Joshua Glenn
Encyclopedia
Joshua Glenn is a Boston-based writer, editor, and semiotics analyst. He is the cofounder of the websites HiLobrow, Significant Objects, and Semionaut. In the '90s he published the zine Hermenaut. He is married and has two sons.
Glenn was born and raised in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. He attended Boston Latin School
and Williams College
. He earned a Master's in Teaching from Boston University
in 1993.
Glenn wrote a feature in each issue on a single "hermenaut" or "outsider intellectual," including Theodor W. Adorno
, Philip K. Dick
, Bruce Lee
, Oscar Wilde
, Abbie Hoffman
, and Simone Weil
. From 2000–01, Glenn published and coedited the online journal Hermenaut.com and hosted its online salon, the Wicked Pavilion. During this period Glenn was a contributing editor to the website Feed
and to the British periodical the Idler.
. During that time, he served as a judge for the Independent Press Awards. He wrote for The Baffler and numerous other zines and independent magazines. He hosted online salons for Utne Reader, and contributed a chapter to the book Salons: The Joy of Conversation.
From 1996 through1998, Glenn was editorial director of the start-up Web business Tripod.com
. The company provided user-friendly tools for online publishing, aggregated communities of interest, and published "streetsmart strategies for work, life, and everything else."
When the TV newsmagazine "Nightline" did an episode on Tripod, Glenn pranked the show's producers by making up digital newspeak ("Lets get FTP connectivity hyped up to the hilt. Let's get the synergies ramping with the daily rocket.") When Tripod was acquired by Lycos in 2000, Glenn left to publish Hermenaut full-time.
From 2002 through 2007, Glenn worked at the Boston Globe's weekly Ideas section as an associate editor and columnist. From 2006 through 2008, Glenn wrote the Brainiac blog for the Boston Globe's Ideas section. On January 31, 2007, he scooped the Globe's coverage of the Mooninite attack on Boston. As the Boston Phoenix reported, "At about 3:30 pm Wednesday, a story written by two Globe reporters and posted at Boston.com still termed the Mooninites 'suspicious objects' – or, alternatively, 'electronic circuit boards with LED lights attached.' Over at the Globe's Brainiac blog , however, Joshua Glenn was calling the 'suspicious objects' Mooninites, identifying them as part of a guerrilla ad campaign, and crediting the local bloggers who figured things out first."
's "Must List" in October 2007. Glenn has referred to the book as "a long-delayed issue of Hermenaut." In 2008, Glenn wrote The Idler's Glossary.
In early 2009, Glenn and bookfuturist Matthew Battles launched the intellectual-cultural blog HiLobrow, named by TIME magazine one of the Best Blogs of 2010 . Glenn's ongoing research at HiLobrow includes a scheme to reperiodize America's generations, and analysis of science fiction published from 1904-33 — an era Glenn has named science fiction's "Radium Age." Glenn has also written for the Washington Post , the New York Times Book Review, Slate , Cabinet, and the science-fiction blog io9 .
In July 2009, Glenn and Rob Walker launched the Significant Objects project, whose goal was to test the hypothesis "Stories are such a powerful driver of emotional value that their effect on any given object’s subjective value can actually be measured objectively." Glenn and Walker bought objects at thrift stores and yard sales, recruited one hundred authors — including Jonathan Lethem
, Lydia Millet
, Nicholson Baker
, Colson Whitehead
, and William Gibson
— to write stories about those objects, then sold the objects on eBay using the stories as item descriptions. The Guardian
's Aditya Chakrabortty called the project "one of the most life-affirmingly cheeky studies I have seen for ages." The project resulted in $128.74 worth of objects being sold for $3,612.51. Two subsequent “volumes” of Significant Objects stories raised funds for the tutoring programs 826 National
and Girls Write Now. Fantagraphics will publish a collection of Significant Objects stories in 2011.
In 2010, Glenn and Malcolm Evans
, a British semiotician, launched Semionaut, an international website about semiotic cultural and brand analysis, with contributors from Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere.
In 2011, Glenn and Mark Kingwell published The Wage Slave's Glossary, which "looks at the language we use to make sense of the interconnected world of work and leisure."
Glenn was born and raised in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. He attended Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States....
and Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
. He earned a Master's in Teaching from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
in 1993.
Hermenaut
From 1992 through 2001 Glenn was publisher and coeditor of Hermenaut a philosophy and cultural criticism periodical, described as "a zine that gives voice to indie intellectual thought... a scholarly journal minus the university, a sounding board for thinking folk who operate outside the ivory tower"Glenn wrote a feature in each issue on a single "hermenaut" or "outsider intellectual," including Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
, Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
, and Simone Weil
Simone Weil
Simone Weil , was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.-Biography:Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. She grew up in comfortable circumstances, and her father was a doctor. Her only sibling was...
