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Controversial Authors (Part 3)

Jul 12 2013

This is the third and likely final instalment of the Controversial Authors series. The following blog post is dedicated to two widely acclaimed literary figures whose work provoked controversy.

Vladimir Nabokov

(April 22nd 1899 – July 2nd 1977)

Notable works: The Defense, Lolita, Pale Fire, Speak Memory.

Born in Saint Petersburg, the son of a politician, Vladimir Nabokov was a renowned novelist, lepidopterologist (someone specialising in the study of moths) and chess composer (creates endgame studies/chess problems). The author’s first nine novels were in Russian, but it was his later English prose which assured him a place in the pantheon of literary greats.

Lolita, Nabokov’s most famous work, is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth-century. Accolades such as the book’s inclusion in Modern Library’s list of the 100 best novels of the twentieth-century bear testimony to this. Lolita is also amongst the most controversial books of all time due to its sensitive subject matter.

The story is about a man named Humbert Humbert, who falls in love with a twelve-year-old girl, Lolita, the daughter of his landlady. Humbert Humbert goes on to marry the mother so he can stay close to Lolita. When the mother dies in a car accident, the protagonist takes care of Lolita, in exchange for sexual favours. Lolita eventually leaves him and marries someone else, infuriating Humbert Humbert to such an extent that he kills the man.

The book’s pedophilic theme resulted in Lolita being rejected by numerous American publishers when it was written in 1953. Two years later the book was published by Olympia Press, a Paris based publisher. To this day the book courts controversy. The producer of a long-running one-man show in Saint Petersburg, in which Leonid Mozgovoy reads out passages from Lolita on-stage, was assaulted after being accused of being a pedophile. A disturbing clip of the incident was posted on YouTube.

Salman Rushdie

(Born: June 19th 1947)

Notable works: Midnight’s Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses.

No list of controversial writers is complete without the inclusion of the Indian born British writer, Salman Rushdie. Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981. The author went on to achieve further success with his third novel Shame, published in 1983. His fourth book, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, caused controversy from the outset. The title of the book was deemed offensive by many Muslims as it refers to a number of allegedly pagan verses, temporarily included in the Qur’an and later removed. Some pious Muslims were also displeased that the prophet Abraham was referred to as a ‘bastard’, in addition to various other insertions, too numerous to mention here.

Any hopes Rushdie may have harboured over the furore dying down were shattered when the Supreme Leader of Iran, The Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a Fatwa against the author in January 1989. Rushdie was rushed into the protective custody of Special Branch as rioting, book burnings and fire-bombings raged through the Muslim world. The left-wing bookshop Collets was burned down and a Dillons firebombed as the hatred spread west. In August of 1989 Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was martyred in a failed plot to blow up the author in Paddington, London. In a separate incident Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death.

To this day the author receives death threats, including a Valentines Day card of sorts that he gets every February 14th, threatening to kill him; and no they are not from one of his four ex-wives.

Click here to read Part 2 of the series.

Amazon’s Domination

Jul 05 2013

Amazon’s aggressive empire expansion shows no sign of abating. An arms race between the major players in the online publishing industry has seen the world ravaged by the ‘Ebook Wars’. Technological advancement and investment has resulted in Amazon’s heavily armed Kindle offerings leaving Barnes and Nobles’s Nook on the brink of annihilation, in a war reminiscent of the carbine rifles versus sharpened bits of coconut conflicts of yesteryear. Barnes and Nobles announced last month that they will stop manufacturing Nooks all together and that they are currently seeking an ally to build them. In the previous fiscal year the Nook lost close to $475m. The continual bombardment also resulted in 20 Barnes and Nobles retail businesses being reduced to dust last year. Amazon currently occupies about two thirds of the US online publishing market and ninety-percent of the UK’s. Analysts argue that Amazon’s updated supersonic multi-attack fighter, the Kindle Fire, is already riding a-mock through the smoking rubble of the online publishing industry.

