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Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age

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Kenneth Goldsmith (Author)
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Kenneth Goldsmith (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 858-0012358044
ISBN-10: 0231149913
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press (September 20, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0231149913
  • ISBN-13: 978-0231149914
  • Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5.5 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsEvery Idea from the Visual Arts Eventually Gets Rehashed by Poets, Even
By godotnut on September 17, 2013
Format: Paperback
Declaring something uncreative writing and rehashing post-structuralist critiques of authorship does little to obscure his belated, retro perspective. The problems he sees as relevant to writing are the same problems Duchamp worked through nearly a century ago. The author's implicit claims deserve the same respect one might give to someone suddenly discovering surrealism for the first time in the twenty-first century, except surrealism is actually a more recent phenomenon than conceptualism.
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5.0 out of 5 starsgroundbreaking
By A Muse on November 3, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
One of the most important books written on the future (and perhaps recent past) of contemporary writing -- prophetic look on how technology is shaping writing and consciousness. Far reaching -- with tie ins to contemporary art. A must read for the new Post-Moderns;
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4.0 out of 5 starsSometimes superficial but challenging
By Erich Mistrik on May 11, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
The book describes current cultural trends that are not reflected too often. Thinking about writing in the age of electronic communication and internet is frequent today but insight into how writing really changes is rather new. The changes are considered not only from such kinds of points of view as you have access to information, you can manipulate texts, but the author offers insight into rather deep changes in writing.

Sometimes, I did not aggree with the author's view that originality is out of date. Still he offers serious arguments for necessitiy to reconsider Kant's romantic notion of genius.

Sometimes, the author uses journalistic jargon remaining on the rather superficial description of current cultural trends. Nevertheless, his ideas are challenging and he provokes new ways of thinking about reality that is all around us.
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3.0 out of 5 starsFun Guide to Soulless Easy Art
By Gordon Muledeer on June 1, 2015
Format: Paperback
Exciting book, fun read, but not very persuasive. Makes you realize in a backwards way that art isn't just for the mind, but also the soul (that magical concept). A short poem like "Of Mere Being" is far more satisfying in every way than Warhol's whole oeuvre (much as I admire it) and most every work cited in this book.

Nevertheless, UNCREATIVE WRITING is definitely worth reading
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5.0 out of 5 starsGreat contribution to avant garde writing and interesting pedagogical ideas
By Fluffy Singler on August 8, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Kenneth Goldsmith's Uncreative Writing is a new/another way to think about digital writing, issues of plagiarism, and what he refers to as something comparable in writing (the pc and the internet) to what painting had to face to redefine itself in the wake of photography.

One of the things that makes this book so pleasurable to read is the joy with which Goldsmith lays out the climate in writing today, the possibilities inherent in this kind of "uncreative writing," and the various ways that others,including artists, writers, and even his own students, have taken up this style of writing in their own ways.

This book makes me happy, too, in the same way that look at a painting by Yves Tanguy or a sculpture by Max Ernst makes me happy. And I have to admit that even though I don't always think of such things on my own, I really admire the kinds of trangressive writing acts described in the book, as well as his very good defense of such mundane activities as retyping the NYT every day for a year. Then again, since it is called uncreative writing, maybe I shouldn't beat myself up for not being able to come up with the kind of "uncreative" genres and assignments the he speaks of. Still, I am obviously not an "uncreative genius." But I can still admire this book and borrow/steal ideas which he has crystallized, if not created himself.

There are also some really great pedagogical ideas in there that will make students rethink the physical act of writing, acts of transcribing, the nature of research and of documenting sources, alongside questions of appropriation, pastiche, sampling, etc. that we are still dealing with, 100 years after the Urinal. I think this is a good book for any writing instructor, not just for creative/uncreative writing.
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5.0 out of 5 starsFun, intriguing ideas, with good examples
By Jonathan R. Price on April 9, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Great new perspective, drawing on experiments today and in the past...Why bother with originality? Collect, curate, display.

Reminds me of the move in the art world toward artists curating on-the-fly shows with their friends, complete with "curatorial" write-ups, and receptions.

This book will give you a lot of good ideas about the ways that electronic text has changed the way we think about writing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA brilliant thinker and trouble maker

Kenneth Goldsmith is one of the most thought provoking poets and word artists out there. A brilliant thinker and trouble maker. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Tennessee Slim
5.0 out of 5 starsQuite enjoyable

Covers ideas and theory in a captivating and readable way, without being overburdened with indecipherable language that seems the status quo of books on the same subject matter.

Published 14 months ago by Zachary Franklin
5.0 out of 5 starsA wonderful read for contemporary artists

As one might expect, the Ubu web founder Kenneth Goldsmith has made a case that we have ALWAYS created from our interactions with others rather than creating in a vacuum. Read more

Published 21 months ago by Nelle Mercer
1.0 out of 5 starsDoes what it says on the tin

The avant-garde's Donald Trump here fights the good fight against such antiquated notions as genius, originality, and using a pen. Read more

Published on July 29, 2013 by Robert W. Getz
5.0 out of 5 starsFun, intriguing ideas, with good examples, groundbreaking, sometimes...

One of the most important books written on the future (and perhaps recent past) of contemporary writing -- prophetic look on how technology is shaping writing and consciousness. Read more

Published on July 2, 2013 by Samuel Graham
5.0 out of 5 starsBook Prize Winner, Deservedly so

This book won the 2012 Book Prize from the international arts society A.S.A.P. (The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present). Read more

Published on June 30, 2013 by Rev. Cherrycoke

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