Sherman Alexie still hates ebooks

[=X=]

If you believed anything you wrote you would have sent us paper copies of your those links you provided. Quit trying to bask in the wake of another.

=X=

Originally Posted by Alan Kaufman

A STATEMENT FROM ALAN KAUFMAN

From Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-k...mment_35789066

From Evergreen Review:

http://evergreenreview.com/120/elect...k-burning.html

From the Panel: Are Books Dead? Hi-tech and the Written Word:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7seAE...layer_embedded

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by Alan Kaufman

A STATEMENT FROM ALAN KAUFMAN

So now in addition to myself a second author has stood up to claim as I do that the hi-tech drive to replace the book is nothing less than a cultural crime.
Is it a coincidance that a Native American author, son of a genocided people, and a Jewish author and son of a Holocaust survivor--again, the child of a genocided people--should each intuit that what hi-tech is doing to the book and to our individual freedoms smacks of nothing less than totalitarianism?
What profoundly amazes and saddens me is that young people who should be the fount of independent thought and revolutionary thinking have been so duped by these gadget-generating greedy corporations that they have actually swallowed, hookm line and sinker, the marketing message that Hi-Tech is the way and the future! It is as if an entire generation has been sold through brilliant marketing that the best way to spend ones life is through obsessive purchase and use of appliances like Washingmachines and
Refrigerators and cars and...oh, but wait. That did happen, didn't it. Right after WWII, during the Eisenhauir era when the man in the gray flannel suit, the corporate man, began his rise on the back of technologies and through corporate sustems that were produced, in large part, to serve the aims of war, now applied to civilian life (including population control). At least them, youth revolted, through rock and roll, Beat Literature and later, the cultural explosion of the 60s. And refrigerators and washingmachines do not a totalitarian society make: Kindles do. Hi-Tech is something altogether different. Hi-Tech and all its systems and devices are addictive,
attention-destroying and soul-sapping. Also, we have a youth population that have been subjected to the most sinisterly effective marketing campaign in human history--one that made the selling of National Socialism or Communism to their respective populations seem like games by comparison. But the end games are the same:
control and domination of our thoughts and actions. How can young people not see that plainly and fail to rise up in outrage and destroy the machine that is systematically devouring them? Instead, Sherman and I are called names and villiified and mocked.
But though we seem like weirdos and cranks to so many of you, we are the only voices in the wilderness arguing for the rescue of your human essence.

From Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-k...mment_35789066

From Evergreen Review:

http://evergreenreview.com/120/elect...k-burning.html

From the Panel: Are Books Dead? Hi-tech and the Written Word:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7seAE...layer_embedded

Is there an echo in here?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Uhhm. Attempts to resort to personal insult are unacceptable, from either side. So if you don't want this thread to be closed and/or be banned, please remain respectful to your fellow MobileReaders.

Kaufman's been insulting people individually and in groups since he got here. ("MOBILE SLEAZE"... "But all you do is react, insult, thoughtlessly, with utterly asinine tripe.") I suspect nobody's particularly reported those insults because we recognize the difference between personally-focused attacks and a delusional mindset.

It's not the Mobileread regulars who turned this conversation uncivil, and it'd be nice to allow some slack for the people who attempted to reach through the wall of technophobia to persuade him that the world's not going to end if kids can download Shakespeare in addition to reading it on paper.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

.. the world's not going to end if kids can download Shakespeare in addition to reading it on paper.

But, but, but, Shakespeare is supposed to be EXPERIENCED, not read

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Kaufman's been insulting people individually and in groups since he got here. ("MOBILE SLEAZE"... "But all you do is react, insult, thoughtlessly, with utterly asinine tripe.") I suspect nobody's particularly reported those insults because we recognize the difference between personally-focused attacks and a delusional mindset.

It's not the Mobileread regulars who turned this conversation uncivil, and it'd be nice to allow some slack for the people who attempted to reach through the wall of technophobia to persuade him that the world's not going to end if kids can download Shakespeare in addition to reading it on paper.

I dunno... I *think* my first response to Alan's first post in this thread *may* have been insulting beyond what his comments implied about us. Just want to take full responsibility for any words I may have written intemperately.

Derek

[Over]

Originally Posted by RCR

I am sure Alexie's books will appear on the internet as ebooks - whether he wants them to or not. Long after he is gone and forgotten and his paper books are out of print and unavailable, electronic versions will be scattered around the world, never to become extinct.

