Dear Margaret, It is a wonderful book- but I think she is going to have the last laugh here, so to speak. The same thing happened to Bradley Hope and Tom Wright ("The Billion Dollar Whale") and to Tom Burgis ("Kleptocracy"). When all the authors won the over the 'gag' and publication judgements in the UK, sales of the book skyrocketed 🚀. Bradley signed a copy of the book and sent it to the opposing solicitors with a thank-you note for boosting their sales, noting the "Streisand effect!"
I hope you are right but my fear is that Meta's wealth will allow them (in the US at least) to hound her indefinitely. It scarcely look like they are afraid of abusing their power.
That is a good point- the other two references were 'cease and desist' actions from people- not organizations- especially not ones with that kind of wealth.
I was at Hay too and attended your talk, thank you. It’s not only what you say and choose to say but your acuity that I thank you for. I did not go to this talk but heard about it and, yes, this was a protest taken as far as risk allowed. Silence is punishment indeed when it is gagging - as this is. As the International Men of the Oligarchy are gagging so many globallywhile they let their wealth do all the talking.
Wynn-Williams did something more precise than any statement she was permitted to make. She showed up. Her presence in that chair, silent through the entire discussion of her own work, was the declaration that words would have diluted.
What was done to her was an abuse. What she did within it was something powerful. Her constraint became the statement which made her book's point scream loud.
The standing ovation followed. The harder question is whether the room applauded her bravery in writing the book, or whether they understood that the silence in that room was the protest. What do you think it was?
My sense was that the applause and the cheering was in support of her courage, both in writing the book and for turning up. A lesser person might have thought that if they couldn't speak, why bother to turn up. She bothered, mightily
I think in reality most people don’t know it. And there’s a large dose of Wilful Blindness going on too right? ;-)
At the other Hay Festival that overlapped for some of the book festival - how the light gets in - Corey Doctorow was speaking about some of his brilliant work, especially the ‘enshittification’ of online platforms which he brilliantly outlines as a very simple process of degradation. What surprised me greatly - as he as been an internet rights activist for over twenty years - was the confession in his latest book that he still uses X… and I have to confess I’ve read careless people and I still use FB (minimally) and Instagram. Many of us have percentages of our livelihoods intertwined with them, others connections that perhaps would fade without them. It’s a mess. One I hope we all get to entangle from.
I couldn’t decide which bit of Careless People outraged me the most tbh. Fair play to Wyn Williams for sitting on that stage. It probably said more than words ever could.
Dear Margaret, It is a wonderful book- but I think she is going to have the last laugh here, so to speak. The same thing happened to Bradley Hope and Tom Wright ("The Billion Dollar Whale") and to Tom Burgis ("Kleptocracy"). When all the authors won the over the 'gag' and publication judgements in the UK, sales of the book skyrocketed 🚀. Bradley signed a copy of the book and sent it to the opposing solicitors with a thank-you note for boosting their sales, noting the "Streisand effect!"
I hope you are right but my fear is that Meta's wealth will allow them (in the US at least) to hound her indefinitely. It scarcely look like they are afraid of abusing their power.
That is a good point- the other two references were 'cease and desist' actions from people- not organizations- especially not ones with that kind of wealth.
I was at Hay too and attended your talk, thank you. It’s not only what you say and choose to say but your acuity that I thank you for. I did not go to this talk but heard about it and, yes, this was a protest taken as far as risk allowed. Silence is punishment indeed when it is gagging - as this is. As the International Men of the Oligarchy are gagging so many globallywhile they let their wealth do all the talking.
Wynn-Williams did something more precise than any statement she was permitted to make. She showed up. Her presence in that chair, silent through the entire discussion of her own work, was the declaration that words would have diluted.
What was done to her was an abuse. What she did within it was something powerful. Her constraint became the statement which made her book's point scream loud.
The standing ovation followed. The harder question is whether the room applauded her bravery in writing the book, or whether they understood that the silence in that room was the protest. What do you think it was?
My sense was that the applause and the cheering was in support of her courage, both in writing the book and for turning up. A lesser person might have thought that if they couldn't speak, why bother to turn up. She bothered, mightily
Reading Margaret’s article took me straight to World of Books where I placed my order 🙌
I think in reality most people don’t know it. And there’s a large dose of Wilful Blindness going on too right? ;-)
At the other Hay Festival that overlapped for some of the book festival - how the light gets in - Corey Doctorow was speaking about some of his brilliant work, especially the ‘enshittification’ of online platforms which he brilliantly outlines as a very simple process of degradation. What surprised me greatly - as he as been an internet rights activist for over twenty years - was the confession in his latest book that he still uses X… and I have to confess I’ve read careless people and I still use FB (minimally) and Instagram. Many of us have percentages of our livelihoods intertwined with them, others connections that perhaps would fade without them. It’s a mess. One I hope we all get to entangle from.
I couldn’t decide which bit of Careless People outraged me the most tbh. Fair play to Wyn Williams for sitting on that stage. It probably said more than words ever could.