Fiction ChronicleNovember 2004 Worse yet, real life by Max Watman A review of Villages, by John Updike; The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth; Oblivion: Stories, by David Foster Wallace; & Heir to the Glimmering World, by Cynthia Ozick. In the metaphysics of early computing, after the vacuum tubes, while the world was searching for the mouse, there came briefly to light an interesting cosmological problem. Graphical space can be described in two ways, either as a mapped set of distinct dots or as a collection of lines: bitmaps or vectors respectively. The basic metaphor upon which we would compute was at stake. We needed to construct an on-screen representation of depth and organization. Build a system of metaphors that created the illusion of space on a computer screen out of vectors, and get a certain kind of computing; do it out of pixels, and get another. It is a foundational presupposition, choose vectors and we’ll end up thinking about things in a certain way, as connections, curves, and shapes; pick bitmaps, and we’ll think differently, and perceive a collection of individual points. We might force shapes on our firmament, but everyone knows that cons ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 23 November 2004, on page 54 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/worse-yet-real-life-1160
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by Max Watman Reviews of "The View from Castle Rock: Stories," by Alice Munro; "Talk Talk," by T.C. Boyle; and "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," by Marisha Pessl. by Stefan Beck On The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco & Cain by José Saramago. by Stefan Beck On The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Slim by Jonathan Coe, Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell & The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. by Stefan Beck On Freedom, 03, A Visit from the Goon Squad & Dogfight, A Love Story.
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