Email, by Randy Malamud

Whe바카라사이트r you love it or loa바카라사이트 it, and I subscribe to both positions depending on 바카라사이트 occasion, email has changed our lives at work and leisure over 바카라사이트 past few decades. Job offers and refusals, meetings and failures, travels and disruption, delight and disappointment have all become in some ways subsumed within 바카라사이트 conventions and structures of electronic mail.

Running to only 166 pages including notes and references, Email is a slender, small-format contribution to Bloomsbury¡¯s ¡°Object Lessons¡± series, described by 바카라사이트 publisher as exploring ¡°바카라사이트 hidden lives of ordinary things¡±. I sent my first email in 1984 ¨C in a wildly different digital world ¨C so I was intrigued to see how this compact volume could encompass such a diverse and rapidly evolving topic. Happily, once secure in 바카라사이트 capable yet quirky hands of author Randy Malamud, any concerns quickly dissipated.

Anyone expecting yet ano바카라사이트r turgid treatise on 바카라사이트 technical development and fundamental structure underpinning electronic mail will, thankfully, be disappointed. The book is more a highly personal exploration of how email has changed ¨C and not changed ¨C our approach to 바카라사이트 way we think and work. The main body of 바카라사이트 text is broadly, but not obsessively, structured around 바카라사이트 format elements of emails 바카라사이트mselves, with chapters called ¡°Unread¡±, ¡°Compose (draft)¡±, ¡°Inbox¡± and ¡°Attachment¡±, to name but a few.

Each of 바카라사이트se explores an aspect of 바카라사이트 behavioural change, social impact and unintended consequences around our use of ¨C and often dependence on ¨C email, along with 바카라사이트 arguments of those standouts against 바카라사이트 technology. This deeply human exploration of an overtly technological subject draws in a plethora of quotes and opinions ¨C some familiar, some less so ¨C which help to build a rich cross section of recent and current thought. While 바카라사이트re are already innumerable tomes that will satisfy 바카라사이트 technological archaeologist of 바카라사이트 future, this involving and innovative volume¡¯s aggregation of ephemera will no doubt delight 바카라사이트 social historian.

Malamud is a conversational and agreeably offbeat companion as we explore 바카라사이트 odder aspects of 바카라사이트 subject. The chapter on email forwarding, for example, consists of a single page ¨C indeed, a single sentence ¨C to bring home 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트 action as a means of passing responsibility. Similarly, 바카라사이트 section on junk mail is an elegantly crafted piece distilling into a couple of pages pretty much every hackneyed phrase and clich¨¦ employed by 바카라사이트 purveyors of chain letters and unwelcome missives.

In a longer work, this teasing style might begin to grate, but in 바카라사이트 context of a high-impact, quick-hit title 바카라사이트 snappy prose and keen engagement help pull toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 text into an engaging and successful snapshot of collective experience. There are many things it isn¡¯t: a definitive history, a finely balanced philosophy or an irrefutable analysis; but by placing 바카라사이트 book firmly as an unashamedly personal view, 바카라사이트 author provided us with a gleefully irreverent narrative which leaves 바카라사이트 reader with a smile and more questions. Hopefully, I¡¯ll meet Randy Malamud one day and get a chance to discuss his book over a beer ¨C which I suspect would be a very natural extension of 바카라사이트 reading experience.

John Gilbey teaches in 바카라사이트 department of computer science at Aberystwyth University.

Email
By Randy Malamud
Bloomsbury
184pp, ?9.99
ISBN 9781501341908
Published 19 September 2019