Smells Like Victory

I love the smell of paperbacks in the morning.

Ok, that's not true, and is kind of a tired, worn-out opening for a blog entry.  However, I do like the smell of paperbacks in the evening, which is when I tend to do my reading.  Other than the inevitable reading that occurs on the throne, of course.  A new book has such a tangible scent, and I find myself inhaling deeply as I settle down to read, the whiff of rough paper nestling in my nostrils like a cat in my lap, making itself a part of the experience as much as the words.  I have paperback editions of the His Dark Materials trilogy, and still today touching and smelling them, dust that they've gathered and all, reminds me of the journey home from the bookstore when I was a lad, reading them fervently in the back of the car.

Maybe it's because I'm cheap and tend to wait on paperbacks of any book (my Discworld addiction excepting), but I have to say that a hardbound edition just does not feel, or smell, the same. Costs ludicrously more, as well, naturally, and it is a bit unwieldy trying to keep it propped up when I start to nod off around midnight.  And as much as I may adore using a computer for every little thing, somehow ebooks just have not captured my imagination to the same extent.

Anyway, all of this dancing around the issue is merely a prelude, a sham to make it appear that I'm not simply shilling my latest entry in a short story anthology.  Also available on Amazon.co.uk, for Kindle and from CreateSpace, Wherever It Pleases: Storm is a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror tales with a spiritual theme running throughout.  I am not a particularly spiritual person myself, as some might have noticed, but it is an area I have interest in and my my own entry was largely penned during a period of my life when my faith was a much greater part of my identity.  Regardless, spiritual and religious themes are a rich seam to be mined when it comes to fiction.  The supernatural has long intrigued cultures across the globe, and even the most stringent of skeptics seem to find themselves drawn to it at least for symbolic value.  Even the premier rationalist Gregory House MD could not avoid it; perhaps the greatest arc of the show involved his hallucinations of a deceased colleague.  While it was clear House was aware that hallucinations was what these visions were, this did not prevent the creepy factor being turned up to eleven.  Amber's comments were also cutting and insightful, inferring if not outright stating an aware intelligence behind them, observant enough of reality to tell House what she really thought of him.  Of course, House himself was aware and intelligent enough to have likely come up with this on his own and imparted the knowledge to himself via the medium of these hallucinations, but where's the fun in that? 

Hopefully you'll find some fun in the Storm anthology.  Anyway here it is, your moment of zen:

War (What Is It Good For?)

 You can't even call this shit a war.  Wars end.
-- Det. Ellis Carver, The Wire

 
The Internet is at war.

SOPA and PIPA were quietly pushed through Congress with, shockingly, nary a peep from the media conglomerates who stood to benefit from the unreasonable power it would have granted them and the US government to cripple the international network of linked computers and creative people.  The fact these media empires also own the news networks is, of course, pure coincidence.  Eventually the Internet pushed back with a day of blacked out websites and calls for protest and pressure aimed at the US House and Senate, and under the enormous pressure of millions of voices, support for the bills crumbled and they were eventually shelved.

For the time being.  However, no one was given the time to taste victory; immediately the US government shut down the giant file-sharing site MegaUpload and began arresting its operators in Europe and New Zealand.  Most of them were not US Citizens, but they were arrested for violation of US law on the orders of US authorities acting in the interest of US copyright holders.

And they probably weren't doing anything wrong.  MegaUpload was used to share copyrighted material, naturally.  So is the US Postal Service.  So are public libraries.  And I don't just mean people can read books there - there's a common practice among library patrons to check out a dozen CDs and return them the next day.  You think they're just really good at memorising songs?  MegaUpload was a service for sharing and storing large files that, presumably, the uploader had created or had permission to reproduce.  It was used for this purpose, and it was used for other purposes, though MegaUpload were generally quick to respond to DMCA notices and continually played whack-a-mole with copyrighted content.  They followed the law.  It wasn't enough.  And that they were shut down the very day after the Internet blackout is an unlikely coincidence - this is the response from the powers that be, and it's a middle finger to freedom and due process.  They simply did what SOPA was supposed to allow them to do, and they didn't need the legislation in place to do so.

In the fallout from this, multiple websites set up for similar purposes to MegaUpload are now shutting down or getting rid of their file sharing features.  It doesn't matter if you were using it for legitimate purposes, it doesn't matter if you were relying on it or paying the company for a certain level of service.  You, the customer, are now screwed, because your rights are less important than the rights bought by large content owners.  Now a lot of people are in the same boat, and will obviously not be spending money on these companies in the future - which will lead to them shedding jobs and eventually going under.  Hollywood won't make any more money than they are making already, and even if they did they would just absorb that into their shareholders.  These anti-piracy measures are doing nothing positive.  They won't preserve jobs, they will destroy them.  They won't spread money more fairly to the creators of content, they will just widen the disparity.  They won't stop hardcore pirates who know what they are doing, and will probably just foster more retaliatory attacks.  It is a purely destructive war that is only causing collateral damage.

Stop SOPA (And Other Stories)

Today, many websites have gone dark, either figuratively or literally, to protest at plans in the United States congress to enact legislation that would disrupt the functioning of the Internet, undermine its security and shatter any concept of freedom of speech online.  Hyperbole?  Only if you truly believe that the government, large copyright holders and their allies would never, ever abuse their power to silence dissent, crush competition or  which would certainly be a first.

I would join these sites in going dark but it's not as if I have a huge amount of traffic, so who would care?  Rather, I'd like to highlight the issue and point visitors to where they can do something about it.  I'm not a US citizen myself, but this issue will affect the entire planet, something that congress critters never, ever seem to realise when they make decisions like these.  So American or not, Internet-addict or not, please take a look at this site from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and do what you think is right.

Also I'm back from my break over the festive period and have been a busy beaver.  Well not a beaver, I wouldn't want Mel Gibson's hand up my backside.  The point is, I have been writing more and submitting more.  It's just frustrating the writing world seems to grind on so slowly; it can take two or three months to hear back about a short story, usually longer for a novel.  Not that I can blame the swamped editors who have to read through piles of manuscripts from prospective writers.  Reading takes time, even if you're good at it.  Things are bound to move slowly in that environment, and stories are best understood when you take your time and drink them in, tasting what the writer has created, rather than rushing to get them off your plate as quickly as possible.

It sometimes bothers me that I tend to read fiction rather slowly - I know people who get through books in a day or two, sometimes within the span of a few hours.  That just isn't me, but on the other hand I'm glad it's not.  Sure, it took two weeks' worth of bathroom breaks and sitting up in bed to get through the latest Discworld novel, but that meant I got to enjoy being on the Disc for a fortnight, rather than guzzling the story whole.  I remember during my Harry Potter fandom days reading on forums of people buying the newest book at midnight and trying to have it completed before dawn.  I just do not understand that mentality, and though I must admit to a little jealousy at that capability, I would feel glad when still wandering the halls of Hogwarts a week later.  I was still enjoying my meal while they were hungering for the next one.