Plus Ça Change

“Plus Ça Change” was a mostly daily column I wrote on Google+ starting in July 2011, a few weeks after the service launched. The name is a play on “plus” and refers to the French expression “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” or “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Here’s how far I got before running out of steam.

02.23 Kicking the Amazon Habit
02.22 Chickens, Roosting

01.23 Against Bucket Lists

12.19 End Games
12.12 TV and the Novel: A (Death)match Made in Heaven?
12.05 The Room for Improvement Matrix
12.01 The New Yorker Cover Caption Contest

11.28 7 Questions
11.17 What’s With All the Questions?
11.14 I’m Back(ish)

11.04 Ephemera Friday: Miss Nonentity
11.03 Question of the Day: How Long Does it Take?
11.02 Why They Cried Giveaway
10.31 Hunter Becomes the Hunted

10.28 Ephemera Friday: How to Worry Successfully
10.27 Aeroplane Revisited
10.26 Question(s) of the Day: Should Art be a Profession?
10.25 The Writer Inside Me
10.24 What Authors Do

10.21 Ephemera Friday: Lamest Trend Piece Ever?
10.20 Question of the Day: Is Social Media Writing or Speech?
10.19 Look at this F##king Friendster
10.18 Miss Lonelyhearts and the Resented Publisher
10.17 Happy Birthday, Nathanael West

10.14 Ephemera Friday: Honesty Pays!
10.13 An Unnecessary Announcement
10.12 Reader #Fail
10.11 Job Talk

10.07 Ephemera Friday: Confounding the Invaders
10.06 Plus Ça Chat #3: Brian Joseph Davis
10.05 Why They Cried at One Year
10.04 It’s Not PBS. It’s HBO.
10.03 2-4-6-8. Now Can We Regulate?

9.30 Plus Ça Chat #2: Geoff Klock
9.28 Unsung Hero: Ned Jordan
9.27 Pack In, Pack Out?
9.26 The Gawkerization of Facebook

9.23 Ephemera Friday: Anniversary Edition
9.22 Plus Ça Change Chat #1: Jeff Rutherford
9.22 Kustom Kontent
9.21 The Network Wars
9.20 Coupon: The TV Show
9.19 Vague Thoughts on the Emmys

9.16 Ephemera Friday: Folk Criticism
9.15 The Man in the Iron Mask
9.14 Are We All ULA Now?
9.13 The Nostalgia Workout: Memphis Edition
9.12 The Laundering of Michael Vick

9.09 Ephemera Friday: How to Read a Person Like a Book
9.08 The Ebook Essay Surplus
9.07 The Everythingization of Everything
9.06 Transubstantiation on the Ohio

9.02 Ephemera Friday: Back to School Edition
9.01 The Message and the Bottle
8.31 The Nostalgia Workout
8.30 Notes on My Book’s Title …
8.29 NYC 2012: Fran Lebowitz and the Apocalypse

8.26 Ephemera Friday: What is Walt Disney Looking At?
8.25 State of the Plus
8.24 Lazy Liberty
8.23 Don DeLillo’s Last Day
8.22 The Hoity-Toity Highway

8.19 Ephemera Friday: Man-Bait and other Hairdos
8.18 Christian & Me
8.17 My Two Minds
8.16 The Amazon Ethicist
8.15 Either/Or: A Disruptive Approach to Literary Readings

8.12 Ephemera Friday: Rejection Porn
8.11 Toddlers & Tiaras and Folk SEO
8.10 Leak, Memory
8.09 There is no Google+
8.08 The Web at Twenty

8.05 Ephemera Friday: Nielsen TV Research Activity Book
8.04 A Plus Ça Change Playlist: Why They Cried
8.03 The Golden Age of Online Writing
8.02 Matt Paxton, Protagonist
8.01 Introducing “Plus ça change,” a daily column exclusively on (but not necessarily about) Google+

7.29 The New Vastness
7.28 Reality Envy
7.27 The Original Phone Hacker
7.26 Signing Off
7.25 Too Soon, Again

PRAISE FOR
WHY THEY CRIED



"... demonstrates real insight into the way we live now."
 –The Rumpus

"Reminiscent of George Saunders and James Thurber, Why They Cried is a great collection of modern tales."
–Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief and co-founder of One Story

"Jim Hanas has a remarkable talent for imagining and crafting uncanny little worlds that make me vaguely nervous. And yet I never want to leave."
–Rob Walker, co-founder of Significant Objects

"A tender and smart assembly of fiction about people trying to communicate—with each other, the world—and all the ways they fail. Fail better, fail beautifully."
–Fiona Maazel, author of Last Last Chance

Jim Hanas is the author of the short story collection Why They Cried (Joyland eBooks/ECW Press) and director of audience development at HarperCollins Publishers.

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