. From 2000–01, Glenn published and coedited the online journal Hermenaut.com and hosted its online salon, the Wicked Pavilion. During this period Glenn was a contributing editor to the website Feed
and to the British periodical the Idler.
Online Community Projects
From 1994 through 1996, Glenn was an editor at the Minneapolis-based magazine Utne ReaderUtne Reader
Utne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...
. During that time, he served as a judge for the Independent Press Awards. He wrote for The Baffler and numerous other zines and independent magazines. He hosted online salons for Utne Reader, and contributed a chapter to the book Salons: The Joy of Conversation.
From 1996 through1998, Glenn was editorial director of the start-up Web business Tripod.com
Tripod.com
Tripod.com is a web hosting service owned by Lycos. Originally aiming its services to college students and young adults, it was one of several sites trying to build online communities during the dot-com bubble...
. The company provided user-friendly tools for online publishing, aggregated communities of interest, and published "streetsmart strategies for work, life, and everything else."
When the TV newsmagazine "Nightline" did an episode on Tripod, Glenn pranked the show's producers by making up digital newspeak ("Lets get FTP connectivity hyped up to the hilt. Let's get the synergies ramping with the daily rocket.") When Tripod was acquired by Lycos in 2000, Glenn left to publish Hermenaut full-time.
From 2002 through 2007, Glenn worked at the Boston Globe's weekly Ideas section as an associate editor and columnist. From 2006 through 2008, Glenn wrote the Brainiac blog for the Boston Globe's Ideas section. On January 31, 2007, he scooped the Globe's coverage of the Mooninite attack on Boston. As the Boston Phoenix reported, "At about 3:30 pm Wednesday, a story written by two Globe reporters and posted at Boston.com still termed the Mooninites 'suspicious objects' – or, alternatively, 'electronic circuit boards with LED lights attached.' Over at the Globe's Brainiac blog , however, Joshua Glenn was calling the 'suspicious objects' Mooninites, identifying them as part of a guerrilla ad campaign, and crediting the local bloggers who figured things out first."
Semiotic Explorations
In 2007, Glenn coedited Taking Things Seriously, a collection of 75 photos of and essays about objects of "unexpected significance" which made Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
's "Must List" in October 2007. Glenn has referred to the book as "a long-delayed issue of Hermenaut." In 2008, Glenn wrote The Idler's Glossary.
In early 2009, Glenn and bookfuturist Matthew Battles launched the intellectual-cultural blog HiLobrow, named by TIME magazine one of the Best Blogs of 2010 . Glenn's ongoing research at HiLobrow includes a scheme to reperiodize America's generations, and analysis of science fiction published from 1904-33 — an era Glenn has named science fiction's "Radium Age." Glenn has also written for the Washington Post , the New York Times Book Review, Slate , Cabinet, and the science-fiction blog io9 .
In July 2009, Glenn and Rob Walker launched the Significant Objects project, whose goal was to test the hypothesis "Stories are such a powerful driver of emotional value that their effect on any given object’s subjective value can actually be measured objectively." Glenn and Walker bought objects at thrift stores and yard sales, recruited one hundred authors — including Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
, Lydia Millet
Lydia Millet
Lydia Millet is an American novelist. Her third novel, My Happy Life, won the 2003 PEN-USA Award for Fiction. Her fifth novel, Oh Pure and Radiant Heart was short-listed for the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke Award...
, Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, he often focuses on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness, and has written about such provocative topics as voyeurism and planned assassination...
, Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead is a New York-based novelist. He is best known as the author of the 2001 novel John Henry Days. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.-Early life:...
, and William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
— to write stories about those objects, then sold the objects on eBay using the stories as item descriptions. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
's Aditya Chakrabortty called the project "one of the most life-affirmingly cheeky studies I have seen for ages." The project resulted in $128.74 worth of objects being sold for $3,612.51. Two subsequent “volumes” of Significant Objects stories raised funds for the tutoring programs 826 National
826 National
826 National is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, ages 6–18, with expository and creative writing at eight locations across the USA...
and Girls Write Now. Fantagraphics will publish a collection of Significant Objects stories in 2011.
In 2010, Glenn and Malcolm Evans
Malcolm Evans
Malcolm Evans may refer to:* Professor Malcolm Evans , O.B.E., British jurist* Malcolm Evans , New Zealand cartoonist* Malcolm Evans , British computer programmer* Mal Evans, road manager for The Beatles...
, a British semiotician, launched Semionaut, an international website about semiotic cultural and brand analysis, with contributors from Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere.
In 2011, Glenn and Mark Kingwell published The Wage Slave's Glossary, which "looks at the language we use to make sense of the interconnected world of work and leisure."