Author Sherman Alexie Wants to Punch You in the Face

[Slow_hand]

If he hits someone in the face for reading a Kindle they will have the means to get many Kindles and give them away after the lawsuit.

[sirbruce]

Last night he started posting on the Amazon forums:
http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/for...ype=tagsDetail

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

You haven't read any of his work, have you?

I have. He's brilliant.

I absolutely agree.

I had him speak at my English Literature class at Miami University. The man is brilliant, involved, and complicated - and a hell of a writer.


Don

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Last night he started posting on the Amazon forums:
http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/for...ype=tagsDetail

Thanks for the link.

I totally disagree with his logic about the Kindle [read "Ebook Reader"], but when it comes to his creative writing, he's an artist (in my opinion) of high standard who examines political and moral issues through character and drama.

Of course, the above is simply my opinion.


Don

[Andybaby]

Open source textbooks and computers are the future of the classroom, in all countries, not yet though, years away, but computers will get more and more into our lives.

I disagree with many of his points. I would be disgusted if I walk on a plane and I see 50 people reading harry potter.

I would be embarrassed reading my scifi books in some of the places I read (EVERYWHERE) so I think its silly his stance.

but then again I already found my Love, and she wasn't reading at the time... and if I knew the kinda stuff she read before I fell in love with her... it might have been a bit harder (Softcore romance, Yaoi Mangas!, YA Fiction)

the fact that he posted to respond, I like that, even though I disagree with him.

[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.

[thibaulthalpern]

Originally Posted by Andybaby

Open source textbooks and computers are the future of the classroom, in all countries, not yet though, years away, but computers will get more and more into our lives.

I really doubt that. Textbooks aren't the primary source of books for classrooms. Other primary texts are, in fact. I've taught at the university level for years and computers are not as ubiquitous as pen and paper.

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

I really doubt that. Textbooks aren't the primary source of books for classrooms. Other primary texts are, in fact. I've taught at the university level for years and computers are not as ubiquitous as pen and paper.

also standardized curiculum and specialized personalized computer software.

I grew up in NYC and I've had over 40 teachers over the years, the number of good ones I can count on one hand. they just don't teach right.

some standardization in teaching would be a good thing.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by morpheus

Standup comedians are supposed to be offensive and controversial.

I thought comedians were supposed to be funny and entertaining. Or are you saying that Rush Limbaugh is a comedian?

[Alphapheemail]

Irony: the day a bookshelf falls on him

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

You haven't read any of his work, have you?

I have. He's brilliant.

And so is a light bulb brilliant. The difference is that one can be switched off and thus rendered inoffensive and the other can't.

[Alphapheemail]

[QUOTE]Sherman Alexie
Have you ever talked to a stranger simply because you noticed the cover of the book they were reading? Have you ever fallen in love with somebody because of the book they were reading? Have you ever felt the awe of walking onto an airplane and seeing that forty or fifty people are reading the same Harry Potter novel? The Kindle, and its lovely but electronically anonymous exterior, eliminates that moment. Unless Amazon puts a view screen on the outside that digitizes cover art...and then maybe I'd fall in love with a machine....[QUOTE]

The short answer is... NO! People are naturally curious and if you see a book you've read and tell the person this, his/her thoughts will be "well thanks @ss! I'm trying to do the same!"
Alexie should join MR, we have covered this topic and the majority of the members do not like to be disturbed while reading (except if its for complimenting their readers...)
He's too preoccupied in how he can get free publicity on subways.

Matthew B. Brunson says:
'Twas the pointless mis-shapen apology
Of an author who scorned new technology
To cause his sales on the Kindle
To most certainly dwindle
Through lessons of foot-in-mouth-ology!

[TallMomof2]

When I read my Kindle in public I am almost always asked if it's a Kindle and what I am reading. At least with the Kindle I don't have to feel self-conscious if I want to read a bodice ripper or some space opera. Somewhere I have a paperbook cover that I used to put on my paperbacks if I didn't want everyone around me to know what I was reading.

[BenG]

From the reaction I would have thought that (like Harlan Ellison) he actually punched someone.

[gerraldo]

[QUOTE=thibaulthalpern;478072]

Originally Posted by weatherman

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.

And so is everybody else here...