Out of Egypt:

long-term goal

To revise, update, and expand my undergrad thesis, making it both book-length and accessible to a general college-educated audience. I think I would call it A Confusion of Tongues: Cultural Life in the Electronic Age.

"A Confusion of Tongues" reminds me of Mikhail Bakhtin and his theories of polyglossia and heterogeny in the text. You should really read him, as well. I actually have what you should read on my bookshelf. Edward Said is unfortunately back on my bookshelf in Colorado, so you'll have to resort to the library for him.

Posted by: funke at September 16, 2007 3:19 PM

I was thinking more along the lines of what McLuhan said about how electronic communication promised to bring about either a "Pentecostal condition of universal understanding and unity" or "a small world of tribal drums...and panic terrors." Jeremy Del Rio, who has several talks posted on UrbanMinistry.org, has said some interesting things about the universal language of computers and the curse of Babel.

I think what's fascinating about our current culture moment is that we are poised on the edge of chaos, possessing this vastly expanded power to communicate, which we as Christians know is both blessing and curse. For "the Word was with God," but the human tongue is "a spring of all kinds of evil."

Posted by: Evan Donovan at September 16, 2007 11:58 PM