A Conversaton with Elizabeth
1998
Turkle-izing

From:          Elizabeth
To:            larry.m.mixson@bvs.com
Date:          2/26/98 8:39am
Subject:       turkle-izing

                        TRIANGLES
 
                    In the cyber revery
                    of disembodied words
                    virtual becomes, is
                    reality, unreal real,
                    bringing forth
                    patterns, imaginary,
                    of lives, loves
                    words as fantasy, true,
                    making it difficult
                    virtually, really to know
                    what, who is loved, love
                    merging past, present.
                    Images glide, collide.
                    e-mergent futures form
                    as shape shifting words
                    transmit, transmute
                    what was, was not
                    into electronic is.

Poetry, something I had seldom seen from Elizabeth, she was usually logical and rational. The words seem appropriate for our new virtual relationship. I replied:

From:          larry.m.mixson@bvs.com
Date:          Thu, 26 Feb 1998 10:10:42 -0800
To:            Elizabeth
Subject:       Re: turkle-izing
 
Very good. Perhaps "electronic id" might be more appropriate. Larry

 

From:          Elizabeth
To:            larry.m.mixson@bvs.com
Date:          2/26/98 10:28am
Subject:       Id
 
I like id. Actually is didn't feel quite right.
 
Left work at 4:30 and usually go straight to class for 6:30, but stopped by Books a Million to look for Wired. I have a discount membership card there and more importantly, there is a traffic light to get back out onto the bypass in the five o'clock traffic. I really like the magazine, but I'm somewhat perplexed about its readership. A little clarification--my Master's is really in Library and Information Sciences. There were sort of two tracks, not totally separate in Library School. The library track was a little more conventional librarianship. For example I took courses in Social Science Reference, Government Reference, and Humanities Reference. I took courses in Adult Programming--planning and holding educational courses in libraries. The other track was more information society oriented. A lot of the classes involved theoretical reading and then real work exercises in actually setting up free-nets, use-nets, etc. The theory of the classes really appealed to me, but I was not attracted to the latter at the time. Also, I had to keep strictly in mind that I wanted a degree, wanted out of school, and wanted a professional job. Many of the information society students went straight into the Ph.D. A professor in the program practically tried to drag me into the Ph.D. program, but I wanted out of school. I'd probably just now be graduating if I had done that. Anyway, I did read some of their readings and sit in on some seminars. I wrote a paper on the NREN, early Internet. Wired doesn't seem oriented to what I would think of as computer people. It seems more oriented to information scientists--witness the articles. Sherry Turkle is right in the arena where I was when I was working for a Ph.D.--psychology and sociology combined. In fact, the professor who died suddenly of pancreatic cancer taught several courses in which we discussed Lacan, Foucault, Feurbach, Freud, and others. Tell me though, was this issue unusual. I'm thinking of subscribing, but don't want to if this issue was an aberrant one.
 
The cruncher was that my mother "left" me nothing else. She left everything else, including what turned out to be a quarter of a million dollars, to my "sister." My mother's care is very, very expensive, but her pensions from Sears and Social Security are covering it, as I understand. My argument precisely--but when I told her that she was going against mother's wishes--she said, "Mother doesn't know what she wants anymore." (My mother has Alzheimer’s and that is very true).
 
Sat up a little last night reading Berger and contrasted it with Turkle from the reviews.
 
Did you get my message about reviews. Go into New York Times on the Web. There is a little icon at the bottom that says books. You'll get a search any word. I typed in Turkle. You'll get reviews the has written as well as books by her which are reviewed.
 
What "book discounts" are you asking about? What did I Write. Other than Books A Million which I just wrote about today, I don't recall writing about that.
Let me send before HM craps out.

Redux