annoyed1. I am a man.
2. I am advocating that authors, without support from publishers, agents, or the reading public, continue to slam ourselves against the brick wall of martyrdom in order to keep a dying medium alive.
3. I am swathed in moralistic superiority, rather than genuinely concerned.
4. I hate all technology, and it's a miracle I was willing to write my post on a devil machine, rather than committing it to beautiful calligraphy and pasting my broadsheets all over town.
5. Poor people don't want to read anyway, so why am I bothering?
6. Saying that some poor people won't be able to afford an ebook reader, or wouldn't waste the money on one if they could, is just stupid, and I'm totally wrong.
7. Also, no one in America goes to bed hungry. American poverty is actually pretty nice.
8. Did I mention that I was a man?
9. My view of poverty is romanticized. (This was actually the one that really made me go "WHAT THE FUCK?!" out loud. Once the word "cockroaches" enters a discussion, the romance is dead.)
10. I'm an idiot.
Well, yes, point #10: I am an idiot, and should not have looked at those links. Thank you. As to the above, wow. The range of interpretation possible on the internet is incredible. Also, before you quote any of those things out of context (please don't), they're not true. And no, I'm not saying "wah, some people didn't agree with me." Lots of people didn't agree with me, and some of their disagreements were fascinating and thought-provoking. I'm saying "I do not have a penis, children go to bed hungry, and if you think my view of poverty is romantic, I do not think we should continue this conversation."
I hereby declare comment amnesty on this post. I am too tired to play nicely with the other children, and think that I should just stay in my room.
Cranky blonde is cranky. And armed.
September 27 2011, 09:55:14 UTC 5 years ago
Though there are many things we don't do well in Britain, I think that we do handle poverty better. You can still fall through the net, but for the most part state benefits provide for housing and reasonable food. If you fall ill, even if you are poor, healthcare is available. If we lived in the USA I would be nervous about falling off the economic tightrope.
Never mind, I found you another reader at Oxonmoot www.oxonmoot.org; an English teacher to whom I lent my e-reader for a few minutes. Now she is going to buy a copy of Feed, and look for the Toby Daye novels. You can change the world, one reader at a time <grin>