[thibaulthalpern]

[QUOTE=weatherman;477395]From an article in the NY Times today;

"At a panel of authors speaking mainly to independent booksellers, Sherman Alexie, the National Book Award-winning author of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” said he refused to allow his novels to be made available in digital form. He called the expensive reading devices “elitist” and declared that when he saw a woman sitting on the plane with a Kindle on his flight to New York, “I wanted to hit her.”"

I'm not quite disgusted. Honestly, it is elitist to have such an expensive reading device. Let's not deny it that it does cost a lot of money which many people cannot afford. For many, buying a used printed book is still the best option for them. These reading devices require a lot more supporting structure within one's household to get going, with perhaps the Kindle being the exception. For all the other reading devices, you need a computer, internet to download books, and money to buy the digital books and so on and so forth.

Yeah, so let's not kid ourselves. These reading devices are more complicated and less affordable than regular printed books.

And why should those annoyed by his views write to the publisher? Alexie is free to express his opinions and further more, what is the point of stating your consumer power to the publisher? The two, publisher and author's views, are not linked. Keep the two separate.

I also wonder if everyone feels that being elitist is a bad thing. Is that why people are angry in part because he called those with reading devices elitist? Does that guilt you? Let's not forget too that to be middle-class there's got to be a lower class, or to be upper class there's got to be lower and middle class.