Joshua Cohen
Joshua Cohen
degrees embedded mind online search within
The birth of the search engine, it's nothing new: it's essentially embedded in our literature; it's how ideas relate, how the mind makes connections. I mean, connections are made online through links, and within an algorithm, they're made through degrees of relevancy between different terms.
contest dominates online people
The Internet is a contest between people with the same name to be the person who dominates that online space.
argued claim gesture novelist
In mid-20th-century America, it could be argued that the novelist still had the most claim of anyone to omniscience. Whatever he/she couldn't prove, he/she could gesture at.
became both consumer costs cut debut roles though
E-books, which made their debut in the 1990s, cut costs even more for both consumer and producer, though as the Internet expanded, those roles became confused.
ladies marrying publishers send somebody
The big publishers want someone they can send on the Jewish book circuit, somebody the old ladies can see marrying their granddaughters.
constantly delivery fee starting
That has been so successful, we constantly have to have more delivery runs. We were starting to have to look at some kind of fee structure, which we didn't want to do.
devices noticed people shakespeare taking trains
Taking trains and trams in Berlin, I noticed people reading. Books, I mean - not pocket-size devices that bleep as if censorious, on which even Shakespeare scans like a spreadsheet.
certain evaluate negative people plausible pros serious
It's important to evaluate the pros and cons. Because when you do evaluate the pros and cons, if you make certain plausible assumptions about how people react, you can get some serious negative results.
fewer larger means range rely smaller vocabulary
The larger your audience, the smaller your vocabulary and range of referents - the fewer your means of expression. You can't rely on the luxury of intimacy.
The M.F.A. is a degree in servitude. It is a way to keep writing safe - to keep reading safe from writing.
technology
The Internet is a tool, a technology, and we like to say that it has all of these properties, but really, it's just a place where our writing is.
believe convince israel qualified though time took
What qualified me to write about Israel was that I wanted to; it took no time to convince myself. The only reservation I had was about eaven: I wanted to write about the Jewish heaven but did not feel qualified because I did not and do not believe in 'it,' though I should.
concepts left unlike
English, unlike Hebrew, is read from left to right - as are clocks. The concepts of clockwise and counterclockwise are universal, irrespective of alphabet.
novel outside reader
Each and every novel is a world outside the world - for a reader to visit, for comfort, consolation, escape, or challenge.