Searching for information, meaning, and an unmicturated-upon rug
September 8, 2015 9:03 PM Subscribe
[The Big Lebowski's] most important contribution to the study of information seeking behavior is its illustration of how a highly complex information search is not about finding the “answer,” but rather is about an individual's ability to make sense of, and create meaning from, the process of information seeking. . .“New shit has come to light”: Information seeking behavior in The Big Lebowski (PDF) by Emily Dill and Karen L. Janke.
This analysis of The Big Lebowski illustrates the concept of sense-making as a richer, more contextualized process than simply collecting facts. Even though the situations the characters encounter may be artificially constructed for the purposes of advancing the plot of the film, the steps that The Dude, Maude, Donny, and Walter take or fail to take in attempting to close their knowledge gaps mirror the way “real people” act. Situated on the cusp of the revolution brought on by rapid expansion of the Internet’s reach into daily lives, these characters offer prime examples of the self-defining quality of information searches and how truth really is in the eye of the searcher. Each character employs different information seeking strategies and meets with varying levels of success.This PDF is a preprint version of an article published in The Journal of Popular Culture. Here's the final journal article, although it's paywalled.
You guys can just sit here and quote away, and I'll happily read the entire thread.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:28 PM on September 8, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:28 PM on September 8, 2015 [12 favorites]
You guys can just sit here and quote away, and I'll happily read the entire thread.
Get a job, sir.
posted by dragstroke at 9:42 PM on September 8, 2015 [57 favorites]
Get a job, sir.
posted by dragstroke at 9:42 PM on September 8, 2015 [57 favorites]
You want a toe information? I can get you a toe information, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me.
posted by Rangi at 9:43 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Rangi at 9:43 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
MoonOrb: Is the first link not going through for you? Here's another source you can try.
posted by Banknote of the year at 10:07 PM on September 8, 2015
posted by Banknote of the year at 10:07 PM on September 8, 2015
Say what you will about information seeking, at least it's an ethos.
posted by dry white toast at 10:09 PM on September 8, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by dry white toast at 10:09 PM on September 8, 2015 [7 favorites]
Just one thing, do you have to use so many cuss words?
posted by dogwalker at 10:29 PM on September 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by dogwalker at 10:29 PM on September 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
I get all my information from Knox Harrington, the video artist.
posted by gompa at 10:29 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by gompa at 10:29 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Apparently a good portion of society gets really stoned before trying to figure something out? Seems legit.
posted by carsonb at 10:33 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by carsonb at 10:33 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
In 1998, despite being a Coen bros. fan and believing my aesthetic of 31 years was reasonably refined, I didn't laugh much. I had no idea what I had just seen. So I watched it again. And it was the scene in which Jackie Treehorn jots down a note while taking a call, excuses himself, and the Dude dashes to the note pad to make a rubbing that disarmed me of all expectation. Now, having seen it twenty? thirty times? Over nearly 18 years? Every scene can make me laugh. It never stops being a wonder and this paper is just another level of that and less disturbing than the check for 69 cents.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 10:40 PM on September 8, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by lazycomputerkids at 10:40 PM on September 8, 2015 [7 favorites]
And sorry if I wasn't clear: the main PDF is free to read. What is paywalled is a later version of the paper that's edited more and peer reviewed. I thought the authors deserved a link to the better version of their work, as a courtesy, even if that version is paywalled.
posted by Banknote of the year at 10:46 PM on September 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Banknote of the year at 10:46 PM on September 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
Oh god this thread is going to be interminable.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:41 PM on September 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 11:41 PM on September 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
Don't be fatuous, shakespeherian.
posted by clockzero at 12:03 AM on September 9, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by clockzero at 12:03 AM on September 9, 2015 [9 favorites]
Shut the fuck up, clockzero. You're out of your element.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 12:08 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by armoir from antproof case at 12:08 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
In 1998, despite being a Coen bros. fan and believing my aesthetic of 31 years was reasonably refined, I didn't laugh much. I had no idea what I had just seen. So I watched it again.
on first release, 1998, it was showing just down the street from where I lived. I laughed some the first time I saw it but it was the music that really sold me. In particular, the use of Bob Dylan's The Man in Me, which was one of my faves at the time. So I went back again the next night, and at least one more time before it was finished its run. It just kept ... growing.
