The world of writing

“Phobia” again

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged usage vocabulary on by

After an unpleasant online discussion yesterday, I’m more convinced than before of the need to push back against “phobia” as an epithet. The amount of sheer rage directed at those who question the term — it seems I’m a promoter of “genocide” — shows that something important is going on.

A phobia, as I’ve said before, is a habitual, involuntary, irrational fear. Acrophobia is fear of heights; people with it get dizzy when looking down from high places. Claustrophobia is fear of enclosure in a small space; it can lead to a panic attack when stuck in an elevator that stops moving (or for some, being in an elevator at all). And so on. The involuntary aspect is central. The refusal to think is wrong because it’s irrational and voluntary, and it’s an entirely different case. People aren’t morally responsible for their phobias, though they can be responsible for the degree to which they let them control them.
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Song copyrights 1

This entry was posted in Commentary Music and tagged copyright music writing on by

Reports about a copyright lawsuit by Ed Townsend’s estate against Ed Sheeran recently caught my attention. The suit claims that Sheeran’s song “Thinking Out Loud” infringes on “Let’s Get It On,” usually attributed to Marvin Gaye but co-authored by Townsend. The claim was that Sheeran improperly used “harmonic progressions” and “melodic and rhythmic elements” from the earlier song, but a federal court has ruled there was no copyright violation. That got me thinking about the whole issue of song copyrights.

To start by making my own views clear, I’m in favor of copyright. Some libertarians argue that creative works aren’t tangible objects and thus shouldn’t be subject to property rights, but I think the concept of ownership is as applicable to creations of the mind as to physical creations. Copyright prevents one person (or corporation) from taking someone else’s creation and profiting without getting consent or offering compensation. I think 95-year copyrights are inappropriate, but living creators should enjoy protection against the appropriation of their work.
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A note on the Glasgow Worldcon

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged fandom Internet United Kingdom on by

Since I’ve commented on the 2023 China Worldcon and the bid for one in Egypt, I should mention that the odds of my attending the 2024 Glasgow Worldcon, which were already low, have dropped to near zero.

The government of the UK has stomped on the right of mere commoners to criticize “His Majesty,” just when the world’s eyes were on it. I’m not calling for a boycott, but I don’t feel like setting foot in the UK if I don’t have to.

Security Minister Tugendhat declared, “The coronation is a chance for the United Kingdom to showcase our liberty and democracy, that’s what this security arrangement is doing.” The showcase has included suspicionless detention, bans directed at specific people, and restrictions on Internet speech. Volunteers in a women’s safety program were arrested for handing out rape alarms, because they could in principle be used to disrupt events. The charge: “Conspiracy to commit public nuisance.”
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Speech codes and fandom

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship fandom on by

The Mastodon site fandom.ink came to my attention because it hosts the account for Pemmi-Con, the 2023 North American Science Fiction Convention. I looked at it a bit to see what other interesting accounts it might have and examined its terms of service. Most of the points are the usual attempts to maintain civil discussion, but one item is disturbing, and it’s part of a trend toward speech policing which I’ve mentioned in other connections.

Item #2 under “Inappropriate Behaviour” is: “expressing or defending derogatory, harmful, and/or contemptuous views of marginalized persons or groups, including in the context of playing ‘devil’s advocate’ (‘it’s not really racist because…’).” (Boldface added, italics as in the original.) This constitutes a prohibition on defending people against some types of accusations. Letting accused people have their say and letting others speak in their defense is a bedrock principle of a liberal society, but it’s one which some people on the political left dislike. In an especially notorious example, Harvard booted professor Ron Sullivan from a position as faculty dean of an undergraduate house because he’d provided legal defense services for Harvey Weinstein. Users on fandom.ink can make groundless accusations without worrying that someone will challenge them. If they get accused in return, then I suppose both are presumed guilty.
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Ignorance is not strength

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged books censorship education Stanford on by

“Protected Identity Harm” sounds like revealing that Clark Kent is Superman. At Stanford, it means anything that offends somebody. An associate dean and another person filed a report of “Protected Identity Harm,” the harmful incident being a Snapchat picture of a student reading Mein Kampf. In making their complaint, they urged students to turn in others whom they see engaging in similar “harm.”

It’s not clear whether the supposed harm came from reading the book or from showing it being read on a social media site. Fortunately, Stanford did not punish anyone. A Stanford spokesperson said, “At the request of the student organization, we have been engaged in conversation with a number of students, seeking to provide support and foster communication. However, there has been no requirement that any student meet with or report to a university official to discuss the matter.” It could have been worse, but the university’s response still was not good. It should have just told the complainers to get a life and not given any of them “support.” The biggest share of the blame goes to the dean who decided it was fun to make life a little more unpleasant for a student.
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This entry was posted in Personal on by | Open »

My email addresses on mcgath.com are temporarily not working. My outgoing mail was all being blocked, and HostGator was totally useless at helping me with the problem, so I’ve migrated my mail to Dreamhost. The DNS setup had a mistake, which I just recently fixed, and it will take a while to propagate through the Internet. At the moment I can send mail but not receive it.

Hopefully this fix will get everything working again. If you need to mail me and get a bounce, try again tomorrow. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Update: I’ve started getting email, so the problem appears to be fixed. There could still be glitches for a while, since not everybody in the world gets DNS updates at the same time.

Update 2: In the process of getting it working on Dreamhost, I determined that a major issue was a broken SPF record, which HostGator had created for me. The HostGator support people never recognized this issue, instead trying to put the blame on T-Mobile.

This blog is still on HostGator for the moment, because it isn’t broken and migrating a website is a pain. No promises either way for the future.

Smashwords adding Kobo Plus

This entry was posted in Publishing Writing as business and tagged DRM kobo smashwords on by

The ebook publishing site Smashwords is adding Kobo Plus to its options for self-publishing authors. Smashwords already has Kobo as one of its publishing channels. The difference is that regular Kobo lets people buy books individually, while Kobo Plus is a subscription service letting users view as many books as they want.

Smashwords’ emailed notice says:
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Book Discussion: Waco by Jeff Guinn

This entry was posted in Book discussion and tagged books history Texas Waco on by

It’s been thirty years since the disastrous events near Waco, Texas. In the nineties I read and reviewed five books related to them; I’ll link to them at the end of this review. Jeff Guinn’s Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage is a new addition to the literature.

The first third of the book, except for a short introductory chapter, is about the history of the Branch Davidians before the ATF raid. Much of what it covers predates Vernon Wayne Howell’s taking leadership and assuming the name David Koresh. This is an important area for anyone studying the matter in detail, but I was more interested in information about the ATF raid, the subsequent siege, and the final assault on the buildings. Getting through the material about the Adventists and the earlier leaders of the group was an effort for me.
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