Comment Re:Payment for his copyrighted work? (Score 1) 553
People who choose business models that do not allow them to save for the future usually make that choice with full foreknowledge. No one forced him to be a writer. But I guess his 'contributions' mitigate that and mean that we should all empty our bank accounts and give him all our money (see? I can exaggerate, too!)
Writers write because they have to write. It chooses them, and it is rarely the other way around. And who is asking you to empty your bank account? Really, go find another strawman (see, I can be sarcastic too!).
I simply refuse to believe that such a prolific author (and here's the surprise twist: I have read a great amount of his fiction and consider it to be amazing. My list is Schrodinger's Cat, Historical Illuminatus, and Illuminatus!) made less than I make after considering COLA and inflation.
Believe what you want, if that helps rationalize your ideology.
My entire reason for replying to this particular sub-thread was the assertion that Robert's situation proves that copyright is a lousy way to make a living.
I wasn't making that argument, so your point is irrelevant. What I resent is the implication that writers and artists deserve hardship for being so dumb as to rely on copyright. Not everyone can or should live the life of a prudent little burgher. That doesn't mean they deserve our contempt.
As for his contribution to civilization, I'll reserve judgement on that until I see whether his works ever become more mainstream.
You haven't been paying attention. So, you think Douglas Rushkoff isn't mainstream? How about Boing Boing? How about Slashdot? Or do you not believe something isn't influential until it's on TV?
He also has a cult following--my suspicion is that less than one-tenth of one percent of people know anything about him whatsoever...
Cult following . . . accurate, perhaps, but cult is a loaded word. Even assuming you didn't mean that pejoritively, you should know that it often takes several generations for visionaries and original thinkers to disseminate their ideas through society. In that sense your decision to withhold judgment is prudent. Nevertheless, seeing as how your suspicions are based on some number you just pulled out of your ass, it counts for exactly jack and squat.
To swing to the other end of the spectrum in this discussion (and hopefully less vehemently and violently than you managed to), I don't believe that Robert Anton Wilson has cause any noticeable change in current society. I see no significant contribution (yet--perhaps one day he will be required reading in grade school--but with the way the world is going, I doubt it).
Perhaps I was too strident in my initial response. For that I apologize. However, I would argue that yes, in fact he *has* and *is* changing our society, one mind at a time. His influence on what used to be called the counterculture is enormous and growing, and it is from that fringe where new ideas emerge. Prometheus Rising and Cosmic Trigger are significant, seminal philosophical works, and in the thirty or so years they have been in print they have proven far more influential than any outward societal changes would suggest. To quote the man himself, "I think politics is always the last place, the very last place, where important changes register. They register in science, then in technology, then in economics and in social affairs. And then finally the politicians have to adjust to them."
But don't send him any money, it's no skin off my back. Peace unto you.
Writers write because they have to write. It chooses them, and it is rarely the other way around. And who is asking you to empty your bank account? Really, go find another strawman (see, I can be sarcastic too!).
I simply refuse to believe that such a prolific author (and here's the surprise twist: I have read a great amount of his fiction and consider it to be amazing. My list is Schrodinger's Cat, Historical Illuminatus, and Illuminatus!) made less than I make after considering COLA and inflation.
Believe what you want, if that helps rationalize your ideology.
My entire reason for replying to this particular sub-thread was the assertion that Robert's situation proves that copyright is a lousy way to make a living.
I wasn't making that argument, so your point is irrelevant. What I resent is the implication that writers and artists deserve hardship for being so dumb as to rely on copyright. Not everyone can or should live the life of a prudent little burgher. That doesn't mean they deserve our contempt.
As for his contribution to civilization, I'll reserve judgement on that until I see whether his works ever become more mainstream.
You haven't been paying attention. So, you think Douglas Rushkoff isn't mainstream? How about Boing Boing? How about Slashdot? Or do you not believe something isn't influential until it's on TV?
He also has a cult following--my suspicion is that less than one-tenth of one percent of people know anything about him whatsoever...
Cult following . . . accurate, perhaps, but cult is a loaded word. Even assuming you didn't mean that pejoritively, you should know that it often takes several generations for visionaries and original thinkers to disseminate their ideas through society. In that sense your decision to withhold judgment is prudent. Nevertheless, seeing as how your suspicions are based on some number you just pulled out of your ass, it counts for exactly jack and squat.
To swing to the other end of the spectrum in this discussion (and hopefully less vehemently and violently than you managed to), I don't believe that Robert Anton Wilson has cause any noticeable change in current society. I see no significant contribution (yet--perhaps one day he will be required reading in grade school--but with the way the world is going, I doubt it).
Perhaps I was too strident in my initial response. For that I apologize. However, I would argue that yes, in fact he *has* and *is* changing our society, one mind at a time. His influence on what used to be called the counterculture is enormous and growing, and it is from that fringe where new ideas emerge. Prometheus Rising and Cosmic Trigger are significant, seminal philosophical works, and in the thirty or so years they have been in print they have proven far more influential than any outward societal changes would suggest. To quote the man himself, "I think politics is always the last place, the very last place, where important changes register. They register in science, then in technology, then in economics and in social affairs. And then finally the politicians have to adjust to them."
But don't send him any money, it's no skin off my back. Peace unto you.
