I do this occasionally when I chose a book for my mother or father.
For 2 months afterwards I get recommendations for gardening books
mixed in with the usual. Statistically this is a blip and it probably
tells Amazon more about me than I care for.
Google Ads in gmail are a similar idea to Amazon recommendations.
the modern industrial agency "advances" by atomising it's audience
into individuals. I wonder if by doing so it destroys the thing(s) it
wishes to discover, following the logic of this conversation; I'd
never thought I'd defend book clubs. Although I suppose the modern
book club is the industrialisation of people meeting, discussing,
passing ideas, kaffee klatsch is it?
roger
On 11/3/07, Peter Cudmore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In the early days of the Amazon links, I thought of subverting the idea by
> choosing two or three books which had no obvious connection -- a sort of
> interdisciplinary guerrilla action.
>
> P
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > Behalf Of Anny Ballardini
> > Sent: 03 November 2007 09:45
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: sentimentality & 'classism'...
> >
> > I agree, and I can share the same feeling. On the other hand the
> alternative
> > is neighborhood's pettiness. I lived for a while in a tourists' resort,
> and
> > the much I hated it when it got crowded see at Christmas for winter sports
> > (even if there is something in the many lights and fetishist
> cardboard-like
> > story), it almost became worse when few people inhabited the place. The
> New
> > Wave "change of energies" might apply to this context.
> > What I want to say is that there is no way out. And the "imposition" from
> > the outside might seem a relief to repetitive impositions from the nearer
> > outside, as much as from the ones from a pre-packed inside.
> >
> >
> > On 11/3/07, Christopher Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >
> > > <snip>
> > > I agree with what you are saying, on the other hand I noticed that what
> > > Amazon offers is right on spot and I can recognize it is valid thanks to
> > > previous contacts I had, see through professors or readers with whom I
> > > communicate. [Anny B]
> > > <snip>
> > >
> > > Oh yes, Amazon's recommendations are very often helpful. But that almost
> > > makes it worse. Rather than opting in, having the (aspirational,
> sociable)
> > > feeling that X rather liked this book so I may well like it too, I have
> > > the
> > > uneasy feeling that membership of a group is being imposed on me from
> > > outside: someone, as it were, has been telling _the truth_ about Josef
> K.
> > >
> > > CW
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > >
> > > 'When I came home I expected a surprise and there was no
> > > surprise for me, so of course I was surprised.'
> > > (Wittgenstein)
> > >
>
--
My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
"In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
Roman Proverb
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