#, fuzzy msgid "" msgstr "" "Project-Id-Version: 003_dont_come 1.0\n" "Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: Nika Zhenya \n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2019-05-05 19:38-0500\n" "Last-Translator: Nika Zhenya \n" "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n" "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:1 msgid "# Don't come with those tales" msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:2 msgid "> @published 2019/05/05, 20:00 {.published}" msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:3 msgid "" "I love books. I love them so much that I even decided to make a living from " "them---probably a very bad career decision. But I can't idealize that love." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:6 msgid "" "During school and university I was taught that I should love books. " "Actually, some teachers made me clear that it was the only way I could get " "my bachelor's degree. Because books are the main freedom and knowledge " "device in our shitty world, right? Not loving books is like the will to stay " "in a cave---hello, Plato. Not celebrating its greatness is just one step to " "support antidemocratic regimes. And while I was learning to love books, of " "course I also learn to respect its “creators” and the industry than made it " "happened." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:15 msgid "" "I don't think it is casual that the development of what we mean by book is " "independent from the developments of capitalism and what we understand by " "author. Maybe correlation; maybe intersection; but definitely not separates " "stories." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:19 msgid "" "Let's start with a common place: the invention of printing. Yeah, it is an " "arbitrary and problematic start. We could say that books and authors goes " "far before that. But what we have in that particularly place in history is " "the standardization and massification of a practice. It didn't happen from " "day to night, but little by little all the methodological and technical " "diversity became more homogeneous. And with that, we were able to made books " "not as luxury or institutional commodities, but as objects of everyday use." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:28 msgid "" "And not just books, but printed text in general. Before the invention of " "printing, we could barely see text in our surroundings. What surprise me " "about printing it is not the capacity of production that we reached, but how " "that technology normalized the existence of text in our daily basis." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:33 msgid "" "Newspapers first and now social media relies on that normalization to " "generate the idea of an “universal” public debate---I don't know if it is " "actually “public” if almost all popular newspapers and social media " "platforms are own by corporations and its criteria; but let's pretend it is " "a minor issue. And public debate supposedly incentivizes democracy." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:39 msgid "" "Before Enlightenment the owners of printed text realized its freedom " "potential. Most churches and kingdoms tried to control it. The Protestant " "Church first and then the Enlightenment and emerging capitalist enterprises " "hijacked the control of public debate; specifically who owns the means of " "printed text production, who decides the languages worthy to print and who " "sets its main reader." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:46 msgid "" "Maybe it is a bad analogy but printed text in newspapers, books and journals " "were so fascinating like nowadays is digital “content” over the Internet. " "But what I mean is that there were many people who tried to have that " "control and power. And most of them failed and keep failing." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:51 msgid "" "So during 18th century books started to have another meaning. They ceased to " "be mainly devices of God's or authority's word to be _a_ device of freedom " "of speech. Thanks to the firsts emerging capitalists we got means for " "secular thinking. Acts of censorship became evident acts of political " "restriction instead of acts against sinners." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:57 msgid "" "The invention of printing created so big demand of printed text that it " "actually generated the publishing industry. Self-publishing to satisfy " "internal institutional demand opened the place to an industry for new " "citizens readers. A luxury and religious object became a commodity in the " "“free” market." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:62 msgid "" "While printed text surpassed almost all restrictions, freedom of speech " "rised hand-to-hand freedom of enterprise---the debate between Free Software " "Movement and Open Source Initiative relies in an old and more general " "debate: how much freedom can we grant in order to secure freedom? But it " "also developed other freedom that was fastened by religious or political " "authorities: the freedom to be identify as an author." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:69 msgid "" "How we understand authorship in our days depends in a process where the " "notion of author became more closed to the idea of “creator.” And it is " "actually a very interesting semantic transfer. _In one way_ the invention of " "printing mechanized and improved a practice that it was believed to be done " "with God's help. Trithemius got so horrified that printing wasn't welcome. " "But with new Spirits---freedoms of enterprise and speech---what was seen " "even as a demonic invention became one of the main technologies that still " "defines and reproduces the idea of humanity." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:78 msgid "" "This opened the opportunity to independent authors. Printed text wasn't " "anymore a matter of God's or authority's word but a secular and more " "ephemeral Human's word. The massification of publishing also opened the " "gates for less relevant and easy-to-read printed texts; but for the " "incipient publishing industry it didn't matter: it was a way to catch more " "profits and consumers." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:84 msgid "" "Not only that, it reproduces the ideas that were around over and over again. " "Yes, it growth the diversity of ideas but it also repeated speeches that " "safeguard the state of things. How much books have been a device of freedom " "and how much they have been a device of ideological reproduction? That is a " "good question that we have to answer." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:90 msgid "" "So authors without religious or political authority found a way to sneak " "their names in printed text. It wasn't yet a function of property---I don't " "like the word “function,” but I will use it anyways---but a function of " "attribution: they wanted to publicly be know as the human who wrote those " "texts. No God, no authority, no institution, but a person of flesh and bone." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:96 msgid "" "But that also meant regular powerless people. Without backup of God or King, " "who the fucks are you, little peasant? Publishers---a.k.a. printers in those " "years---took advantage. The fascination to saw a newspaper article about " "books you wrote is similar to see a Wikipedia article about you. You don't " "gain directly anything, only reputation. It relies on you to made it " "profitable." