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[Ġakbu]

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2010/aug/25/as-byatt-facebook

[Father Luke]

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I can't get what you think of the interview.

[Ġakbu]

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I liked some parts of the interview; but mostly, I enjoy listening to people talking slowly when they do not bore me.

[Father Luke]

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It's a tight interview, with a lot of keen insights and memorable quotes.

She says this:

In response to stealing away and hiding to read when she shouild have been doing something else

"I spent a lot of my life, my young life, reading with a torch in places where I wasn't supposed to be in order not to be where I was supposed to be."


She does something else I love. She attacks the blogosphere and Facebook. I love that.
I hate the implications of blogs. And I hate Facebook even more. I really do.

There was a time when people would sit and have conversations with one another. Or go
visit their neighbors. I see that as vanishing, and it's sad. There are no more
people.

I went to visit a friend a few years back. 'Here,' they said. '...let me show you
these pictures on my computer.'  And I didn't want to, so I left.

Facebook has taken the place of visiting, and I'm not sure it's a sufficient
substitute.


There's more, but I liked the clip.


And thanks.

[Father Luke]

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By the way, redperil take note:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/124


FWIW

[redperil]

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By the way, redperil take note:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/124


FWIW - what that stand for, I no undertsand?

Thanks for the pointer. Sounds intriguing.

[Father Luke]

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For What It's Worth

[Ġakbu]

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To start off, I like the way she looks: the half-a-century drawn face, and her eyes that look like water in some ancient chapel well.

I agree with what she said, and with your agreement to what she said. I myself resort to handwritten letters now and again with a friend of mine who lives abroad - its resensitizes one; there is too much of the fifteen-minutes-of-fame syndrome to be acquired off the internet. People simply do not say the things that are essential most of the time; it is like much of confessional poetry or semi-confessional poetry, which is most poetry today anyway: it is not that one uses oneself as a source or as a persona, it's the obsession with oneself and with, what are many a-times, boring mundane details of a life which is unexciting. But haven't writers made beautiful works out of lives that are 'unexciting'? Well there's the answer really: they aren't.

^{I went to visit a friend a few years back. 'Here,' they said. '...let me show you
these pictures on my computer.'  And I didn't want to, so I left.}

I really, really like that. The internet is good as it is democratizing, but it also induces laziness in humans. I would never buy an e-book, for the simple reason that that to me that is not reading a book - it is reading a text, not a book; the words may be the same, the experience not. The problem as always is to find a balance: some become reactionaries - it's an odd example to mention, but take Prince Charles and his new town of Poundbury: it doesn't make sense, as a response to the post-modernist building boom - perhaps they are nicer, more homely, but it is not a response, it is a retreat. Most people I suppose, regardless of continent, still think with the Conservative vs. Liberal i.e. Black vs. White...same here with blogs and technology - it is as if one was on a bike, happy and bittersweet at the same time, carrying a box that had a pen, a book and a letter, And suddenly, one sees a computer store, and instead of buying a computer, one buys a computer and throws the box in the nearest gutter. It is not either or, but go and explain that to most people with Ronald McDonald streaming down their throat.

Something else which was not mentioned in the interview but which was mentioned in the comments and intrigued me: the title "I don't believe in God. I believe in Wallace Stevens." Some argued that it was stupid, given that she is a British writer, and given that most British writers are nonbelievers, it was not worth using as a title. My only thought was that she said better things than that.

[Father Luke]

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Fans of Irony take note: The Wallace Steven's quote, as title, emphasizes what she
has to say about how people are today, doesn't it? It does, because, as you've noted
with your observations about the fifteen minutes of fame aspect that the "social
networking" encourages, and with your comments about the gaggle of epiphany
writing -- 99% of which is boring, and dull --  the 'confessional' writing. The
article aimed at the sensationalism she was talking down. And that's why it's ironic.

Correctly speaking it's a paradox, but fans of irony will appreciate.

What wasn't touched on was the theft of intellectual property. I would have liked to
hear her speak to that. And, by theft of intellectual property I don't entirely mean
file sharing, and downloading movies, because authors are treated as poorly as
prizefighters when it comes to being paid, that's already legendary, so downloading
movies isn't the theft, the theft of ideas -- the writer's ideas -- is the thing. And
I would have liked to hear what she had to think about that.

I liked, too, that she offered that conversations were lengthy, and they unraveled
ideas over the course of the conversation, slowly, and leisurely. Tweet that.

[Ġakbu]

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^{Fans of Irony take note: The Wallace Steven's quote, as title, emphasizes what she
has to say about how people are today, doesn't it? It does, because, as you've noted
with your observations about the fifteen minutes of fame aspect that the "social
networking" encourages, and with your comments about the gaggle of epiphany
writing -- 99% of which is boring, and dull --  the 'confessional' writing. The
article aimed at the sensationalism she was talking down. And that's why it's ironic.}

Exactly. The Guardian - Mr.Lally can correct me if I'm wrong - is a liberal/left leaning newspaper, and even though it is by no means a tabloid, publishing 'celeb news' and what not, its bias in many matters is too obvious. Funnily enough, even though it is mostly anti-religion, I've never read an article on the newspaper which was against Islam in a way which is similar to its opposition to Catholicism, say. They duck bombs (perhaps literally).

What do you exactly mean by that, plagiarism, or some sort of influence which turns into, theft of intellectual property...or something else entirely?
 

[Father Luke]

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By theft I mean that I am noticing how much public domain everything is becoming.
Google appropriates pictures, news, quotes, and more, just to sell it's products.
Notice that Mary has a "private" and a public section. I'm very conscious of what I
share on the internet. My own writing, for instance, is now archived away, and unavailable.

Then, too -- in a different light but a similar fashion -- blogs which solicit
original material. The best suggestion I heard so far about that is put your writing
in a drawer, and write some more. In other words, don't give your work away for free.
Wait until you can get it published and get paid, and recognized for your work.

So much of what is on Twitter, and Facebook -- blogs, also -- are creative and
original works which are appropriated, without the credit due the authors.
Public domain.

Hey? Once something hits Google it's public domain. I've found many, many of my
pieces while surfing Google, which are used without permission. Why? It's because, I
think, that people take for granted that anything they see is something they are
entitled to, just because it is there. When in fact the author had no intention of it
being shared in that way.

During the interview were many books behind her. Those books, if stolen from a
library, someone's home or a book seller, would bring a legal decision inflicting
consequences against the thief. But on the internet it's a different story. It's on
the internet, so anyone can use it. Right?

So there is that kind of theft.


Not to mention the theft of the creative process. Work has become something people
don't want to do. They just want the credit for having done it. It's like exercise.
I don't particularly enjoy exercising, but I enjoy the benefits of having exercised.
So, you might say I enjoy having exercised but not exercising. What I see happening
is that, instead of creating, people are wanting the creations themselves.

I like that piece of writing, so I'm going to put it on my blog, or in my own writing.

You know? And so there is no need to create, only appropriate.


Then, also, are the things I first mentioned. How media creates a place where
artists are used up for the machine, and left behind.