Tank (Courtesy of www.dragart.com)

The ‘Ebook Wars’ were followed in quick succession by ‘The Pricing Wars’, as Amazon’s enemies battling for survival in the face of a relentless attack, have mimicked their strategy of offering 70% royalties to authors within a certain price category. Kobo, seen by many as the friendly face of online publishing are offering 70% of sales for ebooks between $2.99 and $9.99. Only time will tell if Kobo have any defense for the predicted retaliatory Amazon carpet bombing campaign. It seems doubtful that the friendly face will provide it. Barnes and Nobles’s highest rate for authors is 60%, which might yet prove shrewd in allowing them to slip under the radar, but this strategy offers little defense against the stealth bomber that is KDP Select (An author offers their book for free on Amazon for a limited time as a promotion on condition they remove it from competitors sites).

Of course many have argued that global domination is Amazon’s main objective and that the publishing side is merely a means to an end. Perhaps none have put this as eloquently as @JoeWikert, who Tweeted:

Books are nothing more than roadkill on Amazon’s highway to total retail domination: http://onforb.es/RypySa #TOCcon

Some people have been up-in-arms over the accusation that our sacred books are being used as cannon fodder, others have argued that anything is fair game in war.

Technological advancement has been the deciding factor in global dominance throughout history and this appears to hold true for Amazon, whose complex algorithms and list features, give an arguably more streamlined, user-friendly and informative experience than any of their competitors. Another reason for their success is their sense of community (some claim propaganda) recently bolstered by the capture of Goodreads. For Amazon’s enemies this is a major strategic loss as they will no longer have bases on Goodreads linking them back to their mainland sites. All links will go directly to Amazon HQ.

(Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org)

Goodreads users can expect a considerable reconstruction investment from Amazon, resulting in more complex algorithms that give better book recommendations and an improved interface. However some self-proclaimed whistleblowers are warning users on Goodreads forums to flee and seek refugee status elsewhere, in the face of what they claim is Amazon tyranny, arguing that a take-over will result in a loss of independence. Whether these whistleblowers face extraordinary rendition and detention in some Central Asian Amazon affiliate or become assimilated in a new and improved online environment remains to be seen.

We all have our own opinions about the new world in which we find ourselves, but I am sure that all us book lovers will hope that once the dust settles, a few undamaged bookshops will remain standing, if only for nostalgias sake.

Click here to read Part 2.

Posthumously Famous Authors

Jun 28 2013

The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, who became more famous after they died.

Jane Austen

(December 16th 1775 – July 18th 1817)

Notable works: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma (1816), Persuasion (1818)

Though Jane Austen achieved a degree of recognition during her lifetime for her prodigious literary talents, she received little personal renown, due in part because she published anonymously. After the author’s death her books became steadily more popular though none of them achieved best-seller status during the 19th Century.

It was the 20th Century that saw Jane Austen meteoric rise to iconic status. During the early decades of the century there was an increase in the academic study of her books and then in 1940 came the first film adaptation of one of her works, the MGM production of Pride and Prejudice, starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. From the 1970s The BBC were making dramatisations of her books, the most successful being the 1990s adaptations of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. These only served to fuel Jane Austen fever, which to this day shows no signs of abating. Not only are her books adored by readers around the world and studied in schools, but her fame has transcended the literary world, evidence of which is her being ranked as the 70th out of ‘100 Greatest Britains’ of all time.

All of which would no doubt have made the bashful author blush if she were still around today. However there is normally a down side to fame, in this instance this may come in the form of the latest adaptation of her work, the soon to be filmed, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Jim Thompson

(September 27th 1906 – April 7th 1977)

Notable works: The Killer Inside Me (1952), The Getaway (1959), The Grifters (1963)

The American novelist and screenwriter is best known for his paperback pulp novels. Jim Thompson started writing for magazines as early as the 1920s and later turned to crime fiction in the 40s’. Despite his prolific output (wrote 20 books in the 1950s alone), he also worked as a journalist to support his family and prodigious alcohol intake. Thompson became well known for The Killer Inside Me (1952), which remains to this day probably his most acclaimed work. He later wrote and co-wrote Hollywood screenplays for prestigious directors, including the iconic Stanley Kubrick, as well as having two of his books adapted for the cinema during his lifetime.