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:102 msgid "" "During 18th century, authorship became a function of _individual_ " "attribution, but not a function of property. So I think that is were the " "notion of “creator” came out as an ace in the hole. In Germany we can track " "one of the first robust attempts to empower this new kind of powerless " "independent author." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:107 msgid "" "German Romanticism developed something that goes back to the Renaissance: " "humans can also _create_ things. Sometimes we forget that Christianity has " "been also a very messy set of beliefs. The attempt to made a consistent, " "uniform and rationalized set of beliefs goes back in the diversity of " "religious practices. So you could accept that printing text lost its " "directly connection to God's word while you could argue some kind of " "indirectly inspiration beyond our corporeal world. And you don't have to " "rationalize it: you can't prove it, you just feel it and know it." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:116 msgid "" "So german writers used that as foundations for independent authorship. No " "God's or authority's word, no institution, but a person inspired by things " "beyond our world. The notion of “creation” has a very strong religious and " "metaphysical backgrounds that we can't just ignore them: act of creation " "means the capacity to bring to this world something that it didn't belong to " "it. The relationship between authorship and text turned out so imminent that " "even nowadays we don't have any fucking idea why we accept as common sense " "that authors have a superior and inalienable bond to its works." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:126 msgid "" "But before the expansionism of German Romanticism notion of author, writers " "were seen more as producers that sold their work to the owners of means of " "production. So while the invention of printing facilitated a new kind of " "secular and independent author, _in other hand_ it summoned Authorship Fog: " "“Whenever you cast another Book spell, if Spirits of Printing is in the " "command zone or on the battlefield, create a 1/1 white Author creature token " "with flying and indestructible.” As material as a printed card we made magic " "to grant authors a creative function: the ability to “produce from nothing” " "and a bond that never dies or changes." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:136 msgid "" "Authors as creators is a cool metaphor, who doesn't want to have some divine " "powers? In the abstract discussion about the relationship between authors, " "texts and freedom of speech, it is just a perfect fit. You don't have to " "rely in anything material to grasp all of them as an unique phenomena. But " "in the concrete facts of printed texts and the publishers abuse to authors " "you go beyond attribution. You are not just linking an object to a subject. " "Instead, you are grating property relationships between subject and an " "object." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:145 msgid "" "And property means nothing if you can't exploit it. At the beginning of " "publishing industry and during all 18th century, publishers took advantage " "of this new kind of “property.” The invention of the author as a property " "function was the rise of new legislation. Germans and French jurists " "translated this speech to laws." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:150 msgid "" "I won't talk about the history of moral rights. Instead I want to highlight " "how this gave a supposedly ethical, political and legal justification of " "_the individualization_ of cultural commodities. Authorship began to be " "associated inalienably to individuals and _a_ book started to mean _a_ " "reader. But not only that, the possibilities of intellectual freedom were " "reduced to a particular device: printed text." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:157 msgid "" "More freedom translated to the need of more and more printed material. More " "freedom implied the requirement of bigger and bigger publishing industry. " "More freedom entailed the expansionism of cultural capitalism. Books " "switched to commodities and authors became its owners. Moral rights were " "never about the freedom of readers, but who was the owner of that " "commodities." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:163 msgid "" "Books stopped to be sources of oral and local public debate and became " "private devices for an “universal” public debate: the Enlightenment. " "Authorship put attribution in secondary place so individual ownership could " "become its synonymous. A book for several readers and an author as an id for " "an intellectual movement or institution became irrelevant against a book as " "property for a particular reader---as material---and author---as speech." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:170 msgid "" "And we are sitting here reading all this shit without taking to account that " "ones of the main wins of our neoliberal world is that we have been talking " "about objects, individuals and production of wealth. Who the fucks are the " "subjects who made all this publishing shit possible? Where the fucks are the " "communities that in several ways make possible the rise of authors? For fuck " "sake, why aren't we talking about the hidden costs of the maintenance of " "means of production?" msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:178 msgid "" "We aren't books and we aren't its authors. We aren't those individuals who " "everybody are gonna relate to the books we are working on and, of course, we " "lack of sense of community. We aren't the ones who enjoy all that wealth " "generated by books production but for sure we are the ones who made all that " "possible. _We are neglecting ourselves_." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:184 msgid "" "So don't come with those tales about the greatness of books for our culture, " "the need of authorship to transfer wealth or to give attribution and how " "important for our lives is the publishing production." msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:188 msgid "" "* Did you know that books have been mainly devices of ideological\n" " reproduction or at least mainly devices for cultural capitalism---most\n" " best-selling books aren't critical thinking books that free\n" " our minds, but text books with its hidden curriculum and\n" " self-help and erotic books that keep reproducing basic exploitable\n" " stereotypes?\n" "* Did you realize that authorship haven't been the best way\n" " to transfer wealth or give attribution---even now more than\n" " before authors have to paid in order to be published at the\n" " same time that in the practice they lose all rights?\n" "* Did you see how we keep to be worry about production no matter\n" " what---it doesn't matter that it would imply bigger chains\n" " of free labor or, as I prefer to say: chains of exploitation\n" " and “intellectual” slavery, because in order to be an\n" " scholar you have to embrace publishing industry and maybe\n" " even cultural capitalism?" msgstr "" #: content/md/003_dont_come.js:204 msgid "" "Please, don't come with those tales, we already reached more fertile fields " "that can generate way better stories. " msgstr ""