Discourse Chronicle

No, Sanders has full-fledged bibliomania. The bookstore owner exhibits all the classic symptoms of the disorder listed by Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia: buying “multiple copies of the same book and [the] accumulation of books beyond possible capacity of use.” -Lynda Percival

[Joel Pace, an undergraduate mentor and friend of mine, experiences bibliomania often and frequently as he collects rare books for his research with Wordsworth and Transatlantic Romanticism. I remember him smelling his books and that seemed odd to me because I cannot smell. BK]

category: Bibliography, Literacy, Popular Culture    

[Stumpo:] We have put up a website which invites visitors to try to write the 7th book in the Harry Potter series before J.K. Rowling can. Each visitor can be reader, writer, and editor, contributing to and changing this ever-evolving project. With any luck, there will be multiple versions of the “book” by time the experiment ends (and those interested on a scholarly level will be able to view the changes that take place over time, as these will be automatically saved and archived on the site).

[We all know how much disdain I possess toward Harry Potter, however, this project sounds cool because of its creative writing properties along with textual editing concerns it may raise. JeFF Stumpo is a colleague from the English department who hosts JavaShock, a slam poetry showcase, twice per semester at Revolutions Cafe in Bryan, TX. BK]

category: Bibliography, Literacy, Poetry, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Comments published in a CNN article yesterday purporting to be from Sony CEO Howard Stringer regarding the planned pricing for PlayStation 3 have been removed after it emerged that he had not said anything on the question.

[…]

So where did the information come from, then? The culprit appears to be a Hollywood Reporter article on another interview with Stringer, which appeared a few weeks ago and also appeared to attribute pricing and availability information to the Sony CEO.

However, on closer inspection, the article was actually citing an anonymous source within Sony – a fine detail which the CNN article apparently missed, setting the whole rumour mill rolling once again.

category: Bibliography, Gaming, Popular Culture    

NRAMA: I couldn’t help but notice – Superman #226 is the “last issue of that numbering?”

DD: Right.

NRAMA: You want to explain?

DD: I turn this question back to the fans, because I’m not really sure what I’m canceling. We’re going from three Superman books to two: Superman and Action Comics. As of March, the numbering on Superman returns to its classic numbering which will be #650.

NRAMA: So it goes back to its pre-Byrne reboot numbering, since Superman prior to Man of Steel became Adventures of Superman.

DD: Absolutely. One of the things that I felt very strongly about was that our four premiere books, which I always feel set the style and tone for the DCU: Superman, Batman, Action Comics and Detective Comics should have their original numbering. They’re very special series, both given their characters and historically, and they should be treated as such.

[Looking at this excerpt from a textual scholar perspective, it could be a bibliographer’s nightmare. My head is spinning because “pre-Byrne” to me is taken as “before I could read,” but I think I follow it. The current run of “Superman” will end at #226 in February and then “Adventures of Superman” will continue with #650 in March, but its title will be changed back to “Superman”. Whew! BK]

category: Bibliography, Comics, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[Dr. Ives’s Eng 603 students may post here about their research guide projects as an alternative to a poster session. BK]

category: Bibliography, Pedagogy