I have my doubts. If for some reason there's a fallout, no electrical energy, ebooks will be completely useless. A paper book could even be read in a remote islands, far away from civilization. With an ereader, you would be able to read only until the battery discharges...

[Over]

I think Alexie touches an interesting subject: supporting local business. When I go to a bookstore and buy a book, I'm helping my local economy, local people, suporting jobs. With ebooks, that's gone aways. It's like if everyone suddenly decided to import books from a central place, instead of buying locally all over the world.

Someday we won't even have to look at another human face, live, for weeks at a time.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Over

I have my doubts. If for some reason there's a fallout, no electrical energy, ebooks will be completely useless. A paper book could even be read in a remote islands, far away from civilization. With an ereader, you would be able to read only until the battery discharges...

An engineer would be able to create a make-shift battery, but if you were shipwrecked and drifted to an island with your pbooks they would be just as useless. Really wet paper never recovers. The electronic reader may perhaps work again after drying out. Besides, such a fallout is exactly as likely as series of worldwide fires that consume all pbooks.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Over

I think Alexie touches an interesting subject: supporting local business. When I go to a bookstore and buy a book, I'm helping my local economy, local people, suporting jobs. With ebooks, that's gone aways. It's like if everyone suddenly decided to import books from a central place, instead of buying locally all over the world.

Someday we won't even have to look at another human face, live, for weeks at a time.

Obviously small businesses sometimes disappear. But the local bookstores disappear not because of ebooks, but because of chains and online stores. Same happened to grocery stores. But in France, for example, small grocery stores are still doing well. People decide with their pocketbooks what they want, who they support. I am sure some local bookstores will survive long term in special neighborhoods and market niches, but not many. The world is always changing, the friendly horse buggy repairman is gone, too. Human contact is still here and now even works accross continents.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Kaufman's been insulting people individually and in groups since he got here. ("MOBILE SLEAZE"... "But all you do is react, insult, thoughtlessly, with utterly asinine tripe.") I suspect nobody's particularly reported those insults because we recognize the difference between personally-focused attacks and a delusional mindset.

It's not the Mobileread regulars who turned this conversation uncivil, and it'd be nice to allow some slack for the people who attempted to reach through the wall of technophobia to persuade him that the world's not going to end if kids can download Shakespeare in addition to reading it on paper.

Well, calling him a dummy, among other things, is certainly over the line for any sort of civil discussion.

And citing his previous comments as justification of calling him names now? I was taught two wrongs do no make a right. Nor does someone doing something bad to you justify you doing something bad back. That's called revenge, and it really gets us nowhere.

So, I think the post mentioned by the moderator was definitely name-calling, and out of line, and I'm actually surprised it was left in the thread. And there's no question in my mind, no matter what Kaufman has said in the past, that it should be removed as it reflects badly on the MR community.

-Pie

[dreadcptflint]

Originally Posted by Over

I think Alexie touches an interesting subject: supporting local business. When I go to a bookstore and buy a book, I'm helping my local economy, local people, suporting jobs. With ebooks, that's gone aways. It's like if everyone suddenly decided to import books from a central place, instead of buying locally all over the world.

Someday we won't even have to look at another human face, live, for weeks at a time.

I am located in the Pacific Northwest. Home to Amazon, for me buying a Kindle and Ebooks from Amazon is local. I am supporting a local company.

There is also the sales tax that is paid on internet sales. Washington state streamlined the collection of internet sales tax back in 2007. At that time 21 other states we already taxing internet sales.
This is not a new legislation. I can purchase from other companies over the internet and my state is still collecting money from the transaction.

What about people who deliver or service the Ebook readers? By using a reader aren't you supporting a growing industry?

We will always need people around use. The more high tech that a person is the more people they need in their life. Alexie is using a buzz phrase of 'shop local' which doesn't hold much weight in the ebook arguement.

[kindlekitten]

I wonder if he is eating fresh produce this frigid December day

[PhishStyx]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Uhhm. Attempts to resort to personal insult are unacceptable, from either side. So if you don't want this thread to be closed and/or be banned, please remain respectful to your fellow MobileReaders.

Uhm, Kaufman's very first post here was an extended insult calling us all Nazis, and he's insulted every single person here with every subsequent post. How many times does he have to do that before HE gets banned? And is that number based on his fame or some other factor?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I wonder if he is eating fresh produce this frigid December day

I think he only eats raw meat.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I think he only eats raw meat.

just to make sure the jibe was clear... the "shop locally" adherence dictates that everything be produced locally. a strict localvore would be seeking alternate means during this time of year. I wonder if he is really, fully embracing it?