Customer Reviews

The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Lanham has been a university professor for about 40-years, Yale-educated, English lit and rhetoric. He came of age pre-computer revolution, when writing meant manual type-writers and white-out and transcription. This series of connected essays are his ideas about what the digital revolution means for the future of books, universities and what he calls "the economics of attention" - how the world operates when information is plentiful and the scarce resource are "eyeballs" (attention). We are flooded with high-quality art, news, books, movies, data of every type - it is not an "information economy" because information is as plentiful as air - the scarce resource is peoples attention. In that environment, style (the wrapping paper, the ornamentation, packaging, literary style, etc..) becomes more important than substance - style is the substance (think for example all the crazy cultural things that come out of Japan - all style, no substance). He also discusses how we interact with things: we look "at" them, or we look "through" them - ie. we enjoy them for what they are, or we analyze them. We read a novel/movie on a literary level and dissect how it was created or and historical context, or we "get lost in the book" and enjoy it for what it is. These two forces are in a constant tug of war with every object we own - cars for example, utilitarian or style (or some combo usually). In the end Lanham concludes it is the liberal arts that will save the day for they are the ones who are trained to filter (critics) and create design and style (the new substance). He also provides the most detailed and lucid explanation I've seen on why paper books have not been replaced by the digital medium.

This is a gem of a book that deserves more credit than these reviews allow. Lanham brilliantly uses a focus on attention to open up economics, rhetoric, art, the internet, universities as institutions, and the style/substance interdependence. He comes across as futuristic in his professor in L.A. way and as a very old school classicist in more of a deep school way. What is rare and very refreshing in this work is his strong faith and understanding of rhetoric, the lively and ancient road less taken by philosophers. His writing is delectable and every paragraph offers something to think about. I would leave a sample quote but instead I'll recommend checking out the sample pages in the Look Inside feature above.

"Seeing clearly what is happening as the word moves from page to screen seems...to depend on seeing clearly what is happening in the world that expressive field has to express," the noted, influential rhetorician Lanham remarks in the beginning of his "Preface." His metaphor of an economy for this "expressive world" is literarily, generally, and perceptively apt. It's more than a useful image. In this economy, "attention is the commodity in short supply." In this economy, individuals "budget" their attention; and web designers, software engineers, computer makers, marketers, and more and more writers are in competition for the attention of consumers, users, and readers; which attention is often leads in one way or another to earnings. Anyone who has used the Internet to find information, buy something, communicate with others, pay bills, and other activities both common and innovative will have a feel for what Lanham proposes and investigates. The terms "cyperspace" and "virtual reality" no longer suffice to relevantly denote the substantive place the digital world with its operations and potentials has taken in most persons' lives. Such terms now seem exotic or frivolous considering, as Lanham recognizes, how the considerably arbitrary, yet essential and formulative trait of attention has ineluctably moved to the computer screen.

When I ordered this book, even when I packed it for winter holiday in the Midwest, I had high hopes - it was well-reviewed in Amazon, and Lanham is a well-respected scholar. Yet the only point on which the book succeeds is Chapter 3, in which Lanham fully develops a theory of the benefits of self-conscious artifice - which has little, if anything, to do with economic theory. Lanham admits he is no economist; this might explain his adoration of libertarian economic thought, which of course, is more a faith than a theory. "Don't worry, be happy" is Lanham's response to anyone who questions any possible negatives associated with technology or the market. Ultimately, these are the only real "lessons" of the book - awareness of communicative "styles" make us better communicators (a valid point, but hardly new), and a McFerrinesque attitude towards risk and responsibility. Hardly worthy of the pulp it is printed on.

The reviewer here, Henry Berry, has given a wonderful summary of the main point of the book. Reading the book will not advance your understanding any further than that. It is an undisciplined meandering hodgepodge of undigested readings and odd memories. I guess I'm old-fashioned, but I look for substance. As another reviewer notes, it's quite ironic that a book with this title doesn't bother to demonstrate its value to a reader with a limited span of life.

I gave up on this book after 80 pages. Either he doesn't have much of value to say, or he doesn't realize reader attention is scarce enough that he needs to show early on that the book contains valuable ideas.

please, this is NOT an economics book.
is not interesting for an economics student or researcher.

you wont find any economic analysis inside.