Author Sherman Alexie Wants to Punch You in the Face

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Its all about where your priorities are. Cellular phones, IPODS, game consoles, video games, the latest shoes, clothes, etc.....if thats what you want, fine.

Please, don't kid yourself.....many of those who cry "foul, its too expensive!" have these things. Yeah, I see that every day at school.

But don't whine because ebook readers are "elitist".

Especially on an airplane. You want to talk elite tech that's unavailable to the poor and underprivileged? Spending several hundred dollars and putting up with invasive searches* in order to avoid a few hours of driving time** is elitist.

*Physical and other. Background checks, take off your shoes, and if the security guard doesn't like your looks, have a cavity search as well.

** LA to New York is not a few hours of drive time. LA to Oakland, or SF to Vegas, is. Why isn't he railing against those elitists and their obsessed-with-speed lifestyles?


I'm not up to contacting him, or I'd point out that my house has bookshelves crammed with books, a few boxes of books, and twelve more boxes in a storage locker... having an ebook reader means less clutter and waste. (Also, I sometimes want to read something that I don't want the public to know about. "Make friends by reading Harry Potter in public!" is completely countered by "freak out people by reading Superman/Batman slash zines.")

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

More ironic for us digital reader-philes would be the day our hard drive crashes, which is more likely to happen than a bookshelf falling ;-)

But the best thing about having digital copies as opposed to paper books, you have have multiple backups on different HDs and even upload them online, or store them as attachments in GMail (20MBchunks)

If you want to do the same with paper books, it'll cost a fortune.

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Did you ever play that 'whisper' game? One person says something, who whispers it to the next one, and on down the line. By the time it gets to the end, it has no recognizable relationship to the original statement.
I'm just sayin'..........

One wonders what role this played in ancient myths and religions...

But the point is, Sherman's attitudes are so self-serving. He worries about the negatives of ebooks while simultaneously ignoring the negatives of his own physical books. And he ignores the positives as well, as many have pointed out.

One of my former mentors helped bring low-cost computers and modem connections into the Native American communities in Colorado that promoted the preservation of their artwork and culture in computer graphics. His work was helpful, not harmful, to the very people Sherman claims to care about.

All technology is a double-edged sword; that's the price of the eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge.

[Argel]

Hmmm...

A man I don't know, have never heard of and will never meet, doesn't like the way I spend my money.

I may not sleep tonight.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by weatherman

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 couldn't believe this when I read it. I was offended on several different levels, but most of all I was just really aghast at the level of ignorance and stupidity on the part of this author, especially as an author of young adult fiction. Worse yet, when given a chance to correct himself on his own blog, the only thing he apologizes for is the idea of hitting a woman;

"I should have edited myself. I should have said, "I saw a man on the airplane reading a Kindle and I wanted to hit him." In this way, my joke becomes about my true object of fear, distrust, and anger---the Kindle---and not about the gender of the person reading the Kindle."

I personally will be dropping a line to his current publisher, and I hope other Kindlers and those who read books on other electronic devices will too;

Hanging Loose Press
231 Wycoff St.
Brooklyn NY 11217
212-206-8465
info@hangingloosepress.com

Huh .... well, never heard of him, don't care about him, am still going to pull out my Kindle on flights from Austin to San Diego (since it's a 3 hour flight and a 21 hour drive, and the cost of gas really outweighs the cost of the flight), and whenever I have a few minutes to read. As mentioned, there are so many people who want to punch me in the face, for reasons that have nothing to do with reading on a Kindle, someone just might want to let him know that if he does decide to punch me in the face, I will kick his balls in until they stick out the other side of his back.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

To Sherm: You wanna hit me for reading on my PDA? Come and get it, brudda. Then you can find out how elitist they are in the emergency room...

[JasonB]

I, too, disagree with the sentiment that having an eBook reader is being elitist. There are just so many other things that are equally "expendable", "expensive", and "unnecessary" but which would never be considered to put people into that category: MP3 players, computers, cell phones, television sets, cars, BBQs, espresso machines, DVD players, etc. Nobody needs to have any of those things in order to live. And some are a lot more expensive. But to own one would certainly not be to put yourself into an elitist grouping...

