Working in the data mine

I've been a longtime fan of Bookforum's blog, Omnivore, an odd amalgamation of the day or week's news stories, blog posts, articles and scholarly writing on what is sometimes a very clear topic and sometimes a very large umbrella that some things are not exactly standing under it. It's like looking at Pitchfork's web content or visiting a Sephora: truly experiencing the hypertextual idea of drift.

The post I saw today was on doubt, either aptly named for the Good Friday/Passover season, or personally resonant as I look for a summer job. Links go to writing ranging from the "Narrative Immunity" of Footballers to sexual assault charges, to Godard's Cinema of Doubt. Some great content in this mish-mash; I was particularly liking the post from M/C Journal for an article called "Pragmatist Doubt, Dogmatism and Bullshit"  on the necessity of doubt in navigating our experiences.

Doubt is an interesting idea. It is a liminal state between truth and fiction, a way of dealing pragmatically with a perceived notion, a truth. It has also become a priori in how we navigate the world, in particular digital ones. As content is supplied by armchair philosophers and not those trained in traditions, we are both accepting of information as being somewhat factual, yet wholly skeptical of it as fully-researched fact. The "truth" is subjective, its facets as myriad as those writing it. It is somehow in doubt, in thinking and questioning to make sure what we're fed logically makes sense, that we sift through for what the truth is. Maybe this is the positive legacy of the information age: that increased doubt tests the mind to seek paths to truths.