02 Nov '11 14:27>
Nook and Nook Color rule the world!!!!!
Originally posted by rwingettI think my need to retain is connected to my mother's moving us to a different place every year.: house, apartment, house, house, apartment, house, duplex, etc. You get the picture. It's a wonder I've any books left, or anything, from my youth.
I wondered how you would react to that 😉
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Let's see your list.
Originally posted by rwingettIt depends, though. It takes Big Capital to manufacture a printed tome on a large scale, whereas e-readers open up the possibility for more viable self-publishing that circumvents the self-appointed ministers of culture who occupy the office buildings of the big publishers. Thus, e-readers could be the kind of thing that will bring an anarcho-socialist form of self-governance that much closer to fruition. But yes, consciousness raising is a necessary prerequisite, otherwise people will just use gadgets as toys and continue to take their marching orders from the advertisers and carnival barkers of mindless consumerism.
E-readers should be shunned, not because they will enable fascism per se, but because they represent one more capitulation before the rampant technological determinism that is undermining all human culture and subjugating humanity to the processes and demands of technology itself.
Every increase in technology represents a proportional decrease in person ...[text shortened]... of our tools, and e-readers are just one more link in that chain of our technological slavery.
Originally posted by SoothfastNo it doesn't. AK Press is an anarchist book publisher and distributor that does a bang up job. I'm sure they don't have big capital.
It depends, though. It takes Big Capital to manufacture a printed tome on a large scale, whereas e-readers open up the possibility for more viable self-publishing that circumvents the self-appointed ministers of culture who occupy the office buildings of the big publishers. Thus, e-readers could be the kind of thing that will bring an anarcho-socialist f ...[text shortened]... to take their marching orders from the advertisers and carnival barkers of mindless consumerism.
Originally posted by rwingettBut AK Press (I have several books from them) doesn't have the resources to advertise on a wide scale and get everybody reading Murray Bookchin. Imagine if they did, though.
No it doesn't. AK Press is an anarchist book publisher and distributor that does a bang up job. I'm sure they don't have big capital.
But even so, this isn't a left/right or capitalist/anarchist thing. That's what everyone wants to reduce it to, but that doesn't really capture the nature of it. It's about whether a society will dictate the course of its ...[text shortened]... s not a capitalist/anarchist thing, it's a technological determinist/neo-luddite thing.
Originally posted by SoothfastThey no longer need that thanks to the net! Niche markets throughout the planet are now accessible with recommendations like yours as part of the network bringing them into contact.
But AK Press (I have several books from them) doesn't have the resources to advertise on a wide scale and get everybody reading Murray Bookchin. Imagine if they did, though.
Originally posted by rwingetthttp://www.akpress.org/
No it doesn't. AK Press is an anarchist book publisher and distributor that does a bang up job. I'm sure they don't have big capital.
So, once again, it's not a capitalist/anarchist thing, it's a technological determinist/neo-luddite thing.
Originally posted by finneganHow can you mention Orwell and not bring up his earth shattering masterpiece Homage to Catalonia? That is his first hand account of the Spanish Civil War and his participation in it.
http://www.akpress.org/
Thought I'd follow up your reference! This quote from a book on their site does rather sum up the conundrum for me.
We say to all workers, to all revolutionaries, to all anarchists: At the front or in the rearguard, wherever you may be, fight against the enemies of your liberty and demolish fascism. But also make sure that ot sure I could live with ten books).
Whatever else I want to live in a world with books.
Originally posted by divegeesterHey! I'm a pinko and I still love real books and wouldn't use an e-reader if it were free.
One day in an undetermined distant future there will be no books, as they will have been banned due to some new-age pinko tree-hugging warlord declaring them environmentally unsound. Everyone will be ingesting the New World fascist pulp which has been sanitised, edited and 'authorised' for public use - the daily download of propaganda straight to your K ...[text shortened]... mankind will be under way.
e-readers are the first step in our abdication of free thought.
Originally posted by finneganWhat's to prevent users from doing as I do, backing up their ereaders at home to hard, unconnected media?
They no longer need that thanks to the net! Niche markets throughout the planet are now accessible with recommendations like yours as part of the network bringing them into contact.
One version of Big Brother not mentioned yet is the ability to edit books - and even delete them - after they have been sold and distributed. I understand that books subjec ...[text shortened]... ght be done if books were held primarily on such devices and their content stored in the Cloud.
Originally posted by rwingettOh I want all his books and I have a collection of his essays too - does that use up my allowance entirely? I am suddenly unable to bring Homage clearly to mind - decades since reading it alas - but I know Orwell was absolutely disillusioned with the ideological claptrap which prevented the Republic putting up an effective resistence to Franco and he was horrified by the behaviour of the communists.
How can you mention Orwell and not bring up his earth shattering masterpiece Homage to Catalonia? That is his first hand account of the Spanish Civil War and his participation in it.
The Republican defeat during the civil war can be attributed to the Fascists getting tons of support from Germany and Italy and the Republicans getting only some dub ...[text shortened]... aid from the Soviet Union, aid which ultimately did more to undermine their cause than help it.