goyablog » books

The Google Library of My (Dashed) Dreams

Gerald Figal — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:37:51 +0000

I’ve been actively hoping that the settlement Google reached with the backward-looking and narrow-visioned coalition publishers and authors over the issue of scanning humankind’s books and making them available/for purchase to anyone with a computer would stand the antitrust tests it is being out to at the moment. In fact, I wanted Google to have even more freedom in digitizing everything ever published so that my dream of a searcheable downloadable ubër-mega-hyper-universal library would be one big step closer to reality. Alas, meddling capitalists worried about not getting their cut and/or Google getting too much appear headed to hamstringing Google’s gargantuan task. Wired.com has a pretty clear run-down on the history and current status of the issue in a Q&A form if you want to get up-to-date. I really have a problem with the sacred status copyright has been given. Protection of it is talked about as if it’s the holy of holies, as if it’s a sinful violation to copy something that’s out there in the public (i.e., published). In other words, it’s treated practically as a moral issue when it’s purely economic. Sure, an author (and his/her publisher) is entitled to sell and profit from a work. It’s a piece of work, after all, and it’s hard to produce (he says as he struggles to write two pages a day). But can’t there be some kind of a limit, some point (before the current expiration of copyright) where it’s okay to have parasites use the work for other things while perhaps throwing the author’s way a small percentage of any profits (or nothing if no profits are made)? I think so, but that must make me communist or something, like President Obama. Just think of the overall benefits to scholars, students, society at large. I can imagine fair cost structures where producers could be happy (because of increased volume sales) and consumers could be happy (with their Kindles or iPads or MacHackBooks) getting free or lower cost access to the world’s knowledge and entertainment. If this could happen, I wouldn’t care about a Google monopoly and so-called infringement of copyrights. Bring it on!

Digital Humanities and the Case for Critical Commons

Gerald Figal — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:42:40 +0000

If you digiprofs haven’t seen this yet, here it is. If you have seen it, watch it again:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tokyo Day One

Gerald Figal — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:03:29 +0000

I probably should wait until the day is completely over to report (after all, I haven’t had dinner yet), but before I forgot and/or become too tired to write, here goes Day One Report.

In short, this was a very successful day in many ways.

First, the breakfast was great, as always here at the Ryokan Shigetsu. Totally worth the ¥1300. After that I went to the 7-11 across from Kaminarimon and marveled at the ease of withdrawing ¥30,000 from my Suntrust checking with the wonderful international ATMs they have. [Note to everyone coming to Japan: DO NOT bother with traveler's checks or changing much money at the airport (only enough for the Keisei Skyliner -- ¥1920 -- plus whatever to get you to your hotel, near which there is sure to be a 7-11 Convenience Store). Your bank will charge a bogus "international exchange fee" (7-11 doesn't), but it still beats exchange charges at banks and TONS easier to do.]

With ¥30,000 stuffed in my wallet, I did a beeline down the block two stops to the nearest Starbucks to try to relieve the pounding headache with a daburu tāru late. The seat I ended up at was potentially fortuitous. No sooner had I written “dinner where?” on my day’s itinerary, did I look up to see “Ninnikuya” (Garlic House) across the street. I plan to check it out for dinner after this post.

Caffeined up, I stopped at a drug store to buy a razor — I forgot mine. I remember every gadget and gadget attachment, but forgot the razor. I’m looking pretty rough right now.

The goal for today was to buy a set of books dealing with media/social theory/pop culture studies which I hope will help in framing my next project on “monstrous media and delusional consumption” in contemporary Japan. I brought along on the plane the English translation of Azuma Hiroki’s Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals and ransacked it for leads. I found 7 of 10 titles at the Sanseido in Jimbōchō, including Azuma’s sequel to Otaku, The Birth of Game-like Realism. The real interesting book, however, is one that he mentions as worthy of translation, Morikawa Kaichirō’s The Birth of Hobby City. I looked at/read the prefatory photos/captions and it looks fascinating. It’s about how persona — otaku persona — rather than government city planners or private businesses have recently shaped the cityscape of Akihabara, which has over the past 10 years has become the epicenter of manga/anime/game/hardware-software consumption with otaku as the consumers. Can’t wait to read it.

Having scored the books fairly quickly, I decided I would walk through “Akiba” after lunch (mabo eggplant in Kanda:

)

on the way back to Asakusa. My headache came back so I knew I wouldn’t be too focused or have much endurance for the dizzying craziness of floors and floors of manga and hobby figurines and anime music CDs and gyuruge (girl game) ads. I do want to find the original Death Note manga in Japanese, but I wasn’t there for that today. Instead, I was simply taking in the sights and sounds, and trying to stealthily take photos where they are either not permitted or simply too rude to do, like in the face of a maid cafe girl handing out promotional literature, whose boss no doubt told her not to pose for photos or video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I did go into Animate and Tora-no-ana, the two big shops in Akiba. Seeing all of the “DO NOT TAKE PHOTOS” signs was frustrating. I had to respect them. But when I was trying to make a call on my iPhone, the video somehow turned on instead:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sorry about the tilted picture, but I did have to pretend that I was holding the phone naturally to talk. In a way, the skewed framing and spinning around replicates fairly well the dizziness of the place. I took another one, perfecting the “I’m just making a phone call” technique, but somehow the video came out upside down! I have no idea how that happened. I’ll work on righting it.

So, besides books, I scored with some vids and a few interesting serendipitous photos via the iPhone that I’ll post later, hopefully while breathing garlic. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I’m writing this in a yukata that the Shigetsu provides for going up to their top floor to their public bath. It’s clear they cater to foreigners — the yukata is an extra large and the bath wasn’t Nihonjin-hot. In fact, I was disappointed that it wasn’t scalding, but that’s one small disappointment in a string of small treasures that made the day.