College Park, MD / 20740 USA. Web:
http://redroachpress.tripod.com)
Review by Mike Hunter
Packaged in a remarkably appealing format, each newsprint page legal-sized,
The Die is a beautifully produced newsletter "...devoted to disseminating the work of everyday authors who know that the unexamined life is not worth living."* Most writings within - in this issue, usually by publisher Joe Smith - are devoted to books devoted to philosophy or critiques of society.
The front-page story, and major piece in the issue, "The Fate of Solitude in an Electronic Age," begins with Smith's description of quiet evening walks around a university campus. The time is magical, the atmosphere a "serene" haven in a "...stressed-out, urban labyrinth..." But arriving earlier one day, when classes are letting out, he and his wife notice every single student immediately whips out a cell phone and commences jabbering away. Sven Birkert's
The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age is then critiqued. Birkert's arguments - "...that the Internet age...threatens to make moments of solitude a thing of the past..." - are summarized and considered. But, Smith notes, Kierkegaard wrote "...most people go out of their way to avoid moments of solitude." He quotes from an author who "...spent 50 days alone in a secluded house on the coast of Maine," and found it a difficult experience. And mentions how solitary confinement is used as
punishment for criminals.
From this and other arguments, Smith concludes the Internet is not as dire a threat to our "subjective individualism" as Birkert had maintained, but that "...it has merely provided us with a more intrusive crop of distractions that people can use to keep their minds preoccupied when they find themselves alone." An enjoyable gathering of "Miscellaneous Thoughts on Solitude," from Keats and Rilke to Terrence McKenna, cap the piece.
Alas, this relative dismissal does not come across as rigorously thought-out. Even the most introspection-enjoying person would find such extreme doses as "50 days alone," or solitary confinement in a prison cell, to be stressful. And the fact the masses are eager to be distracted every waking hour, when "given" by technology the means to do so, hardly makes such a
good thing, or even an ambivalent one. Is an urge to be incessantly distracted, for constant "escapist" entertainment - a mental
horror vacui - not indicative of a pathological fear of being alone with one's thoughts, even for brief intervals? Drug addicts likewise seek to mask their inner malaise, escape from themselves. And, for a publication focusing on those who "... know that the unexamined life is not worth living," it seems at odds to then assert yet another means (Birkert also covers television, which dwarfs the Internet in its influence) by which technology enables people to
avoid such self-examination is nothing to worry about.
In "Land of the Free?" Smith wonders, "...what do...free speech, free assembly, free press, religious tolerance...really mean if we can't hold on to and maintain them 'when the going gets tough?'..." then follows with a trio of lengthy reports culled from the press: "Government Forces University to Report on Anti-War Meeting," "'Liberal' Professors Beware, College Conservatives Are Watching!" and "FBI Wants Access to Juvenile, Adult DNA."
An assortment of zines are very nicely reviewed, and "Readings: Books Old and New," though Smith says it "...should not be read as a review column," nonetheless covers, in a chatty and informative fashion, books ranging from two tomes by Walter Kaufman on existentialism, Rilke's
Letters to a Young Poet, David Hume's
Selected Essays, and Jerry Mander's
In the Absence of the Sacred. A generous serving of letters from readers finish the issue.
All in all, though a few arguments within were debatable,
The Die is an informal and enjoyable set of discussions of societal and philosophical subjects. The atmosphere within is calm and reasonable, enhanced by the professionally produced, elegant look of the whole. And the price is right. Well done!
*A dubious assertion, when you think about it. Frolicking otters and dolphins racing through the waves don't indulge in introspection about their lives and place in the universe. Yet who would say their live-for-the-moment attitude makes their lives "not worth living"? And Zen makes the
goal of meditation and its
koans to arrive at the "no mind" state, where one is devoid of ratiocination and self-examination. (Where these contrast with the likewise non-introspective TV-addicted masses is that the latter are infinitely less in touch with their own lives and the world around them.)
[ Link to this review ]
