On to the suspicious link sausages of dubious origin indeed!
- Whitewashing isn't restricted just to YA book covers: It's pervasive in H'wood. Of course, Mr Morris misses the common point of reference: It's not the whiteness of the audience, or the whiteness of the creators; it's the upper-middle-class whiteness (and maleness, and Protestantness) of the 1970s/1980s MBAs who are in charge of the corporate media entities involved... and/or the securities analysts who have such overt interest on those corporate media entities. Even the women who are involved in that chain tend to be either relegated to "womanly" niches or bigger dickheads than most men from having to act like they had penises to get into positions with power and authority in a male-dominated world in the first place.
<SARCASM> Whether the antiintellectualism fostered by American "business education" has anything to do with the constant dumbing-down of entertainment and creative products is left as an exercise for the student. </SARCASM> It certainly appears to have blinded Mr Morris to the source of the point he was trying to make.
- The talented and lovely Sarah Weinman points out that we've had the "e-books will cannibalize the publishing industry to death" debate before. Santayana was an optimist: Before one can understand history (and thereby avoid repeating it), one must not only know some history — one must care about it.
- Ho hum. In Borders bankruptcy non-news — as I predicted — Judge Glenn approved an outrageous executive bonus plan... as a reduction from one that was exhorbitant.
- Meanwhile, another publishing bankruptcy looms: Dorchester. The unofficial committee of unsecured creditors — which almost completely ignores authors interests, as the stated value of their claims is so low (thanks in part to dubious accounting and thanks in greater part to Dorchester's managerial incompetence) — said:
[T]he Unofficial Committee made a decision to disband and has advised Dorchester of this decision. The Unofficial Committee has taken this step because it has determined that Dorchester will be unable to propose any meaningful repayment plan to unsecured creditors in the foreseeable future. Thus, the forbearance period that commenced in August 2010 is no longer in effect and creditors of Dorchester are free to take any action or inaction they determine to be appropriate.
Translating from Lawyer to English, that means:
Congratulations, authors: In technical terms, you're f*cked. Your claims are so piddly and indistinct that you don't have a realistic voice in the impending dissolution — and you won't have any say in what happens to whatever rights of yours Dorchester either continues to hold or is exploiting without permission, either. Have a nice day.
Just another day in paradise, eh?
- On a brighter note, congratulations to the Hugo and Campbell nominees, to the BSFA winners, and to the Philip K. Dick Award winner.