[pilotbob]

I agree with DG here. People decide how they want to spend their money. Personally I don't see a reason to spend $50,000 on a BMW when my Camry gets me where I want to be perfectly well for less than half the price. Do I think BMW drivers are elitest? No.. (Unless they park in two spots).

I do know that I can probably read any book I want if I use the library more often. But, I prefer to have a Kindle and buy ebooks. That is my choice.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. But, you've to to admit, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Evidenced by this thread.

BOb

[Barcey]

I had the same experience on an airplane. I was sitting there trying to check my stocks in my newspaper. The lady beside me started making annoyed sounds every time I changed the page like I was invading her space and she refused to move over in her seat to allow me to comfortably read my paper. I asked for another first class seat but I was told that none were available. I finally set down my newspaper to giver her a dirty look and the ignorant fool was reading one of those elitist electronic reading devices. I tell you it totally spoiled the taste of my champagne.

[vivlio]

He has a point in it.And I want to drop a line to Amazon, F... U AMAZON.

[desertgrandma]

Did anyone catch it??

Desertgrandma, Ricky Maveety and Steve Jordan all said basically the same thing..........(my post is towards the beginning)

I think the world will end soon......

[tomsem]

Sherman Alexie responds (Amazon Kindle discussion):

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/for...ype=tagsDetail

If any of you have read his books or seen the movie, "Smoke Signals" (he wrote the screenplay), you'll know that he has a playfully provocative style. He's much less interested in being rigorously 'correct' than in getting people to look at their stuff, whatever it might be. In the tradition of clowns, or perhaps more appropriately here, of mythic Coyote of Native American lore. In this case, getting us to Question Technology. We can question how artfully he has succeeded here, and though I don't find much to agree with him about concerning the evils of digital publishing, and he's not one of my favorite writers, I think it is great what he's doing, and yes - he's worth a read.

BTW his Kindle titles are a few of his poetry books, he claims he's sold about 7 copies (I sense he is exaggerating for comic effect, but Kindle formats are not very poetry-friendly - reflowable text tends to mess it up - and poetry does not often attain best seller status these days..). I suggest we all visit his other Amazon titles and click the 'I want to read this on the Kindle' button. In the spirit of playfulness of course.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Sherman Alexie responds (Amazon Kindle discussion):


If any of you have read his books or seen the movie, "Smoke Signals" (he wrote the screenplay), you'll know that he has a playfully provocative style. He's much less interested in being rigorously 'correct' than in getting people to look at their stuff, whatever it might be. In the tradition of clowns, or perhaps more appropriately here, of mythic Coyote of Native American lore. In this case, getting us to Question Technology. We can question how artfully he has succeeded here, and though I don't find much to agree with him about concerning the evils of digital publishing, and he's not one of my favorite writers, I think it is great what he's doing, and yes - he's worth a read.

"Playfully Provacative" We must have different dictionarys.

I call what he said obnoxious crap.

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I agree with DG here. People decide how they want to spend their money. Personally I don't see a reason to spend $50,000 on a BMW when my Camry gets me where I want to be perfectly well for less than half the price. Do I think BMW drivers are elitest? No.. (Unless they park in two spots).

I do know that I can probably read any book I want if I use the library more often. But, I prefer to have a Kindle and buy ebooks. That is my choice.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. But, you've to to admit, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Evidenced by this thread.

BOb

Thank ghod i take up three, then...

I read his post over on Amazon. I would recommend everyone to do the same. He fears that the switch from paper books to electronic readers will leave behind those, like himself, who are growing up in poverty and unable to afford the readers. He fears Jeff Bezos' desire to "change the way people read." I feel that his concerns are much better presented in that post. He also thanks all of us for giving him something to laugh at in the reactio to his thoughts.

[thibaulthalpern]

Sometimes this can be applied to many different views on the internet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWxUM...eature=related

e.g., (not my views, necessarily, just some views I've heard as I surf the web)

* Digital readers are the way forward!
* To hell with paper, such environmentally, unfriendly polluting primitive technologies!
* I'm gonna punch your face for that digital reader
* Those teachers/professors who don't allow citing internet sources are elitist!
* To hell with the library! We don't need it. Everything is already on the internet. I say cut their funding and leave them closed.
* etc., etc., etc.




And for another rendition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6QEUyjG1Z0