Jim Thompson’s success was however only fleeting and when he died in 1977 he was largely forgotten, his work out of print in his home country and his legacy appeared to be little more than a footnote in the history of pulp fiction.

Today Jim Thompson is widely regarded as one of the greatest crime writers of all time. Not only are his novels back in print but two of them have been adapted for the silver screen, The Getaway (1994) starring Alex Baldwin and Kim Basinger and The Killer Inside Me (2010) starring Casey Affleck.

It appears that Jim Thompson may well have been anticipating future success when he asked his wife to look after his manuscripts and copyrights shortly before his death.

Click on the links to read reviews for The Killer Inside Me and The Getaway

Tormenting Twitter Types

Jun 21 2013

Anyone who follows my blog will know that I am somewhat obsessed with Twitter and frequently devote posts to the subject. One particular favourite pastime of mine is categorising types of Twitter users. The following post is devoted to three Twitter types, who have tormenting me and no doubt others of late.

Forex Foragers – Forex is a form of exchange for the global decentralised trading of international currencies (according to Wikipedia anyway). Trading takes place everyday, with the exception of weekends. Forex Foragers in their desperation to get us to ‘trade’, ignore the weekend interlude and Tweet incessantly, 24/7 7 days a week, from thousands of accounts. Tweets such as:

Best Forex Robot FOREX INCOME ENGINE BILL POULOS COMPLETE SET BRAMD NEW annoyingforexspammer/q3

And

Best Forex Robot MEGA NEW ‘STRATOSPHERE’ ES SYSTEM FOREX TRADESTATION incessantforexforrager/q3

I don’t even know what these Tweets mean and I don’t want to.

(Courtesy of cloudcoomputing.blogspot.co.uk)

Mundane Messengers – Anyone who uses Twitter regularly will be aware of Mundane Messengers. These are Tweeters whose Tweeting habits consist of Tweeting random, non-inspirational, worthless information throughout the day. The following are two recent examples:

(Don’t you just love it when the kettle boils faster than you thought it would.
sent from Iphone)

And

(Driving along when the lyrics for Elvis’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ appeared in my mind. Don’t you just love it when that happens.
sent from Iphone)

No I do not.

Admittedly neither of these occurrences have happened to me. But if they ever were to, not only would I not love it, I would not feel the need to Tweet about it.

Asian Accumulators – These are the ‘10,000 Followers for $5’ type spam Twitter accounts us Twitter users are constantly being Followed by. More often than not the john is lured in by an under-age looking South East Asian girl, unscrupulously being pimped out as jail bait. It is a sad indictment of the ageing Western males found kerb crawling throughout South East Asia that this method is considered to be the most effective in getting us to part with our $$.

Having recently had a Twitter conversation with an Asian Accumulator (for research purposes only), I discovered that the Tweets consisted of little more than the predictable ‘Only $5’, ‘me love you long time’, ‘me sucky sucky’, ‘You pay NOW’ variety.

Click here to read an earlier post about Twitter Types.

Controversial Authors (Part 2)

Jun 14 2013

Many authors have been branded as being controversial over the course of history. What is viewed as controversial varies over time and what constitutes controversy in one era may well not in a later one. The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, widely regarded as being controversial, who will always be remembered as being pioneers by the literary establishment.

D.H. Lawrence

(September 11th 1885 – March 2nd 1930)

Notable works: Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Rainbow.

David Herbert Lawrence to give him his full name, was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright and literary critic, in addition to being a talented painter. Born into humble means as the son of a coal miner, D.H. Lawrence went on to become one of the most influential writers of his generation. Controversy courted the writer incessantly, primarily because of the perceived explicit nature of his works.

