>From Wash (DC) Post
"Caveat Lector" explained ...
{{<Begin>}}
The Wired Word
By Jonathan Yardley
Monday, April 10, 2000; Page C02
With regard to the online publication of books, a subject addressed rather
gingerly in this space several weeks ago, there is more to be said; indeed,
there is so much more to be said that this bids fair to be the new millennium's
equivalent of the previous one's debate over public funding of the arts, a
question I managed to beat into the deadest of dead horses. For the moment,
though, there is this to be said about online publishing: It seems certain to
give whole new universes--cyber-universes, if you will--of meaning to the
ancient practice of vanity publication.
That thought is provoked by an e-mail from a reader somewhere out there in the
cyber-void. Her friendly and enthusiastic message reads as follows:
"I know electronic authors who report that, if it were not for the Internet,
they would not be able to publish their works. This is due to the fact that
first-time authors have a difficult time finding traditional publishers who
will accept and print their work. These authors have found a way to bypass
their competition--already established/published authors. We are indeed living
in a wondrous time . . . maybe I'll write my own memoirs!"
What my correspondent is saying--and she is absolutely right--is that in the
new world of the Internet, anyone can write and publish a book. People who
fancy themselves to be writers but are turned away by established trade or
university presses can now skip the vanity industry and go directly to press.
No longer will it be necessary for those desperate to get their words into
print to undergo the expensive--and in some instances humiliating--process of
paying a vanity press to publish those words, usually in ugly volumes that
bookstores decline to stock and that almost never come to the attention of
potential readers.
Now a would-be author needs only the minimal funds necessary to set up a Web
site, the time to type or scan the manuscript into that site, and the energy to
bring it to the attention of readers. What that person will then have is not a
book in the traditional sense--printed in ink on paper, bound in cloth and
glued or sewn at the spine--but if one believes, as many do, that a book is a
collection of words rather than a physical object, then that person will most
certainly have written, and published, a book.
The vanity publishers must be scared to death. Why should anyone pay them for
the shoddy products they print and fail to distribute when printing and
distribution are now available, to all intents and purposes, for free? If the
Internet puts them out of business, God bless the Internet. But the established
publishers are shaking in their boots, too, as numerous reports from the
industry make plain. Not merely do trade and university publishers face the
possibility of untold lost revenues from books that authors may now decide to
self-publish on the Internet, but they may lose as well their traditional role
as gatekeepers of literature.
Radical egalitarians doubtless find that exhilarating: equal-opportunity book
publishing, open to all, no questions asked. The old unpublished-author's
complaint--Why don't good books get published anymore?--is passe. Every book
will get published now, so long as its author has the will and the way.
Liberation is at hand for all those much-rejected manuscripts locked away in
attics and basements or lurking in the tight confines of floppy disks.
But if you think this is a good thing, think again. In publishing as in just
about everything else, untrammeled democracy is a mixed blessing. In making
publication available to all, the Internet bypasses the editorial process that
attempts to separate the wheat from the dross, the publishable from the
unpublishable. It operates on the assumption that all written words are equally
worthy, or, if you prefer, equally worthless. It has no standards, because none
are required. No risks are taken, no gambles are made, by contrast with real-
world publishing in which every new book--like every new product of any kind--
entails risk and in which, therefore, informed judgments must be made about
what (a) deserves to be published and (b) stands a chance of turning a profit.
The egalitarianism of the Internet is appealing, but it rests on an untenable
assumption: not merely that all of us are created equal, but that all of us are
equally meritorious and interesting. Thus we have news Web sites in which the
opinions of readers are solicited ("What's Your View?") and displayed in a
format that gives equal weight to the informed and the ignorant; at last count
Washingtonpost.com had registered more than (!) 2,600 "opinions" about gay
rights in Vermont. Thus, too, we have Amazon.com, which invites customers to be
book reviewers, a phenomenon that was given its due last year by Tracy Lee
Simmons in the Weekly Standard:
"Amazon.com has . . . provided America with the true democratic forum to talk
about books--a world where everyone's a critic and all voices are equal. And
mostly what it shows is the fragility and frequent worthlessness of opinion.
T.S. Eliot once claimed that the purpose of criticism was 'the elucidation of
works of art and the correction of taste.' In our gabby age, elucidation and
correction are the first to be sucked down into the mud of opinion."
Now not merely is everyone a critic, everyone is an author as well: a novelist,
a poet, a historian, a social scientist, even, yes, a memoirist. Let the typing
begin.
Jonathan Yardley's e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
© Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company
{{<End>}}
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said
it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your
own reason and your common sense." --Buddha
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers." Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut." Ernest Hemingway
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid
matters
and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
<A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
