ThomasLitchford

Writing.Life

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Entries Tagged as 'The Decline of Western Culture'

Family? What Family?

September 2nd, 2008 · No Comments

I defy you to read this New York Times piece and not ask yourself why this woman wanted children in the first place. Be sure to read the original Craigslist post.
I understand we are biologically driven to procreate, but why do we have kids so other people can raise them? Is this some stubborn holdout [...]

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Tags: The Decline of Western Culture · The Mysteries of Everyday Life

Are Hipsters Killing the West?

August 5th, 2008 · No Comments

Adbusters thinks so. Their argument is that the current generation of hipster trash is trying to be rebellious without really rebelling against anything: not against war or capitalism or government or anything else. The sole motivation seems to be whether something is Cool or not.
But Alex Payne sees things differently. His thesis is basically that [...]

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Tags: The Decline of Western Culture

Rewiring

July 11th, 2008 · No Comments

It’s interesting how some of these posts take shape. I’ve been meaning to write about the cover story of this month’s issue of The Atlantic—‘Is Google Making Us Stoopid?’—since it came out, but I didn’t know what to actually say about it until now.
John sent me a link to the Guardian’s books blog about American [...]

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Tags: Books · The Decline of Western Culture · Writing

There’s a Reason It’s Not Called ‘Literature Weekly’

June 23rd, 2008 · 4 Comments

John sent me the following e-mail:
Lists are dumb, but you’ll probably have an opinion about this one.
Entertainment Weekly’s The New Classics: Books
To which I replied:
Yeah, I saw this and thought about blogging it. We actually get a free subscription to Entertainment Weekly because of some concert tickets we bought like three years ago. They just [...]

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Tags: Books · The Decline of Western Culture

Publishing Marketing

June 16th, 2008 · No Comments

My friend John e-mailed me this link about ‘misery lit,’ a.k.a. ‘grief porn.’ While I’ve certainly been aware of it, mainly via supermarket and Target book sections that inevitably include copies of A Child Called ‘It’ and it’s sequels, this is the first I’ve seen about a specific genre or special bookstore section. Does Borders [...]

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Tags: Books · Publishing · The Decline of Western Culture · The Mysteries of Everyday Life · Writing

Last Night

May 31st, 2008 · 1 Comment

I woke up at 2:34 AM (yes, I looked at the clock). Someone was shouting. What was it? A party? I couldn’t tell at first. I gradually recognized the cadence of some kind of cheer, a la ‘Hip hip hooray,’ or some other inane B.S. Then I heard British accents. (Maybe their football team had [...]

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Tags: Other · The Decline of Western Culture · Writing

Metacritic

May 13th, 2008 · 1 Comment

This morning, I bounced over to Metacritic — an aggregator of film, music, game, TV, and book reviews — to take a look at their composite review of James Frey’s new book Bright Shiny Morning. Except what I found was this message:
*Note: Metacritic’s regular coverage of Books has concluded with the final Harry Potter installment. [...]

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Tags: Books · The Decline of Western Culture

Future Slums?

April 19th, 2008 · No Comments

Continuing on the subject of housing, check out this article from the Atlantic.

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Tags: The Decline of Western Culture · Writing

Delusional

April 11th, 2008 · No Comments

Apparently Philip Roth thinks the idea of life after death is delusional. The exact quote is, “I have no taste for delusion,” in response to Terry’s question about his thoughts on the possibility of life after death.
Is it just me, or is it seriously disheartening to hear one of our great writers sound off so [...]

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Tags: The Decline of Western Culture · Writing

Wonderful and Strange

March 7th, 2008 · No Comments

I don’t know how to describe this project. It’s more than a comic strip. It’s surreal and absurd. I love it.
When I write about the trouble our culture is in, I’m generally referring to traditional forms: print media, compact discs, film. Things like this are part of something new, part of an internet culture that [...]

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Tags: The Decline of Western Culture · Widely Spaced Beacons of Hope