Vonnegut on Computers

Commencement speaker at Agnes Scott College, May 15, 1999, Kurt Vonnegut: 

“Computers are no more your friends, and no more increasers of your brainpower, than slot machines…

Only well-informed, warm-hearted people can teach others things they’ll always remember and love. Computers and TV don’t do that.

A computer teaches a child what a computer can become.

An educated human being teaches a child what a child can become. Bad men just want your bodies. TVs and computers want your money, which is even more disgusting. It’s so much more dehumanizing.”

Sunday: Literary Hill BookFest 2014

Literary Hill BookFest
Sunday, May 4, 2014
11:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Eastern Market, North Hall
7th Street & North Carolina Avenue SE
Capitol Hill, Washington DC 20003

If you’re in DC and like to read, stop by Eastern Market this Sunday and meet local authors and poets: Brett L. Abrams, Jonathan Bardzik, Louis Bayard, Elizabeth Becker, Simeon Booker, Mike Canning, Jack Colhoun, Pete Daniel, Christopher Datta, John DeFerrari, Tom Dunkel, Alison Fortier, Frederic J. Frommer, Stephen H. Grant, Mary Z. Gray, Patricia Gray, Lovey Marie Guillory, Lucinda Janke, Abby Arthur Johnson and Ronald Maberry Johnson, Anu Keene, Katy Kelly, Tim Krepp, Jonathan Lewis, Myrina McCullough, Diana McLellan, John Muller, Jean Nordhaus, Garrett Peck, Quintin Peterson, Frank Pietrucha, Robert Pohl, Gina Sangster, Canden Schwantes, Paris Singer, Benjamin Soskis, Janine K. Spendlove, Cathy Travis, Bill Walsh, Gene Weingarten, and John R. Wennersten.

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Gabriel García Márquez, 1927 — 2014

Columbia writer Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (“Gabo”) died this week. His books have “no word misplaced” and inspired countless readers, writers, and songwriters. That’s Colombian singer Shakira above with a song from the film version of El amor en los tiempos del cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera). Cuban singer Oscar Chavez (below) sings about Márquez’s fictional town of Macondo.

Happy Birthday, Charlie Dickens

Author Charles Dickens was born 202 years ago today. He was a peculiar person, being obsessive-compulsive, a practical joker and an egomaniac and all, and he was pretty odd as a writer, too. He published his novels in weekly or monthly installments before he finished them, which must have been nerve-wracking for author and editor alike.

Serial writing, one episode at a time, without a predetermined ending. Maybe we should think of Dickens as a sort of Victorian blogger.

Related:

“Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens: The Beloved Writer on Grief and How to Heal a Mourning Heart,” Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

The Dickens Project

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Richard Matheson, 1926 — 2013

Writer Richard Matheson died last week at age 87. A Brooklyn Technical High School graduate, he spent World War II as an infantry soldier and earned a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Matheson is remembered for his screenplays and novels, but he was a master of the short story. and wrote nearly a hundred of them. Start by reading the Shock! collections from the Sixties, if you can find them.

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