His novel The Rainbow (1915) for instance faced an obscenity trial and was banned, all copies being seized and burnt by the authorities. One of his most famous novels, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) though published was heavily censored, due to what was regarded at the time as its pornographic content.

D.H. Lawrence was eventually forced into a voluntary exile, where after a sustained period of poor health, he succumbed to tuberculosis in France, at the age of only forty-four.

The controversy did not end with his demise. In 1960 Penguin attempted to publish the original version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, but were forced to go to trial due to the ‘Obscene Publications Act’ of the previous year. However as the book was deemed to be of literary merit, it was allowed to be published. In the more permissive era in which we live the controversy surrounding D.H. Lawrence has all but been extinguished and he is now remembered fondly as a literary pioneer and one of the most talented writers of his generation.

Click here to read resident book reviewer Adam’s review of Sons and Lovers.

Bret Easton Ellis

(Born: March 7th 1964)

Notable works: American Psycho, Glamorama, The Informers.

Author Bret Easton Ellis’s third novel, the infamous American Psycho (1991) caused uproar even before its release date. The book was viewed by many in the literary establishment as scandalous; no mean feat in a period of permissive tolerance. The reasons for this were the book’s explicit violent and sexual content as well as its perceived misogynistic elements. American Psycho went on to become a cult classic and one of the most influential books of the nineties.

Easton-Ellis has continued to cause controversy ever since, not only through his books but also with his incendiary Tweeting habits, which have included crude and controversial Tweets on such sensitive subjects as HIV and Aids. These comments have left the author open to accusations from some that they are nothing more than publicity stunts. One might argue that controversy appears to be such an integral part of the author’s identity that he will never be able to willingly abandon it.

Whilst the author and his books are certainly an acquired taste, there is no doubt that Bret Easton Ellis’s destiny as a literary pioneer and social commentator is assured. His works, particularly American Psycho, will be studied and debated for centuries to come.

Click on the links to read my reviews of American Psycho and Glamorama.

Famous Authors Who Died Destitute

Jun 07 2013

Writing is generally regarded as a poorly paid profession. For every J.K.Rowling, Stephen King and Dan Brown there are infinite struggling authors, dreaming of a day when they too might become rich and famous. The advent of the era of the Kindle and ebooks has seen a multitude of new authors entering the publishing arena, hoping to follow the likes of self-published authors such as John Locke and Amanda Hocking in striking gold.

In reality only a tiny minority of authors will ever achieve financial wealth and fame in their lifetimes, but that is not to say that one or two might not discover it posthumously. The following post is dedicated to two world famous and iconic authors, who died poverty stricken and largely forgotten, but went on to achieve the monumental success they deserved years after their demise.

Herman Melville (1819 –1891)

Best known for his epic novel, ‘Moby Dick’, Herman Melville is today regarded as one of the greatest American authors of all time. During his lifetime however Melville did not always receive the acclaim he undoubtedly deserved. Melville’s first book, the Polynesian themed ‘Typee’, quickly became a bestseller and by his mid-thirties Melville had achieved considerable success. But his initial success was short-lived and his career was soon in marked decline as he found himself beset with financial difficulties. Melville was to become so disillusioned with writing that he quit writing novels all-together and became a custom inspector, though he did continue to write poetry.

When Melville died of a heart attack in 1891, not only were his works out of print but he was virtually forgotten and penniless. It was not until the 1920s’ that the public rediscovered Herman Melville and he has remained in readers’ hearts and minds ever since.

Joseph Roth (1894-1939)

The Austro-Hungarian Roth is widely acclaimed as being one of the most influential writers of the inter-war years. In his prime Roth was a renowned and well paid political journalist, in addition to being a prolific novelist. Roth’s most famous book, The Radetzky March, which chronicles the decline of The Austro-Hungarian Empire, is regarded as being one of the greatest novels of the Twentieth Century.