Jump ahead maybe eight years and I'm subletting a place that has a TV but no cable service. There's also a VCR and a box full of tapes, all old golf tournaments and the like, except for some insane (or perhaps divine) reason, there's a copy of Lebowski. I lived in that place for maybe six months and yeah, I rented a few videos but mostly I just watched Lewbowski over and over again. Almost never all the way through in one sitting. Just ten minutes here, fifteen there, a half hour before bed ... and so on.
How many times have I seen it by now? No idea. But I still find something fresh every time, or am reminded of some past hilarity. Most recently, it was Maude Lebowski watching Logjammin' and compelled to point out that "The story is ludicrous".
posted by philip-random at 12:11 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
on first release, 1998, it was showing just down the street from where I lived. I laughed some the first time I saw it but it was the music that really sold me. In particular, the use of Bob Dylan's The Man in Me, which was one of my faves at the time. So I went back again the next night, and at least one more time before it was finished its run. It just kept ... growing.
Jump ahead maybe eight years and I'm subletting a place that has a TV but no cable service. There's also a VCR and a box full of tapes, all old golf tournaments and the like, except for some insane (or perhaps divine) reason, there's a copy of Lebowski. I lived in that place for maybe six months and yeah, I rented a few videos but mostly I just watched Lewbowski over and over again. Almost never all the way through in one sitting. Just ten minutes here, fifteen there, a half hour before bed ... and so on.
How many times have I seen it by now? No idea. But I still find something fresh every time, or am reminded of some past hilarity. Most recently, it was Maude Lebowski watching Logjammin' and compelled to point out that "The story is ludicrous".
posted by philip-random at 12:11 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
So you're saying nobody ever showed up to fix your cable?
posted by dogwalker at 12:23 AM on September 9, 2015 [10 favorites]
posted by dogwalker at 12:23 AM on September 9, 2015 [10 favorites]
dry white toast: "Say what you will about information seeking, at least it's an ethos."
No, no, no! That should be "tenets of information seeking"! Also, let's not forget - let's NOT forget, dry white toast - that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city - that aint legal either.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:52 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
No, no, no! That should be "tenets of information seeking"! Also, let's not forget - let's NOT forget, dry white toast - that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city - that aint legal either.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:52 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
OMG! I tried to get hold of a copy of this years ago, not long after the big Big Lebowski academic conference the paper originally debuted at. I think I might even have emailed one of the authors, who assured me that it was coming out in conference proceedings. (It ultimately didn't make the cut.) It's so weird and awesome to see it linked here now.
posted by Sonny Jim at 1:16 AM on September 9, 2015
posted by Sonny Jim at 1:16 AM on September 9, 2015
It ultimately didn't make the cut
Neither did your Johnson, Lebowski.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:35 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
Neither did your Johnson, Lebowski.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:35 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
I have no frame of reference here. I feel like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know--
posted by bigendian at 2:05 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by bigendian at 2:05 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I dig this work. Playing one side against the other--in bed with everybody--fabulous stuff, man.
posted by rudster at 2:17 AM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by rudster at 2:17 AM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
Well. I may have just watched the movie again. And enjoyed a couple of strong Caucasians.
Still hate the fucking Eagles though.
posted by maupuia at 2:29 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Still hate the fucking Eagles though.
posted by maupuia at 2:29 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Am I right in thinking that ferrets have now been legalized? So that the modern viewer will understand the awkward syntax of a member of a Bush family and hating the Eagles but be baffled by the so-called marmot?
posted by hawthorne at 2:30 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by hawthorne at 2:30 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
> I thought the authors deserved a link to the better version of their work, as a courtesy, even if that version is paywalled.
