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2 reviews for:
The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information
Richard A. Lanham
4.46 AVERAGE
2 reviews for:
The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information
Richard A. Lanham
4.46 AVERAGE
This book, by a scholar of rhetoric, was very interesting, especially as I have been doing my own research on how we use language to get attention. Lanham proposes that we “oscillate” between attending to “substance” – by which he refers to ordinary things, or things as they inherently are, or sincerity, and “style,” which he uses to refer to things that are flashy or special, things that involve manipulation of attention, and things that we become aware of when we attend to the ways that things are presented to us. I think part of what he’s referring to is rather like the difference between “full immersion” in a story, and “reflective immersion,” when we’re also aware of the choices the author or storyteller or narrator appears to be making, and our related speculations on why that may be happening; he calls them "through" and "at" ways of encountering things. I’m more familiar with the cognitively informed philosophy that tells us that we can never encounter a “substance” without involving “style,” but the author isn’t really addressing that issue. I don’t think I’ve ever before seen any works on the movement between what I’d call “full” and “reflective” immersion, and I expect this book will merit rereading.
Some of his chapters, which were written roughly 20 years ago, seem unfortunately dated, because his writings focusing on the evolving world of the Internet and digital media doesn’t take into account the emergence of social media and the popularity of e-books and audiobooks. I say “unfortunately dated” because I would have been interested to read what he’d have written about such things now. I would quibble with some aspects of his chapter on the style/substance matrix and wish he included what we know about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, for example. The chapter in which he addresses the idea of copyright protection for research on the Dead Sea Scrolls – in which he presents a dialogue between Barbie, a TV pundit, an English professor, and a teacher believed to be the author of the Scrolls, along with a variety of footnotes – it could have been made a bit more clear for the naïve reader, but beyond that, it was kind of mind-blowing.
Some of his chapters, which were written roughly 20 years ago, seem unfortunately dated, because his writings focusing on the evolving world of the Internet and digital media doesn’t take into account the emergence of social media and the popularity of e-books and audiobooks. I say “unfortunately dated” because I would have been interested to read what he’d have written about such things now. I would quibble with some aspects of his chapter on the style/substance matrix and wish he included what we know about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, for example. The chapter in which he addresses the idea of copyright protection for research on the Dead Sea Scrolls – in which he presents a dialogue between Barbie, a TV pundit, an English professor, and a teacher believed to be the author of the Scrolls, along with a variety of footnotes – it could have been made a bit more clear for the naïve reader, but beyond that, it was kind of mind-blowing.
I only hope I'm half as clear as Lanham as I try to apply one field's theories to another in my dissertation work. I liked not only what Lanham had to say but how he said it. The structure of the text is a model of scholarship I'd like to see more of. Excellent book for anyone interested in information, computers and/or rhetoric and composition.