Hitler’s rise to power saw Roth, a Jew, obliged to leave his adopted home of Berlin. His other mounting woes included severe alcoholism, a wife suffering from schizophrenia and a precarious financial situation. In 1936 Roth described himself as ‘Half madman, half corpse.’ Three years later he was to die a pauper, of delirium tremens in Paris, but not before he had written the critically acclaimed, ‘The Legend of The Holy Drinker’. It was to take decades for Roth’s genius to be fully recognised, due in part to the fact that he was largely ignored by the English speaking world. His correspondence, ‘A Life in Letters’, was not translated into English until nearly four decades after his death.

Controversial Authors

May 31 2013

Many authors have been branded as being controversial over the course of history. What actually constitutes controversy is of course a highly subjective matter and an author whose work was viewed as being controversial in one era may not be in a later one. Then there are those authors whose controversy may not be limited only to their work but also to their actions. The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, widely regarded as being controversial, who will always be remembered as being pioneers by the literary establishment.

Voltaire

(November 21st 1694 – May 30th 1778)

Notable works: Candide, Letters on England and Zadig.

Living to the ripe old age of eighty-three in an era with a life expectancy of about fifty, Voltaire is remembered to this day as being a central figure in the 1700’s intellectual movement, The Enlightenment. A prolific and witty writer, Voltaire embraced a variety of writing forms including poems, plays, essays, novels, scientific and historical works. Unrelenting in his criticism of the establishment, church and the order of the day, Voltaire can in many ways be viewed as a modern person, due to his opinions about social reform, his criticism of elements within The Bible and his preaching of religious tolerance. Voltaire’s beliefs and determination to voice them certainly didn’t endear him to many and he had to endure beatings, two stints in The Bastille and a period of exile in London. His most famous work is undoubtedly the novella, Candide, a satirical work that was widely banned at the time due to it being viewed as blasphemous and revolutionary.

William S. Burroughs

(February 5th 1914 – August 2nd 1997)

Notable works: Junkie, Queer, The Soft Machine & The Naked Lunch.

William S. Burroughs will always be remembered as being at forefront of the Beat generation, influencing the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His works include eighteen novels, in addition to a number of novellas and short stories, many of which are semi-autobiographical in nature. Burroughs’s writing is characterised as being sardonic, dark and often humorous. Arguably his most famous book, the non-linear Naked Lunch was so scandalous at the time of its publication that it underwent a court case under U.S. obscenity laws. A controversial character with a penchant for rent boys and heroin use, Burroughs ended up killing his second wife Joan Vollmer in Mexico after attempting to shoot a water-tumbler, which she had balanced on her head. Even in death controversy continues to follow Burroughs. Only last year a Turkish publisher faced obscenity charges after releasing a Turkish translation of The Soft Machine.

Click here to read a review of The Soft Machine.

Social Media Addiction (Part 2)

May 24 2013

Social media has changed the very nature of the world that we are living in. Take the fact that Facebook alone has 1.11 billion users or that 21% of the world’s active internet users are said to access Twitter every month. Not only has social media usage continued to increase exponentially, but it has become more visible, with people accessing the internet by mobile phone having increased 60.3% to 818.4 million over the last 2 years. Everywhere we go we are surrounded by people Tweeting, sending Facebook updates, watching YouTube videos, connecting on Google+, networking on LinkedIn and much more besides.

(Courtesy of www.businessgrow.com)

Last Friday shortly after finishing posting Social Media Addiction (Part 1), I went to the cafe near my house. It was the usual scene, a lengthy queue of people, all fiddling with their mobile devises. There were Blackberrys’, iPhones’, Androids’ and a smattering of Samsung Galaxy S3s’. In front of me a teenaged girl was typing into her mobile. Leaning forward I could see she was sending a Tweet on Twitter. It said,

‘In Starbucks, so many choices :?’

A short while later the barista asked for her order. The girl, still typing on her mobile was oblivious to the question and the barista was forced to repeat the question two more times, before she finally looked up and turned her attentions to the menu board.

Over a minute had passed when I said to her, ‘In your own time.’

She glared at me and then ordered an ‘extra hot cafe latte with soy milk.’

