Bonanza of articles and interviews on communication

November 2, 2005 1:27 AM

Forbes special report on communication.A truckload of excellent articles and interview excerpts! Noam Chomsky on the spontaneous invention of language. Carl Zimmer on talking chimps. Jane Goodall on why words hurt. Arthur C. Clarke on the planetary conversation. Kurt Vonnegut on telling a story. Desmond Morris on symbolic gestures. Sid Meier on communicating with video games. David Copperfield on keeping secrets. Stan Lee on the superpower of comics. Steven Pinker on why we have language. Walter Cronkite on the language of news. Daniel Libeskind on the language of design. And much more!
posted by painquale (14 comments total)

Well i never. Forbes has finally done a special that appeals to me!

...Does this mean i'm becoming a capitalist?

Great stories though, great link -- thanks!
posted by phylum sinter at 3:10 AM on November 2, 2005

Thanks a lot, there is some really interesting stuff there.
posted by keijo at 4:22 AM on November 2, 2005

Wow, Vonnegut's comment is farking depressing.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 4:33 AM on November 2, 2005

Some great stuff here - thanks. I want to read the full pieces of some of these excerpts but it looks like this issue is already off the stands. I never thought I'd be bummed that I missed an issue of Forbes.

furiousxgeorge: Vonnegut's comment is farking depressing

Lately he seems to be a bit of a downer. A biting and occassionally funny downer, but a downer just the same.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 4:44 AM on November 2, 2005

Indeed. Judging from the linked article in a recent post, Vonnegut's last, greatest regret in life is that he's still living.
posted by alumshubby at 5:06 AM on November 2, 2005

Not your typical Forbes type authors, that's for sure. But then, this is about an intellectual subject rather than the usual corporate facism hype and smear.

Thanks for the links!
posted by nofundy at 5:27 AM on November 2, 2005

I got a chuckle out of the Vonnegut piece.
posted by nervousfritz at 6:12 AM on November 2, 2005

Vonnegut's last, greatest regret in life is that he's still living.

Oh, I think Kurt "Barrel o' Laughs" Vonnegut's been sore on that point for quite some time now. As for Chomsky, aren't his views on the development of language considered somewhat dated now?
posted by slatternus at 7:53 AM on November 2, 2005

Kurt Vonnegut has the gift of being able to take something so special and unique, and redefine it to its most raw, unimpressive, and unspectacular way.
posted by Jase_B at 8:18 AM on November 2, 2005

The guys at Penny Arcade offered a bit of commentary on blogging.
posted by S.C. at 9:01 AM on November 2, 2005

I don't know how you can find this particular interview excerpt with Vonnegut depressing. Jase, I don't get your comment at all. All he says is that his particular talent is to arrange words for people's entertainment, that reading is a difficult task requiring involvement and commitment on the part of the read er and that few people read much anymore, since it's so much less demanding to watch movies and TV.

I think that many of the people on Metafilter would agree and I wish that there were some way to get Vonnegut to interact with people on line. Perhaps he would see Metafilter as evidence of a future for active reading of the written word.
posted by notmtwain at 9:54 AM on November 2, 2005

Maybe KV is here. Thanks painquale. Bookmarked.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:17 AM on November 2, 2005

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when Noam Chomsky appears in Forbes. And the article isn't even pejorative!

Well, it's not exactly about politics either...


posted by slogger at 10:20 AM on November 2, 2005

I have the idea that some folks here haven't read Forbes much, or at all, but nevertheless like to pretend they know all about it. It's owned by some scary folks, and some of the columnists are scary, too. But the editorial staff is mostly excellent, isn't partisan, and is just as apt to be critical of business people, Republicans, or anybody else, as it is to be laudatory, depending on the facts at hand.
posted by unclewalt at 7:25 AM on November 3, 2005