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The Jaguar's Heart 5: Digital Book Burning

New examples of what I talk about in this ramble have popped up since I recorded it. When you read about them, think about the behind-the-scenes picture I talk about here.

Link to the ALA's Freedom to Read statement, mentioned in the ramble: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement

Transcript below.


Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.

Today, I’m here to stand for Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catch in the Rye… and Dr. Seuss. Because every author—and every person—should be against the burning of books.

I feel it would be a good idea to start this one out by meeting on common ground. Something I think we can all safely agree on is that monopolies are bad. Yes, even capitalists can agree on that one. As Hayek said, “Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his mercy.”

Many of you know where I’m going with this, because you’ve been with me long enough to hear me talk about the dangers of Amazon’s control of the book market. I’m not sure about the numbers being bandied about right now because I think they’re inclusive only of publishers’ catalogs/Bookscan results, which would leave out Amazon’s imprints and indie sales. But the current statistic is that Amazon sells 50% of all print books in the US, and around 73% of the ebooks…

Books that Amazon disappears, then, are torched.

The argument most likely to come up when I say that is “but you can still buy them at other retailers,” which takes the point of view of the consumer (and misses the basic economic argument that the more friction you insert into the sales process, the more likely you are to lose the sale). But let’s accept that Amazon refusing to sell a book does not remove it from sale from the consumer viewpoint. Instead, let’s talk about what that removal does from the publisher’s perspective. If half to three quarters of your sales are coming from a single platform, and that platform bans your book, then your income for that title has cratered. For the publisher who paid for that book’s publication, your investment is toast.

Imagine yourself in the shoes of that publisher who has just lost their investment. What do you think you’re going to do in the future when someone proposes a book you think might run afoul of Amazon’s guidelines?

The most powerful—and frightening—effect of Amazon failing to carry a book doesn’t start—or end—with the consumer’s ability to purchase that title. It’s what happens during the processes you don’t see, the ones where people decide which books are published at all, that matters. To rustle up another quote from a smarter person than me, from 1945: “If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion. […] The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary.”

George Orwell. Unavoidably.

...and now maybe you see where I’m going with Dr. Seuss, and the estate’s pre-emptive self-banning of titles, not for economic reasons, but because of public opinion. The prevailing argument is that “publishers decide not to publish books all the time!” and that this is not an example of cancel culture. But if you’re looking with me at the bigger picture, you’ll see this is a symptom of the disease Orwell identified over 75 years ago… where the censorship begins before the books even reach the consumer. If the Seuss estate had made this decision for some other reason, they wouldn’t have announced it so conspicuously, and at a time when other books are being taken down from retailers because of loud minority opinions. The estate wouldn’t have chosen books mentioned in an academic paper from two years ago (written, I might add, by two people involved in an organization that pushes neoracist children’s books; one would think conflict of interest should have invalidated the results).

But if that’s not sufficient proof that this is a symptom and not a single publisher’s enlightened choice, then I will point out that eBay almost immediately stopped allowing auctions of those “no longer published” books because they violated eBay’s “offensive material policy: listings that promote or glorify hatred, violence, or discrimination.” If this isn’t about cancellation, then the publisher’s choice should not have been reflected, immediately, by a completely different retailer… which isn’t even applying its own standards consistently, because it leaves up auctions of Mein Kampf and other offensive items.

It doesn’t stop there, either. Libraries are now having fights about whether they should keep these books on the shelves. Some number are standing by the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read statement, which is a powerful one, and I recommend reading it. Others—more than I wish—are removing those books from circulation.

Strange how all these “separate” entities are making the same choice, at the same time, about the same books.

If this were the only example… but it’s not. Josh Hawley’s publisher canceling his contract is another symptom of Orwell’s voluntary censorship. A much smaller conservative publisher picked the book up, but it remains to be seen if retailers will carry it. Books written by sexual behavior researchers like Dr. Soh keep vanishing from major retailers: Amazon, Target, Walmart. On Amazon you can buy a “social justice planner” that says ‘screw TERFs’ (except in stronger language), and of course, the hit song in the US is about the sexual exploitation of men, also using language I won’t repeat. To say these rules are asymmetrical in their application is an understatement.

Completely aside from the fact that a free society should not ban books, and that bad ideas should be fought with good ideas, not censorship, there are other reasons not to ban books. To return to Dr. Seuss, one of the titles being ‘de-listed’ (and now being culled from retailers, many libraries, and resale sites) was the first he published. Historians and scholars of children’s books will no longer have ready access to that title in order to study and put into context the books important to the 20th century… and you can’t talk about children’s books without addressing the influence of Dr. Seuss. Over 600 million copies of his books are in circulation, and he’s had multiple movies and TV specials, and has been translated into over 20 languages… it’s impossible. People will be standing on the shoulders of this giant for generations.

So that’s a scholarly reason. Another reason not to ban books is because without access to books from earlier periods in history we can’t understand the cultural context of the eras in which they were published. It’s a bizarre new trend, one I can only attribute to how poorly modern generations are educated, to assume that the past should be judged as if the people in it adhered to the standards of the present, a view that robs the past of its context, its lessons, and its alienness. Every period in history is defined by its particular perspective, and without primary sources, any conclusions you draw about it and its people are flawed.