After which she typed another Tweet, which I knew was about me. I knew this because I was peering over her shoulder, but she noticed and said, ‘excuse me,’ in a theatrical tone, shielding the phone from my view, as she continued typing and I was left wondering what the Tweet said, what smiley she used and the choice of hashtag – #somepeople, #rude or #goaway perhaps. Or some other colloquialism that has been trending recently, more than likely instigated by Justin Bieber.

From my table where I sit drinking a cafe mocha with normal milk, I can see the girl taking a photograph of her extra hot cafe latte with soy milk and then she’s on her mobile again, no doubt Tweeting the details before posting the picture on Facebook and Pinterest.

(Courtesy of ejiu111.wordpress.com)

All around me it’s the same story. School children crowded around a table, all typing feverishly into their mobile phones. A mother Tweeting incessantly, her toddler in a high-chair beside her mimicking each gesture, pressing imaginary buttons on the surface in-front of him with chocolate stained fingers.

It is at this moment that I find myself asking if we are all addicted to social media and I continue to contemplate this for quite sometime, whilst sipping my mocha and at the same time viewing my Twitter Feed on my iPhone screen.

Perhaps addiction is merely a matter of consumption vs communication and as communicating is not consuming it is not addiction. At any rate is it not better that people are kept busy fidgeting with their hand-held devices than fiddling with cigarettes, bottles of spirits and syringes. Though there are instances where people appear to have mastered doing both at the same time. A Youtube video (now removed) was an instructional video by a girl living in some remote Montana prairie town on how to Tweet with one hand whilst at the same time with the other preparing and smoking a meth pipe.

Social Media Addiction

May 17 2013

Social media addiction is an official condition. In London alone clinics reportedly treat hundreds of patients a year suffering from various forms of social media addiction. It is expected that in the forthcoming years social media addiction will become a pandemic. These addicts include Facebook fiends, Twitter takers, prodigious Pinteresters’, Google+ guzzlers and LinkedIn lavishers. Social media addicts are notorious mixers, rarely satisfied with merely one product, they frequently combine the aforementioned and other products in conjunction, in hazardous cocktails similar to ‘speedballs’.

(courtesy of SocialMediaGroup.com)

Researchers have found that social media features such as Likes and RTs’ result in the release of the potentially addictive brain chemical, the neurotransmitter, dopamine, in the same manner as hard drugs. This is certainly one explanation for why I’ve been feeling so high this last week, having got over a hundred new Likes for my Facebook Fan page, Charles Middleworth. I can only hope this won’t be followed by a come down.

We’ve probably all heard of social media addiction by now and if you haven’t I can guarantee you will be hearing lots about it over the forthcoming years. Personally I hadn’t given it much thought until by chance I found myself in a discussion with an individual, who informed me that he had been diagnosed as a social media addict. Keen to find out more about this affliction, I immediately began to quiz him about it. The following is an extract from the conversation:

Me: What forms of social media were you addicted to?

Addict: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+, with occasional LinkedIn benders.

Me: What’s the most addictive form of social media.

Addict: Facebook has the worst withdrawal.

Me: Your saying Facebook is the heroin of social media. How is it so dangerous?

Addict: Excessive Facebook is to the detriment of real meaningful relationships and connections.

Me: Like.

(The addict seemingly does not find my witty Facebook joke amusing).

Me: How are you recovering?

Addict: Abstinence is the key.

(Did I mention we are having this conversation on a social media platform).

The addict is getting restless now, his words are harried and there’s an absence of punctuation. He’s soon making excuses about having to go. But I want to find out more about his addiction and I know enough about addiction to know how to keep him there. I’m telling him I’ll Like his Facebook page and RT his Tweets. This promise of a dopamine fix has him communicating enthusiastically again. In no time at all he’s telling me all about the dangers of Pinterest.

(Pinterest for those that don’t know is a social media platform for sharing pictures).

‘Don’t be so melodramatic’, says I, ‘you make sharing pictures sound as dangerous as sharing needles.’

