Reading in a World of Images - LIVE Shorts

http://www.nypl.org/live

"Reading in a World of Images," DANIEL MENDELSOHN & JAMES WOOD in conversation with PICO IYER, LIVE from the NYPL, September 17, 2008.

"Does the common reader exist in our world of splitting screens? Where might we find beauty, seriousness or moral passion among our fraying books? And does it even make sense to put Flaubert, Homer, and Oliver Stone into the same sentence? Two of the defining public critics of our time — James Wood, a passionate reader who creates cathedrals out of words, and Daniel Mendelsohn, a professional classicist bringing rigor to the popular arts —investigate the space where reading ends and real criticism begins."


Filming: One Dream Sound
Editing: James Murdock

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Pico Iyer
• James Wood
• Daniel Mendelsohn
• blogs
• reading
• books
• literary criticism
• New York Public Library
• NYPL
• LIVE from the NYPL
• LIVE Shorts

[MustachioEdd]

James Wood, the greatest literary critic of our time. Some interesting views in this. I'd love to see more of them on youtube.

[lll284]

discovering the good, the bad, and the truly awful. Perhaps its a good thing, trying to avoid what others didn't like. But it also persuades me to pay money to watch some horrible things too, (i.e: Spring Awakening).. Ah the irony, me posting a comment. But instead, I'll see this as an opportunity to let others question their reading this, and not watching AND listening to the great Mendelsohn and Wood.

[lll284]

For me, this is one of the most accurate & relevant arguments for my generation today. I'm one of those readers who at times craves to read in solitude but at the same time, feels an anxiety-riddled disconnect from the rest of the world. The disconnect being a construct made from this abstract thing, "world wide web". I feel guilty reading others' comments and reviews before every book I read, every movie I watch, and every restaurant I go to. Maybe it's a nyc thing but it really stops me from

[grazie55555]

They both make a good point about the role of "experts" and the problems with a medium that allows for unbridled opinion. But they miss the point entirely about "comments" on the internet...in many cases I have learnt more from comments than I have from the original piece, simply because (while you must sift through a whole lot of crap) many of the comments reference other thinkers, other viewpoints and just as importantly...LINKS to those thinkers and viewpoints.