Without that context, you can’t properly understand your own period in history, either: not the warnings and mistakes, nor the changes, or the progress. How can you see how far you’ve come if you’ve deleted all references to where you were? The extent to which we are doomed to repeat the past is linked to our decision to erase the evidence… so strongly that I have to wonder if that’s not the point. If what we really want is to recreate the atrocities of the past for those who believe they might reap the benefits, and escape the consequences. I have sad news for those people: they will be the first against the wall. They always are.

Book burning, then, isn’t always literal. And it’s never something to be proud of. People who insist that what we’re seeing is the march of history toward enlightenment are failing to notice the more sinister things going on in the backdrop. To return to older and wiser voices, I bring you this quote from a classic written in 1953: “It didn’t come from the government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God.”

What else? Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451.

Anyway, that’s all I got. Thanks for listening to this rebel heart. Jaguar out.

The Jaguar's Heart 5: Digital Book Burning
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Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.

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We have forgotten how to listen.

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The Jaguar's Heart 6: Hatespeech

TIL a fun new word:
flu·vi·a·tile /ˈflo͞ovēəˌtīl/ adjective TECHNICAL
of, found in, or produced by a river.
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Gamelit Novel Index

The chapter titles are all a mess. But this is the proper order so far:

Gamelit 1 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4241337/gamelit-novel-first-chapter

Gamelit 2 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4255477/gamelit-novel-last-bit-of-chapter-1

Gamelit 3 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4267366/gamelit-novel-chp2-part1

Gamelit 4 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4267371/gamelit-novel-chp2-final

Gamelit 5 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4298755/gamelit-novel-chp-3-part-1

Gamelit 6 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4330428/gamelit-chp-3-part-2

Gamelit 7 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4331116/gamelit-chap-4-pt-1

Gamelit 8 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4361942/gamelit-chp-4-last-bit

Gamelit 9 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5215305/gamelit-novel-chapter-3

Gamelit 10 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5244861/gamelit-novel-10

Gamelit 11 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5271216/gamelit-novel-11

Gamelit 12 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5301971/gamelit-novel-12

Gamelit 13 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5326625/gamelit-novel-13

Gamelit 14 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5360605/gamelit-novel-14

Gamelit 15 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5385714/gamelit-novel-15

Gamelit 16 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5418577/gamelit-novel-16

Gamelit 17 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5444360/gamelit-novel-17

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Gamelit Novel, 17
the setup

            The drama ensuing from the massacre at Donner’s Beck was so intense Ray made popcorn and gave up on sleeping. If someone had mashed up a reality tv show with an e-sports match, and shaken on a bit of forum-level trolling for spice, they couldn’t have come up with better clickbait. It was all Ray could do to keep up with Killz and Goldie as the former dragged the latter all over the starter zone, slaughtering random NPCs, burning random things, and cutting down every mob and critter in his path. Goldie had started out furiously protesting and then Killz had delivered a speech that had stopped not only Goldie in his tracks, but most of the gamer community as well. About how there was a method to his madness: “Everyone wants to be the top of the hero leaderboard. Now that the AI’s evolving things, they’re secretly hoping they get to be king. Not me, losers. I want to be the top of the villain leaderboard. I want this to be my evil origin story. I want the game to evolve to make me the end boss of the game. Why the hell should I compete with every whiny white knight in this pathetic game when I can be the one every single one of them talks about killing? The raid boss to end all raid bosses? Let’s do something interesting for once. Actually be different. Let’s see if the game will let us take the dark path.”

            Goldie, in a move worthy of an epic fantasy franchise, had turned his character to look Killz in the eye, and said: “Fine. I’ll be your partner in crime until we reach the top. But once we get there… only one of us is going to take the prize.”

            “Obvs,” Killz had answered, grinning, and Ray had been sure to make his eye teeth look particularly pointy with the camera angle.

            That had been exciting enough before the game intervened, informing Goldie that he and Killz were no longer eligible for the Call to Arms quest. They’d been branded with always-on PVP flags and titles: “Enemies of the Greenweald.” (Killz’s hissing ‘yes’ in response to this development was already a reaction gif—thanks, of course, to Ray). A new questline had spawned for them: “The Birth of Evil.”

            Ray checked the other beta players’ channels and grinned. None of them were racking up the numbers the way Killz and Goldie were. His AI agents, trawling the internet, were pulling in hundreds of forum conversations spun off the comment sections of the videos. This was legit the most exciting thing gamers had seen yet. Ray had even gotten an email from Mollie: “Looking good, Ray, keep hyping them!”

            Of course, Mollie’s email had also included a line thanking him for putting effort into the mom-and-teen channel: “I know they’re an unlikely duo, Ray, but they showcase a very different side of Omen Galaxica, don’t you think?”

