Bøger af Brian Britt

To what degree can the human exchanges we observe online be called "sociability"? In other words, do these exchanges amount to any meaningful type of social organization? Are they more than the mere froth of collective emotion discharging its energy with a lot of noise but little consequence against the wave breakers of social media? Do the social interactions that take place in virtual space-all those kind or not-so-kind words sent back and forth-suggest the same level of commitment, dedication, morality, passion, or even depravity that we see in everyday life? Or, more succinctly, is sociability online less "social," less "real" than what we see in everyday life? The present collection of papers reflects some of the most insightful contributions to the Purdue Online Interaction Seminar. Representing a variety of interpretive frameworks, the conversation is circumscribed by a number of themes, of which two are most important. The first one is the nature of online sociability. Are or could online groups be "community-like," bound by ties as strong as those of kith and kin? Should they be qualified as a type of contractual, rational, self-interested "society"? Or should we propose a new interpretive framework? Should online communities be seen as a type of "communitas", which is a form of social aggregation that appears during certain initiation rituals? If this is so, are communitas-like virtual spaces characterized by the same transient, liminal state that mixes a variety of contradictory characteristics (temporary and permanent, close and distant, essential and fleeting) that we observe in other types of "communitas"? Can virtual communitas lead to social and personal transformation, just like its traditional counterpart? Table of Contents Sorin Adam Matei Introduction 1 The book is dead! Long live the ubibook! 9 User Guide 16 Susan Huelsing Sarapin Front Porches and Public Spaces: Planned Communities Online 20 Pamela Morris Glimpses of Community on the Web 45 Brenda Berkelaar Van Pelt Peering Behind the Curtain: The Virtual Wizard Offers No Guarantees 59 Brian C. Britt The Invisible Man: Speaking into the Online Void 84 Robert N. Yale Welcome to I-berspace: Media Gratifications in Successful Virtual Communities 101 Christina Kalinowski Individualism Online: Virtually Escaping the 'Massness' or Vanishing into the 'Electrovoid'? 119 W. Scott Sanders SIDE Theory, Small World Networks, and Smart Mob Formation: A Beginner's Guide 136 Online Interaction Seminar: Selected Readings and Discussion Topics 153 Author Biographies 162

In Biblical Curses and the Displacement of Tradition Brian Britt offers an intriguing perspective on curses as the focus of debates over the power, pleasure, and danger of words. Biblical authors transformed ancient Near Eastern curses against rival ethnic groups, disobedient ancestors, and the day of one's own birth with great variety and ingenuity.Transformations of biblical curses proliferated in post-biblical history, even during periods of 'secularization'. This study argues that biblical, early modern, and contemporary transformations of curses constitute displacements rather than replacements of earlier traditions.The crucial notion of displacement draws from Freud's psychoanalytic theory, Nietzsche's critical philosophy, and Benjamin's engagement with textual tradition; it highlights not only manifest shifts but also many hidden continuities between cursing in biblical texts and cursing in such 'secular' domains as literature, law, politics, and philosophy. The tradition of biblical cursing-neither purely 'religious' nor purely 'secular'-travels through these texts and contexts as it redefines verbal, human, and supernatural power.

Exalted for centuries as a hero and author of the Bible, Moses is inseparable from biblical tradition itself. Moses is also an inherently ambiguous figure and a perennial focus of controversy, from ancient disputes of priestly rivalry to modern issues of class, gender and race.