“Say what one will about Auster’s repetition of devices – the book within a book, the off-stage tormentor, the loss of memory – he has become frightfully good at manipulating a good story out of them.” John Freeman reviews Paul Auster’s Travels in the Scriptorium.
The Global Pleasure Dome
Since I blogged about the ugliness on the Big Brother TV show in Britain, I should link to Bryan Appleyard’s comments on it and related matters. He’s right, and I almost feel sucked into the shallowness he criticizes. “This is, remember, only an unusually mindless TV show about nothing.”
Are Online Books Really Books?
Here’s a report on books, libraries, and the Interweb from Bryan Appleyard (by way of Frank Wilson): The final chapter in the life of the book? He makes a good point about teacher, which Frank quotes, but let me point out something else. Mr. Appleyard writes:
Intellectual property is the big difference between the developing and developed worlds. But intellectual property rights and the internet are uneasy bedfellows. Google’s stated mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. The words “universally accessible” carry the implicit threat that nobody can actually own or earn revenue from any information since it will all be just out there.
This is one reason an Interweb library search, like Google Book, won’t take over the literary world. Publishers and writers, who can’t afford to work for free, won’t allow it. At the same time, I won’t be surprised if users won’t allow it either when they realize the Interweb can’t offer everything for free (it doesn’t even today) and what they want to read or know won’t be online.
From Treading Water to Walking on It
Lynne Scanlon has darkly roasted and robust conversations about modern bookselling at this post: “Wicked Witch of Publishing Takes Over Pretend Independent Bookstore. Will She Thrive—or Just Survive?” Post and comments, all very interesting, such as:
- Find ways to save money and make money simultaneously by renegotiating your building lease and subletting to authors or anyone who needs a bit o’ space.
- Answer the question “What would you have to believe about my store to be willing to come here and spend money here?”
- In the comments: what on earth does this say about the basic premise of even having an indie if you have to do all this to prop it up?
- If we had been voracious business people instead of voracious readers we might have had a chance — maybe.
- I believe that anybody should work for a minimum of 12 months alongside an experienced bookseller who has a proven sales record.
New meme for 2007
Which of these two statements do you believe to be either true or closer to the truth?
1.
a. The best things in life are free.
b. If money can’t buy happiness, then maybe I don’t need to be happy.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
2.
a. Perception is reality.
b. Reality is what you trips you when you’re walking through the dark.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
3.
a. When I fall in love, it will be forever.
b. Hello. I love you. Will you tell me your name?
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
4.
a. The glass is half full.
b. The glass is half empty.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
5.
a. Life is too short to drink the house wine.
b. The small garden of a free gardener was all my need and due.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
Bestsellers Dealing with Commerce
A new magazine, The American, has written up a list of “Best Business Novels,” meaning well-written books with “some connection to the world of commerce.”
Theodore Dreiser, The Financier, Honoré de Balzac, A Harlot High and Low, and William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham, among others. That last one is on my list of Books I Have Intended to Read for Years.
Worst post ever. Don’t even look at this.
This is appalling. I should just face my failure and give up on blogging now.
I’ve reached the bottom. The absolute sludge-in-the-Worcestershire-bottle of blogdom. I’m going to do a post about my health.
I’m sorry. So very sorry. I’ll try to do better in the future.
First of all, I probably won’t be posting on Monday. Nothing serious. I’ve agreed to participate in a long-term medical study, and it involves undergoing a certain test which I won’t specify, because you may be one of those who (like me) eat at the keyboard. But it involves being sedated, and I may not be up to posting.
If I do post, you’ll know it went better than I expected.
I also saw my doctor today, on an unrelated matter (getting a prescription changed for insurance purposes, if you have to know).
It’s always dangerous to see a doctor, needless to say. 90% of all people who die of lingering diseases have seen a doctor recently.
It’s especially dangerous to see a new doctor. I had to change horses because my previous Galen, a man who believed in doing as little as possible as long as the patient wasn’t actually in debilitating pain, has retired. The new fellow is more energetic, brimming with fresh ideas for improving my life.
He thinks I ought to be sleep tested, to see if I need one of those C-PAP machines.
I’ve lived in fear of those devices for most of my adult life. In my mind, C-PAPs are for old, fat men.
The fact that I am in fact an old, fat man is of no comfort to me. (Thank you so much for bringing it up.)
On the other hand, the doctor speaks seductive words about improved mood, lower cholesterol and a reduction in acid reflux.
I think I see a face mask and a plastic tube in my future. I’ll keep you posted.
No need to thank me.
Worst post ever. Don't even look at this.
This is appalling. I should just face my failure and give up on blogging now.
I’ve reached the bottom. The absolute sludge-in-the-Worcestershire-bottle of blogdom. I’m going to do a post about my health.
I’m sorry. So very sorry. I’ll try to do better in the future.
First of all, I probably won’t be posting on Monday. Nothing serious. I’ve agreed to participate in a long-term medical study, and it involves undergoing a certain test which I won’t specify, because you may be one of those who (like me) eat at the keyboard. But it involves being sedated, and I may not be up to posting.
If I do post, you’ll know it went better than I expected.
I also saw my doctor today, on an unrelated matter (getting a prescription changed for insurance purposes, if you have to know).
It’s always dangerous to see a doctor, needless to say. 90% of all people who die of lingering diseases have seen a doctor recently.
It’s especially dangerous to see a new doctor. I had to change horses because my previous Galen, a man who believed in doing as little as possible as long as the patient wasn’t actually in debilitating pain, has retired. The new fellow is more energetic, brimming with fresh ideas for improving my life.
He thinks I ought to be sleep tested, to see if I need one of those C-PAP machines.
I’ve lived in fear of those devices for most of my adult life. In my mind, C-PAPs are for old, fat men.
The fact that I am in fact an old, fat man is of no comfort to me. (Thank you so much for bringing it up.)
On the other hand, the doctor speaks seductive words about improved mood, lower cholesterol and a reduction in acid reflux.
I think I see a face mask and a plastic tube in my future. I’ll keep you posted.
No need to thank me.
British Racism and Stupidity
Ugly news out of Britain today. Author Kiran Desai, winner of the Man Booker Prize winner for The Inheritance of Loss, says she has been insulted for being Indian by Britons.
“I certainly have been walking the streets of London and elsewhere in England and people have said, ‘Go back to where you come from’ or, you know, ,You damned Paki,'” she said recently.
This comes to light because actress Shilpa Shetty was in a reality show where she took some harsh words from other participants.
I suppose some news commentators/reporters will be asking whether all Britons are bigots, but that’s a bit ridiculous. Do they ask whether everyone is a murderer after a rash a homicide reports?
From our stupid news desk comes a report on comedic duo Baigent and Leigh who have returned to court to appeal the ruling against last year’s plagiarism suit. They are the authors of that wonderful fantasy, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and wanted to sue Dan Brown for stealing their imaginative ideas. The suit was thrown out, hence the appeal.
“A Random House spokesman said: ‘We regret … that more time and money is being spent trying to establish a case that was so comprehensively defeated in the High Court,'” according to Reuters.
Starbucks in the Forbidden City
A TV news anchor for China Central Television is calling for the state to kick Starbucks out of the Forbidden City, China’s most popular tourist attraction. He says the coffee shop has “trampled over Chinese culture.” Of course, Starbucks is doing all it can to prove it respects China and the palace.