            What Ray was thinking was that he needed a shower and real food and a chance to stare at something that wasn’t two feet from his face. But Killz and Goldie were finally asleep, and Mollie was such a babe. Rubbing his eyes, he clicked on over to Team G-Rated and flipped through the stream, looking for something that wasn’t DeerBoy staring at flowers… and guffawed. Was that seriously PonyMom beating a cat with a spatula? He marked that and keep speeding through… and hit the music section. Backed up, set it to normal speed, listened. Repeated it.

            “Hell’s bells,” he said. “That’s actually… really cool.” What had Mollie said? Another side of Omen Galaxica? No… maybe the flip side? Killz and Goldie were the PVP troller action heroes, obviously. Or antiheroes, now. Ray had never been much of a lore nerd, but he understood the appeal. More importantly, this was also the AI evolving the game… just for very different people.

He shook himself, then leaned into his keyboard. “Okay, kid. You and mom are about to become the heart of Omen Galaxica. Because hell if I let those other beta teams beat out either of mine.”

 

***

 

            After spending most of the night practicing mandolin or singing with the AI or hunting herbs, Nick wanted to kill something when his phone went off at 7 am. He groped for it and peered at the notifications. Was he still dreaming? No way Fish was awake at 7 am in summer. He opened messaging.

 

lol guess whose sister is home loser, try to have something interest on the channel when i get back

 

            Nick flopped back on the bed. Seven in the morning. Ugh. He scrubbed his face with a hand until his brain started working again.

 

going to boardwalk and baseball?

 

you know it

two smooth days of every roller coaster

at least twice

 

            Nick chuckled. Neither of Fish’s parents were coaster fiends the way their kids were, and the moment they could trust Fish’s older sister to escort him on rides, they’d handed him over. Nick had gone with them a few times and been amused at how quickly they’d been abandoned so that Fish’s parents could hang out near the cooling fans, fountains, and slushie vendors.

Of course, Fish had been old enough to wander the theme park alone for years, but the annual family trip was the highlight of his summer, especially now that his sister wasn’t living with them anymore. She was just as crazy as Fish and in most of the same ways. Smiling at the memory, Nick answered.

 

have fun drink some mango slushie for me

 

gross everyone knows cola is the only flavor

 

            Nick sent a line of mango emojis and grinned at the expletive-filled response. Good enough. He checked the time: still seven o’clock. He scrolled through the group chat, which was full of the inevitable stupid jokes and plans for meet-ups at the pizza place. His girlfriend hadn’t texted him, but she wasn’t big on texting, and anyway sending her a message this early would not make her happy. He did decide he should say something in group, though, so he did:

 

hey guys beta eating my brain but its fun

 

            And left it at that. They’d get to it when they woke up.

            Downstairs, Mom was asleep. Nick raided the refrigerator for the last muffin and wondered, looking at the countertop, if he could possibly make a new batch himself. Wouldn’t that be something? He could probably learn from some video. Except it would wake Mom up, who was sleeping on the couch. He eyed her, decided not to chance it, and snuck upstairs. She’d probably be up in an hour or two, and in the meantime, he could practice herbalism and maybe make up more Cervinaethi songs. The song-making had been… he inhaled. The most amazing thing he’d done maybe ever. He wanted more of that.

            When he zoned into the game, some of the centaurs across from him were arming themselves with short bows and spears. Surprised, Nick said, “Something up?”

            “Something has torn several creatures apart and left their bodies to rot,” said one of them. “The forest is uneasy.”

            A surge of excitement swamped Nick. The game really was evolving! “I see. I’ll keep an eye out on my morning walk.”

            The centaur frowned at him. “Perhaps it is unwise to walk alone at this time.”

            “I know these woods,” Nick said. “I’ve known them for a long time. I’ll be all right.”

            “On your head be it then, traveler.”

            It didn’t take much walking to find the first carcass; Nick could still see the road. Crouching, he prodded the decaying boar. “I’m guessing this is going to become part of a quest since you haven’t made the bodies vanish.”

            At his shoulder, the bobbing green light murmured, “It is our observation that disclosure of game developments can be detrimental to player immersion.”

            “Spoilers ruin things?” Nick thought of the countless wikis and companion sites for Omen Galaxica. “Yeah, I get it. I remember logging in for the first time and having no idea where anything was, or how to find the quest givers, much less the quest objectives.” He grinned. “The game was a mess back then.”

            “Subsequent patches and expansions have resolved many player complaints.”

            “And I bet created as many new complaints as they solved.”

            A pause. Then: “Player reception of the updates was gauged based on subscription numbers and hours logged in play. These metrics indicated that users continued to play, and in greater numbers.”

            “Which mattered to the company.” Nick nodded and rose, dusting off his leggings. “I’m glad the corpses don’t stink, by the way.”

            “Ultimate verisimilitude is not the goal. Player engagement is.”

            “I guess most players only like the gross bits if they don’t go too far.”

            “That is part of what this beta is testing.”

            Nick eyed the carcass, tried to loot it, and actually came up with an item: [Knife-Scored Pelt]. The body faded. “All right, I see where you’re going with this. Let’s go hunting for clues.”

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Gamelit Novel, 16
Crafting, Dinner, and Music

We resume Nick and Amanda's adventure! Index here: https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5215754/gamelit-novel-index

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