The addict is soon restless again and having made an excuse about having to check Google+, he’s off, but not before securing the promise from me of a ‘speedball’, consisting of a couple of Facebook Likes in conjunction with a Twitter RT.

(courtesy of VisibleBanking.com)

After the conversation I did some research about social media addiction and discovered that to qualify as a social media addict you have to use the medium for more than five hours per day, which brings tangible relief for me as well as a release of dopamine. However it’s bad news for all those social media professionals out there.

Do you think you might be a social media addict? Take the blueglass.com quiz and find out for yourself.

To be continued next week.

Facebook Likes

May 10 2013

Until last year I didn’t use Facebook much, but shortly after my book, Charles Middleworth was released, I set up an Author Page and begun exploring with enthusiasm, this, the behemoth of Social Media platforms (901m users approx). I realised that I Liked Facebook. In fact as I was soon to discover Facebook is all about Liking. One can Like everything from pages to posts, pictures and comments. All you have to do is click Like and I duly did. I Liked author pages, product pages and lots of pictures, including plenty of cats, dogs and people at parties.

In no time at all I was clicking Like repetitively time and time again. I Like this picture of a cat and that one and that one too and yes I Like that author page and that one, that one and that product page and that product page too and that picture of a tractor. But not you, I don’t Like you, I don’t know why I just don’t. So I bypass that one and I’m Liking again, incessantly now, Liking multiple pages, pictures and posts. On one page I see a comment that says ‘Phone me tomorrow Emma’. I don’t know Emma or who sent it but I click Like anyway. But then I asked myself if that is something you can even Like. However I had no time to dwell on this because I was back Liking again. Product pages, fan pages, pictures, remarks and the list goes on. But then I came across a Facebook profile page with a photograph across the top of a line of pooches dressed in uniforms, with the owner’s beaming face in the middle and this I don’t Like, so I look for the Dislike button. But there is no Dislike button anywhere on the page and there is no Dislike button on any other Facebook page either. So I go onto Google and search for ‘Facebook + Dislike button’, only to discover that there is no Dislike feature. And I find myself asking what is the value of a world without comparison and what does Like even mean in the absence of Dislike. Not much one might argue.

Research on the subject certainly suggests this. Performerinsider.com claims 99% of Facebook fans are useless. Yet companies marketing departments continue to court Likes. The world’s largest brands have many Likes. When I visited Coca Cola’s Facebook page I saw they had 64,357,439 Likes. Make that 64,357,440 Likes. I Like Coca Cola, I really do. So much so that I drink it regularly. McDonald’s had 28,451,803 Likes and I Liked it too, but only because there was no Quite Like button. Next up was Oreos, who had 33,234,940 Likes and I clicked Like again, though I’ve only had an Oreo once and can’t remember what it tasted Like. But we all Like cookies don’t we and 33,234,940 people can’t be wrong.

Whatever the value of a Like the fact remains that if we take the trouble to build a nice looking Facebook page that we want people to visit, it is going to look better with a lot of Likes than with hardly any or worse still none. So we too court Likes and the circle goes one. My Facebook Fan Page is Charles Middleworth. Feel free to Like it and I will probably reciprocate, although there may be rare instances when I cannot bring myself to press the Like button.

If you’re an author on Facebook and want more Likes you might be interested in the Facebook Like Literary Cafe.

What happens when Adrian, an actuary, has his banal and predictable existence turned upside down by sinister forces that he can neither understand nor control? How will he react to a revelation that leaves his life in turmoil? Will he surrender or strive for redemption in an altered world, where rationality, scientific logic and algorithms no longer provide the answers?

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

AUTHOR GUY PORTMAN'S BLOG

Controversial Authors (Part 3)

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Amazon’s Domination

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Posthumously Famous Authors

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Controversial Authors (Part 2)

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Famous Authors Who Died Destitute

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Controversial Authors

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AUTHOR GUY PORTMAN'S BLOG

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