The Man in the Empty Suit: Talking with Emily St. John Mandel
Emily St. John Mandel discusses her new novel, THE GLASS HOTEL.
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Posts Tagged: privacy
The Internal and the External: A Conversation with Wendy Willis
Wendy Willis discusses her new essay collection, THESE ARE STRANGE TIMES, MY DEAR.
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Peeping under the Goddamn Door: The Price of Empathy in S-Town
[F]or the first time, I really see the tradeoffs between privacy and honest-to-god, up-close empathy.
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On Making Wishes
It is true that I’m talking to a photo, but I’m not crazy. Neither am I a durochka. Fools are oblivious, at least those from my childhood fairy tales. I, on the other hand, am perfectly aware of the problem.
...moreThis Week in Indie Bookstores
Although Brooklyn stalwart BookCourt is sadly set to close at the end of the year, Modern Lovers author and former BookCourt employee Emma Straub plans to open a new shop in the the neighborhood. Books Are Magic, as the shop will be called, will be 1,500 square feet and hopes to open by April. Straub wouldn’t be […]
...moreThe Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #58: James Steven Sadwith
A self-described “actor’s director,” James Steven Sadwith has been writing, directing, and producing television movies, miniseries, and dramas for nearly three decades—and is perhaps best known for his work on the lives of Frank Sinatra and Elvis. But for Coming through the Rye, his first feature film for the big screen, Sadwith comes closer to […]
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Lucy Dacus’s Journals
What I write in my journals is a personal record of the events in my life, and my reactions to them.
...moreThe Story of A New Name
Earlier this week, Aaron Brady wrote presciently in his column for The New Inquiry about the ethical implications of revealing Elena Ferrante’s identity. He pointed out that in searching for her “real” identity, reporters were forgetting that one of the greatest things about Elena Ferrante is her fictions, and that at the heart of it, they are still […]
...moreHomeward Unbound
Some would argue that the loss of privacy is a small price to pay to have your voice heard on an international scale. But over at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes honestly and unpretentiously about his difficulties returning home as a prominent literary figure, and how his sudden visibility carries a safety concern particular to being a […]
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I Hear the Place That Can’t Be Named
It is remembering and loving anyway—not forgetting—that binds us even if the recollections are absurd, undignified, cruel, or humiliating.
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The Circle Is Watching
In a world where boundaries between private and public are already blurring, Tim and Nicolaas wanted to find out what would happen if those boundaries disappeared altogether.
...moreProtecting Murakami’s Library Card
Fifty years ago, a kid named Haruki Murakami borrowed books from his school library in Kobe, Japan. This week, the Kobe Shimbun, a local paper, published a list of the books he checked out, as compiled on book checkout slips—and Japanese librarians are up in arms, accusing the paper of violating Murakami’s right to privacy.
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The Rumpus Interview with Bill Clegg
Author and agent Bill Clegg talks about his new novel, Did You Ever Have A Family, grief in fiction and in life, and why there is no finish line except the final finish line.
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The Rumpus Interview with Christopher Bollen
Author Christopher Bollen talks about his sophomore novel, Orient, secrets and privacy, sexual orientation in fiction, and the lost art of the whodunit mystery.
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The Rumpus Interview with Andrew Ervin
Andrew Ervin discusses his debut novel, Burning Down George Orwell’s House, social media and writing, and how video games can serve as a way to understand the post-human world.
...moreLibrarians and the Patriot Act
Librarians have long been on the forefront of information management; in the digital age, they are more invested than ever in protecting the free flow of information to the public, and protecting it from the overreaches of government prying. In June, key provisions of the Patriot Act that justified the government’s massive data collection efforts […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Thomas H. McNeely
Thomas H. McNeely discusses coming of age in the 1970s, Houston’s complicated racial history, and his new novel Ghost Horse.
...moreSurveillance in the Stacks
Librarians have hard-won reputations as defenders of open information and patron privacy, but what about third-party providers of library services? Slate’s Future Tense explores some recent revelations from companies like Adobe, whose Digital Editions e-book software has been criticized for transmitting reader data in plain text—making it an easy target for surveillance by the government, […]
...moreOn Social Capital and Staying Hidden
Meander to Hazlitt for Linda Besner’s recent reading of Alfred Hermida’s Tell Everyone: Why We Share and Why it Matters. Besner’s critique is particularly concerned with the role of anonymity in a new, social-media-dominated landscape: Social media, in other words, is a gift economy, in which we share information both in the expectation that others […]
...moreWeekly Geekery
Are video games the new social commentary? Are we ready to give them the weight of other media? The Internet is fomenting another revolution. Librarians: bespectacled superheroes for your rights. Growing a library. A book written pre-Internet, sheds light on the Internet. The ambivalence of privacy online.
...moreThe Non-Fiction Dilemma
Ever wonder how to write about other people without getting sued? Well, here are some answers. Another flavor of invasion of privacy is called false light. Suppose you post a photo of a criminal arrest. Jane Doe, a bystander, appears in the picture, a true fact. If the photo creates the impression that Jane was […]
...moreWeekly Geekery
Amanda Marcotte isn’t listening to you on Twitter anymore. You can run, you can hide, but you can’t escape the modern office. Unfettered access to technology isn’t always good for students. Do you have the right to be forgotten? All of this technology and no one is happier.
...moreTrending Now: The Internet Knows Your Secrets
Last week, Ryan Pittington talked about the new trend among aspiring and established authors alike to use Twitter as a means of staying connected, not only to other writers, but to potential readers. What should one tweet? Where do we draw the line between privacy and exposure? It seems the internet knows more about you […]
...moreOn Pregnancy and Privacy and Fear
My husband, Devan, wants to know when he can stop lying to everyone he cares about. He’s talking about the baby, the fact that we’re having one (if all goes well) in early October.
...moreSaturday History Lessons: On Emily Hale and T.S. Eliot
One February night in T.S. Eliot’s mid-twenties, he went his aunt’s house in Boston. It was 1913, and the occasion was one of those delightful-sounding “evenings of amateur theatricals” that no one bothers with anymore. (It’s a tradition that really ought to be revived, if anyone’s asking me.) Eliot performed as Mr. Woodhouse in scenes […]
...moreWhere Has All the Anonymity Gone?
What are the cultural consequences of cell phone cameras, social media websites, and online photo hosts? The degradation of anonymity and an obscured understanding of privacy. It’s shockingly simple to identify people on the web—whether to scorn them for an embarrassing moment or pinpoint the victim of political violence as an activist. This newfound publicity […]
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Conversations About the Internet #5: Anonymous Facebook Employee
Facebook employees, after all, know better than most the value of privacy.
...moreIs the Internet Ruining Our Lives?
We’re distracted, our attention is shot, we are under surveillance, and we don’t care! We like being linked and friended by strangers who may or may not be who they say they are.
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