Grammars of Deconstruction

George Steiner's opening line in Grammars of Creation asserts an interesting dilemma. “We have no more beginnings.” But, did we ever have more than one? While considering the loss of new “grammars” brought about by the dissolution of belief in God, Steiner essentially approaches the issue with an assumption that is only valid based on his final conclusion. If there is a true beginning, there cannot be more than one beginning in a univocal sense.

Steiner acknowledges this to some extent when he tips his hat towards mimesis, stating that “[a] rigorous understanding of mimesis (as in Plato's Republic), a strict reading of imitatio (as in certain Neo-classicists) and extreme realists knows of only 're-creation'” (23). Mimetic criticism recognizes that the artist's role is ultimately, as Prince Hamlet said, to hold a “mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” We might question precisely which nature the artist imitates, but the artist is always, by necessity, one whose expertise is seeing what is real better than others and telling of it. He or she is a Tiresias who tells the fate of the world by that which he knows.

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Evanescence

After a five year hiatus, Evanescence finally returned with a new album today. I have not heard it as of yet, but for the occasion, I thought I would repost a link to the video of “My Immortal” from 2003. Many music videos leave me scratching my head, wondering what they have to do with their associated songs. This video, however, has always struck me as having a melancholy picturesqueness fitted perfectly to a powerfully moving song.

Evanescence is something of a unique, genre-bending band. It will be interesting to see if Amy Lee and company can capture that unique essence for a third major label release.

Focusing is About Saying "No"

A remark from Steve Jobs's Q&A at the 1997 WWDC. Jobs goes on to say the result of “saying 'no'” is that Apple was going to unveil products where the “total is much greater than the sum of the parts.” Was that first, bondi-blue iMac in his mind at that point?

Whatever products he had in mind, this is one of the things that makes Apple Apple. While other companies have raced to add as many gee-whiz features to their products as possible, Apple clearly has spent a great deal of time saying “no” to ideas. Sometimes it frustrates people, but that's OK. This is the difference between a company driven by an engineering-marketing complex and one driven by a visionary-artist.

The former appeals only to our rational side; when done well, the visionary-artist products appeal not only to our rational side (as we admire the engineering of the product) but also to our creativity (as we take in the aesthetics). Too often technology does appeal to us only rationally and in doing so fails to take into account that we are creatures that were made to be creative.

I think this is a fundamental place people like RMS, who have been criticizing Jobs since his passing, are missing the boat. License agreements may be a form of “prison,” but so are products so ugly and uncreative that they prevent us from doing what we want to do or make it a displeasure to do.

Part of freedom is not just having free access to tools, but having tools that enable us to realize our aspirations.

iPhone 4S "Disappointment"

The “disappointment” over the iPhone 4S for only taking one of the best phones on the market and giving it a better camera, doubly fast processor, seven times more graphics power and an incredible voice assistant is really taking its toll on sales. That must be why the first batch of 16GB models — the ones set to be delivered on the first day of the phone's launch — are sold out and AT&T acknowledged record sales.

Ah, if only every company could disappoint customers like this.

The Cardinals' Biggest Furry Fan

Jere Longman writes in the New York Times on the Rally Squirrel:

June Cantor, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Streets Department, said she could not comment on whether any laws prohibited the transportation of rodents across state lines for purposes of supporting a playoff baseball team. She did have a suggestion, though, for keeping Rally Squirrel out of Citizens Bank Park.

“Maybe they could have lots of acorns and peanuts outside the stadium to lure him out,” Cantor said.

Evangelicalism is the New Liberalism?

My fellow theo-blogger and colleague, Travis McMaken; succinctly puts his finger on something I've been mulling over concerning Evangelicalism:

The really strange thing about this quote is that the things Barth identifies as present-day (in terms of 1920's Germany) tendencies emanating from Schleiermacher — “church life, experiential piety, historicism, psychologism, and ethicism” — are precisely the things that seem to me to be holding the field within contemporary American evangelicalism, in many ways. It is a well-worn trope of comic books and action movies that one is always in danger of becoming what one fights against. Have evangelicals started becoming liberals, in the classic European sense of the term?

I think he is on to something — read in a vacuum, Schleiermacher sounds remarkably “Evangelical” or Evangelicals can sound remarkably Schleiermachean. That Barth was identifying the same problematic tendencies in the Church of his day highlights the strength with which these sirens of theology sing.

Travis continues with a challenging question worth considering:

If so, how advanced are the symptoms, what is the prognosis, and what can be done to combat this malady?

Steve Jobs

John Gruber sums up what I think everyone was thinking:

So it goes. So it goes.

Damn it. I thought the “That day has come” line in his resignation letter implied the end was near, but, truth be told, I never gave up hope that Steve would beat this again.

What a life.

On a personal note, October 5 has long been marked as a day “in infamy” for me — my grandfather died ten years ago today.

War

Apple's decision to keep the 3GS available is huge. Previously, Apple has only kept two generations of iPhones on the market at any given time. But, keeping the 3GS out there shows that the company wants to compete at every level of the smartphone market, not just the high end. With the iPhone now on three out of four US carriers and available in low-end, middle and high-end configurations, Apple has “finally” declared all out war on Android.

Time will tell a lot: much of Android's growth has been due to its multi-carrier availability and wide range of pricing. Now what will be its shtick?

LTE Dreams

Tomorrow is the big day — the iPhone 4S or 5 or whatever-it-will-be-called will finally be unveiled. Reliable rumor reports seem to suggest that Sprint will be receiving the phone. That could be interesting, especially if Apple offers a WiMax enabled version. While AT&T will likely semi-justifiably label its new iPhone as “4G” since it will use HSPA+, a WiMax enabled phone would be a “true 4G” variant.

Still, the real dream remains LTE. I think it is almost certain that Apple will not release an LTE-based phone tomorrow. But, after spending a few weeks using a Verizon 4G Galaxy Tab 10.1”, I can't help but think about how nice an iPhone with LTE would be.

That dream may still be a bit off in the distance, sadly.

Go Cards!

Yes, the Cardinals are in the post-season and you know what that means: I will start gabbing about baseball on here again. It was good to see the Cards beat the Phillies tonight. I have a good feeling about their overall momentum right now.

Could a Cardinals-Yankees World Series be in the mix, perhaps? Having the two winningest teams together at the World Series would be fun.