In chapter 8 of Hamlets Blackberry, William Powers explains the use of technology and moleskines. Moleskines are notebooks used for various things, journaling, grocery shopping lists, note taking, etc. Today the use of moleskines have died out because now we mainly use our cell phones to jot things down in the “Notes” app. Personally, I think using the moleskine notebooks are way better than using our cell phones to hold our information because then we can always go back years later to see what was going on with our younger selfs even though William Powers does make a good point about there being more easier, efficient ways to do so. His friend had the right idea because we can always go back to what is written on paper, our cell phones and tablets break and sometimes we are unable to get that information back.
Powers also talks about William Powers reference to the, “Distracted Globe.” The distracted globe was pertaining to three different things, the mind, the world, and the audience. In Hamlet, Shakespeare says, “Yea, form the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, all saws of books, all forms, all pressures pasts, that youth and observation copied there, and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain unmixed with baser matter.” When he says that he will wipe away all of the trivial fond records, the books, forms, and all of his troubles from the passed he is talking about cleaning out his brain of all the messes and distractions of everyday things to be able to focus on just one thing.
I will admit this chapter was a bit confusing before talking it over with the class but I can say I truly enjoyed learning about Shakespeare’s ways.
The Story of Nothing 