And it really tied the thread together.
posted by ardgedee at 3:35 AM on September 9, 2015 [11 favorites]
And it really tied the thread together.
posted by ardgedee at 3:35 AM on September 9, 2015 [11 favorites]
Let me tell you something, pendejo. You pull any of your crazy shit with us, you flash a piece in this thread, I'll take it away from you, stick it up your ass and pull the fucking trigger 'til it goes "click."
posted by valkane at 4:25 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by valkane at 4:25 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I can't read this thread on Shabbos, Dude.
posted by Twain Device at 4:32 AM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Twain Device at 4:32 AM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
I was hoping to see more than just a paywalled article. Am I wrong?
This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps.
posted by Gelatin at 5:09 AM on September 9, 2015 [16 favorites]
This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps.
posted by Gelatin at 5:09 AM on September 9, 2015 [16 favorites]
You're not wrong to fill this thread with quotes from the movie. You're just an asshole.
posted by maxsparber at 5:57 AM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 5:57 AM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
Papers, academic papers.
posted by rudster at 6:02 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by rudster at 6:02 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
You can guess where it goes from there.
posted by Scattercat at 6:32 AM on September 9, 2015
posted by Scattercat at 6:32 AM on September 9, 2015
That was cute. I don't know that The Dude's search was ultimately successful. Information is only so good as its ability to act upon the world, and The Dude's life is made measurably worse by his search for justice. Most noirs, of which TBL is an exemplar, are about a search for truth / information / justice that ultimately destroys the seeker in some way. It's sort of like Hamlet - you may get your truth, but you're also poisoned and dying, so have fun with that.
I don't think that TBL is 'prophetic' of the information age, I just think it picked up on modern (and maybe even timeless) aspects of human mendacity and greed. In fact, if i had to describe the Coens' body of work thematically 'timeless mendacity and greed' would be near the top. To a certain extent those trends are outsized by information technology, but they're not necessarily new.
posted by codacorolla at 6:40 AM on September 9, 2015 [6 favorites]
I don't think that TBL is 'prophetic' of the information age, I just think it picked up on modern (and maybe even timeless) aspects of human mendacity and greed. In fact, if i had to describe the Coens' body of work thematically 'timeless mendacity and greed' would be near the top. To a certain extent those trends are outsized by information technology, but they're not necessarily new.
posted by codacorolla at 6:40 AM on September 9, 2015 [6 favorites]
Most noirs, of which TBL is an exemplar
It's basically "The Big Sleep" except all the plot lines are like the Owen Sternwood one
posted by thelonius at 6:59 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's basically "The Big Sleep" except all the plot lines are like the Owen Sternwood one
posted by thelonius at 6:59 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Most noirs, of which TBL is an exemplar
An example, maybe. It's not an exemplar by any means.
posted by kenko at 7:00 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
An example, maybe. It's not an exemplar by any means.
posted by kenko at 7:00 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
a highly complex information search is not about finding the “answer,” but rather is about an individual's ability to make sense of, and create meaning from, the process of information seeking. . .
I mean, uh, hasn't that ever occurred to you, man? Sir?
posted by gauche at 7:01 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I mean, uh, hasn't that ever occurred to you, man? Sir?
posted by gauche at 7:01 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
Also, "information is only [as] good as its ability to act on the world" doesn't mean that it has to act on it in a positive way. (Plus what screws up the Dude's life isn't the information he gets, but the getting of it.)
posted by kenko at 7:01 AM on September 9, 2015
posted by kenko at 7:01 AM on September 9, 2015
What is paywalled is a later version of the paper that's edited more and peer reviewed.
Also, the paywalled article has been commended as being strongly vaginal, which bothers some men.
posted by gauche at 7:06 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
Also, the paywalled article has been commended as being strongly vaginal, which bothers some men.
posted by gauche at 7:06 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
(The fact that this thread is actually moving forward using mostly just movie quotes reminds me of that book written without the letter e.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:12 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 7:12 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
It could grip it by the husk!
posted by shakespeherian at 7:12 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 7:12 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
Little Lebowski Academic Achievers.
posted by Chitownfats at 7:16 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Chitownfats at 7:16 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
Dill: Am I wrong?
