This is the hundredth entry in my diary at vitanuova.loyalty.org.
I guess there is some reasonably interesting stuff if you look back
through this diary.
For those who joined us later on, "vita nuova" is Italian for "new
life" (the Latin would be "vita nova"), and this is the name of a
book of poems by Dante Alighieri about
the history of his extraordinary romantic love for a young woman.
There ensued a number of centuries of controversy about whether Dante's
idea of love had been a good one (and whether it should be approved
more or less than alternatives). Since the history of ideas, as well
as the idea of romantic love, have been a significant part of my life
for so long, I think this is not a bad name.
There is also the old ambiguity about the meaning of the word "new":
so some people interpret "vita nuova" as meaning "youth" (when life is
new, when life is fresh) and some people interpret it as meaning a
redemption or a revelation, tantamount to a rebirth.
The idea that a life will at some point be changed and "renewed" (hmmmm,
like "renice" on Unix?) is pervasive. You can find it all over the place
in Christianity and other messianic religions:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God.
(John 3:3 (KJV))
or
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
(Revelation 21:5 (KJV))
(It isn't hard to multiply examples.)
I always think of
Et expecto resurrectionem mortorum, et vitam venturi saeculi.
Amen.
(Nicene Creed)
This sense of "new life" is quite different from the other, and it leads
back to thoughts of discontinuity, distinction, and separation. It suggests
a possibility of a profound alteration in one's life: one which in
messianic traditions is anticipated "in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye".
Or as NetHack puts it, "You feel like a new xorn!".
Clearly there are ways to become a new person other than the apocalyptic.
Our cultural ideas perhaps do not allow for this possibility so readily.
I've been putting off working on "What's Wrong With Adobe DRM" and
"Reply to the Association of American Publishers". Some day, some
day, I am going to write about something other than copyright
or having a girlfriend. I mean it!
Did I mention that I read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering
Genius?
Hopeless romantic that I traditionally have been, I actually liked the
gimmicks and the descriptions of the Bay Area more than the plot and
the very capable prose style. If you write gimmicky books about the Bay
Area (preferably lipogrammatic in e, you know: "San Francisco and its
surroundings, a story about that"), I will no doubt like them.
I borrowed a book from Michelle called The Illness Narratives
which looks to be extremely exciting.
Wolfgang visited!
If
you read nothing else about the Dmitry Sklyarov case...
This morning I said to the Federal government -- in person, with a megaphone --
You're doing a really nice job with "the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances".
So, what I wanted to say is, how about some freedom of the press?
From
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010730/n303480_2.html:
Artists, scientists protest U.S. copyright arrest
By Elinor Mills Abreu
SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 (Reuters) - Artists joined software programmers
and free speech advocates on Monday in protesting the arrest of a
Russian man on charges of violating a controversial new copyright law.
About 100 people gathered under cloudy skies carrying a large ``Free
Dmitry'' banner, placards proclaiming ``Reading is a Right, not a
Feature,'' and chanting slogans.
The group walked two blocks from a civic plaza across from the public
library and City Hall to the federal building where the U.S.
Attorney's office is building its case against Dmitry Sklyarov.
[...]
The situation is analogous to the protests by movie studios made when
videotape recorders were introduced in the 1980s, said Seth Schoen, a
programmer, computer consultant and member of the Coalition to Free
Dmitry.
In a landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that videotaping
television shows and movies for personal viewing was constituted fair
use.
``There are legitimate uses of this technology,'' Schoen said of the
Sklyarov program. ``Publishers just want total control.''
[...]
