“ Our existing models of communication are less an analysis than a contribution to the chaos of modern culture, and in important ways we are paying the penalty for the long abuse of fundamental, communicative processes in the service of politics, trade, and therapy.”1

This is a wonderful book that I reread at least annually.  Carey was one of the most insightful observers of human communication during the second half of the 20th century.  Read his New York Times obituary.  If you are interested in communication and media, you must read this book.

1 James W. Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989), p. 34.

“I do believe that it is precisely rootedness which gives you ease in multilingual expression or participation in dancing intercourse with very different cultures.  Only when one’s roots are cut or denied or considered as something secondary does the search for the so-called identity, for some kind of inner fitting of the individual upon itself, become an important fantasy.”1

How ironic—that we need to be rooted in one culture in order to conversing with other cultures!  Today, don’t we assume the opposite, namely, that we have to give up our own cultural roots in order to connect with those form other cultures?  Illich adds that we humans need soil to survive the desert.

This book is a fascinating series of conversations with one of the most unique thinkers of the 20th century.  I reread it regularly.

1 David Cayley, Ivan Illich in Conversation (Concord, ON: Anansi, 1992), 197.

“Everybody needs approval, but nobody needs it more than authors: approval of editorial alterations of manuscripts; approval of cover art and copy; approval over reprint, book-club, and foreign licenses; approval of titles, ad texts, and more.”1

I work with quite a few aspiring book authors and I find that many are easily hurt by criticism even when it’s delivered gently.  Writing a personal journal or blog is more suited to them because they don’t have to contend with all of the “approvals” needed for getting books and articles published.  The problem is that writing for personal benefit or enjoyment can give the impression that “everyone has a book in them.”  A book?  Maybe.  A published book?  Probably not.  The lack of approval is too devastating for most aspiring authors.  That’s why many editors and agents recommend writing a book only if you have to.

1 Richard Curtis, How to Be Your Own Literary Agent: An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published, Rev. Ed., Houghton Mifflin, 2003, p. 19.

The Protestant Reformer John Calvin used the term “mutual communication” to refer to mutual service rather than selfish careerism.  “It is not enough when a man can say, ‘Oh, I labor, I have my craft,’ or ‘I have such a trade.’  That is not enough.  But we must see whether it is good and profitable for the common good, and whether his neighbors may fare the better of it.”

John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, rev. trans. (Banner of Truth Trust, 1973), p. 331.  Modernized English by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Until Justice & Peace Embrace (Eerdmans, 1983), pp. 78-79.

“Christian teaching … in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) would say … love can and should be shown not only to those close to us but also to casual acquaintances and strangers, to those one merely stumbles upon.”

— Walter J. Ong, The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History (Yale University Press, 1967), p. 304.

What would this kind of love look like?  Sound like?  Perhaps kindness and patience are two aspects of communicating lovingly with strangers.  — qs

“Few people fail to communicate their messages and much of themselves in speech, whereas writings, unless produced by one with literary gifts, carry little of the writer and are interpreted far more according to the reader’s understanding or prejudice.”

— J. C. Carothers, “Culture, Psychiatry, and the Written Word,” Psychiatry, 22 (1959), 311.