About book Hors Sujet: L'histoire D'une Révolte Sur Internet (2000)
The most extraordinary thing that came across as I read this,(and I did so this afternoon whilst I should have been doing so much else) was the love, which is not in anyway too strong a word, in which GR was held by the campaigners and reviewers. This is not a book dripping with vicious irony or pompous grandstanding, there is not so much anger as heartbreak. Towards the end there is a poignant collection of farewells and leavings. Moving accounts of why each writer loved GR as it was, what it stood for, what it enabled. And suddenly the foolishness, the ham-fisted stupidity of what has been done in the name of......whatever.....rose up and I saw it clearly. The clever reviews, witty put downs, ingenious acts of rebellion were interesting and informative; the raised voices in defence of free speech and non-authorial control were thrilling and inspirational but it was the people who explained what this censorship was doing to their actual lives, how their reading community, their friendships, their literary support system had been holed beneath the waterline that I found most convincing. For me, it has always been the reviewers who reveal something of themselves that I find I trust even if I disagree with their opinion.I probably would never say anything striking enough to be GRzapped and removed, my reviews are never going to set fires burning for good or ill but the heartfelt appeal by these men and women for the loss of what had been strikes a chord and I thank them for their preparedness to make me think. Eloquent record of a(nother) corporate takeover.This is the second such misappropriation of a community-built valuable commodity that I have endured. The first was Recipezaar being taken over by Scripps Inc., you know, of Food Network fame? I was more invested there, but/so I utterly understand the despair/fury/bitterness of those before me here at goodreads. Empathy. Recipezaar ('zaar to most of us) was renamed Food.com. How very appealing. NOT. At least Amazon hasn't renamed goodreads...yet.
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I nominated this book for the Non-fiction and Debut Goodreads Author at Goodreads Choice Awards.
—laaimi