Reviewer: No you're not wrong.
Janke: Am I wrong?
Reviewer: You're not wrong Karen. You're just an asshole.
Dill: Okay then.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:27 AM on September 9, 2015
Reviewer: No you're not wrong.
Janke: Am I wrong?
Reviewer: You're not wrong Karen. You're just an asshole.
Dill: Okay then.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:27 AM on September 9, 2015
Noir? Sure. Except for Sam Elliot's cowboy that we'll see twice, same as Monty Montgomery's more menacing cow poke in Mulholland Drive two years later because Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you...
posted by lazycomputerkids at 7:38 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by lazycomputerkids at 7:38 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's true, standards have fallen in academic publishing. Of course, you do get the good with the bad. Wave of the future, Dude. 100% electronic.
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:09 AM on September 9, 2015
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:09 AM on September 9, 2015
Is this your homework, Janke?
Is this your homework, Janke?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:10 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Is this your homework, Janke?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:10 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's basically "The Big Sleep" except all the plot lines are like the Owen Sternwood one
Uh, Owen Taylor. The Sternwoods's chauffeur. You know what I meant.
posted by thelonius at 8:12 AM on September 9, 2015
Uh, Owen Taylor. The Sternwoods's chauffeur. You know what I meant.
posted by thelonius at 8:12 AM on September 9, 2015
You know what I meant.
Yeah, I totally understand the plot of The Big Sleep now. Thanks!
posted by Wolof at 8:17 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I totally understand the plot of The Big Sleep now. Thanks!
posted by Wolof at 8:17 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
First viewing (in the theatre when it was originally released): "That was...okay, I guess?"
Second viewing: "Eh. I don't think I ever need to see that again."
Third viewing: "HOLY SHIT THIS MOVIE RULES."
Although I'd still pick Miller's Crossing as my favourite Coens flick.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:29 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Second viewing: "Eh. I don't think I ever need to see that again."
Third viewing: "HOLY SHIT THIS MOVIE RULES."
Although I'd still pick Miller's Crossing as my favourite Coens flick.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:29 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
At least he's housebroken.
posted by dogwalker at 8:45 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by dogwalker at 8:45 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
. . .a highly complex information search is not about finding the “answer,” but rather is about an individual's ability to make sense of, and create meaning from, the process of information seeking. . .
Well, I did not know that.
posted by blairsyprofane at 9:31 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Well, I did not know that.
posted by blairsyprofane at 9:31 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Am I right in thinking that ferrets have now been legalized?
Au contraire! Giuliani (re-?)banned them in NYC in 1999, which is interesting timing.
AFAIK, they were never specifically banned anywhere in the US but California and Hawaii -- where they're still banned -- for environmental reasons, i.e. the fear that they'll escape or be released and go feral and destroy the ecosystem, which is something that has never happened with ferrets. Cats, though: Yes, reliably, always, but they're totally a-ok for whatever reason.
(That said, ferrets are not great pets. Their most ardent supporters tend to gush, "It's like having a kitten or a puppy that never grows up!" Think about that.)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:31 AM on September 9, 2015
Au contraire! Giuliani (re-?)banned them in NYC in 1999, which is interesting timing.
AFAIK, they were never specifically banned anywhere in the US but California and Hawaii -- where they're still banned -- for environmental reasons, i.e. the fear that they'll escape or be released and go feral and destroy the ecosystem, which is something that has never happened with ferrets. Cats, though: Yes, reliably, always, but they're totally a-ok for whatever reason.
(That said, ferrets are not great pets. Their most ardent supporters tend to gush, "It's like having a kitten or a puppy that never grows up!" Think about that.)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:31 AM on September 9, 2015
What are you, Sys Rq, a fucking park ranger now?
posted by condour75 at 5:58 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by condour75 at 5:58 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Who gives a shit about the fucking marmot!
posted by maxsparber at 11:42 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by maxsparber at 11:42 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
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