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I am very real

lettersofnote.com

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Re: I am very real

#21

Post by orblivion »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #20
sheepthief wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vonnegut himself released it, in his book, Palm Sunday.

But in the letter he claims that the copy the recipient is holding is the only copy. Was he lying or did he somehow have it returned to him?

Looks like this letter is 1973, the book 1981. His ultimate point is that he wasn't exploiting the letter for attention. 8 years after the incident, I think it's safe to claim the potential for exploitation is gone.

EDIT: Oh, you mean you took him literally, that he didn't even have his own copy. Well:

"And no copies of this letter have been sent to anybody else. You now hold the only copy in your hands."

It sounds like this could imply that he could be holding onto a copy himself. Interesting point, why would you do that if you didn't mean to exploit it, at least eventually? Or maybe he just likes to hold on to things for records.

Re: I am very real

#22

Post by essayist »

sosuke wrote: post #3

While not nearly as important, the idea that authors are real makes me immediately relate to my own experience that customers don't seem to understand that software is made by real people too. People with feelings, who are fallible. Several comments on blogs or reviews on the app store show to me that people don't feel they are being insulting or rude if they aren't facing the person they criticize. The more I wrote…

David Foster Wallace's take on this was that my own reality is so overpoweringly real, that it's hard to see you (or anyone else) as real.

everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self-centredness, because it's so socially repulsive.... Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real....

The remedy he proposed:

[Instead:] if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her little child in the checkout line - maybe she's not usually like this; maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of her husband who's dying of bone cancer, or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the Motor Vehicles Dept who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a nightmarish red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible - it just depends on what you want to consider.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/20/fiction?cat=books&...

What works for me sometimes in dealing with customer-service folk is to ask them what they would do in my position.

Re: I am very real

#23

Post by renegadedev »

Burning a book (good or bad) is the lowest form of expression humans can stoop to. If people understood the fact that a book is simply a personification of ideas, and ideas good or bad, cannot perish in a fire, the will realize the folly of engaging in a futile act like burning a book.

One of the inevitable consequences of the digital revolution will be that, there will come a time, when a controversial book will be published exclusively in digital format with no physical copies to burn. I don't know if this necessarily good or bad, but the fact that idiots can't burn a book will provide me some amount of pleasure.

Re: I am very real

#24

Post by Tipzntrix »

maxko87 wrote: post #12
phireal wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must have been shared with at least one other person as it explicitly states that there is only a single copy in existence. For us to be reading it means either the recipient or the person they shared it with subsequently shared it with others.

"Copy" probably doesn't refer to an actual copy, outside of the one Vonnegut probably made for himself -- it refers to the one sent.

Still rather deceitful of Mr. Vonnegut.

Re: I am very real

#25

Post by vollmond »

orblivion wrote: post #21
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in the letter he claims that the copy the recipient is holding is the only copy. Was he lying or did he somehow have it returned to him?

Looks like this letter is 1973, the book 1981. His ultimate point is that he wasn't exploiting the letter for attention. 8 years after the incident, I think it's safe to claim the potential for exploitation is gone. EDIT: Oh, you mean you took him literally, that he didn't even have his own copy. Well: "And no copies of this letter have been sent to anybody else. You now hold the only copy in your hands." It sounds l…

I know personally I keep copies of every letter I send, simply to refer back to if and when the recipient responds to me; it's useful to know what questions I asked when the answers come in.

Re: I am very real

#26

Post by danso »

sosuke wrote: post #3

While not nearly as important, the idea that authors are real makes me immediately relate to my own experience that customers don't seem to understand that software is made by real people too. People with feelings, who are fallible. Several comments on blogs or reviews on the app store show to me that people don't feel they are being insulting or rude if they aren't facing the person they criticize. The more I wrote…

This is an interesting take that I had not expected to read when going to this comments section, but you're absolutely right. But this applies to almost everything. Every time I read a report of a sanctioned (non-criminal) or poorly evaluated public school teacher, I think of my friends who are teachers: how they've had to juggle everything in their personal lives in addition to the emotional and physical drain that comes from being passionate about teaching children, especially if the school's administration is terrible.

After that, it's harder to judge the teacher in question, knowing that there could've been any number of strains that led to a troublesome incident or poor performance report.

Re: I am very real

#27

Post by gaius »

JangoSteve wrote: post #18
sosuke wrote: post #3

While not nearly as important, the idea that authors are real makes me immediately relate to my own experience that customers don't seem to understand that software is made by real people too. People with feelings, who are fallible. Several comments on blogs or reviews on the app store show to me that people don't feel they are being insulting or rude if they aren't facing the person they criticize. The more I wrote…

Even as a developer of software, I've at times found myself forgetting that software is written by real people. Just a few months ago, I bought an app from the Mac App Store. I became disenamored with the app due to a glaring fault. I regained consciousness about halfway through writing my negative review on the App Store (that'll be my excuse for getting as far as I did), with the thought, "Why don't I first email t…

I once had a cow-orker who thought software came from "the internet" - he literally could not fathom writing a program himself.

Re: I am very real

#29

Post by WiseWeasel »

renegadedev wrote: post #23

Burning a book (good or bad) is the lowest form of expression humans can stoop to. If people understood the fact that a book is simply a personification of ideas, and ideas good or bad, cannot perish in a fire, the will realize the folly of engaging in a futile act like burning a book. One of the inevitable consequences of the digital revolution will be that, there will come a time, when a controversial book will be…

I'm not so sure that this type of book-burning is tied to the physicality of books, rather than a symbol of rejection. Certainly, there have been instances throughout history, such as when the Nazi government or the Catholic Church have carried out organized purges of particular written works on a societal level, where the supply of the work has been materially impacted to the point that it is difficult to obtain.

But I assume you're referring more to examples such as this story, of small groups using book-burning as a publicity stunt, or a public symbol of their rejection of the work. In those cases, I doubt the lack of physicality makes any difference; if they wanted to protest a digital-only book, they'd simply print it out on something flammable first.

Re: I am very real

#30

Post by fabricode »

Everyone seems to be confused by the "I am sending you the only copy" aspect of this letter. I'm sure he kept excellent records, and keeping a copy (or the original) for himself would be a standard business practice for someone in the communication business.

It is no different than you sending an email to someone saying, "I'm sending this note to you alone rather than posting this publicly, ..."

As for why he would keep a copy: no different than why you keep copies of your emails. Should the recipient respond, he'll have his original to reference if the person responding takes items out of context, attributes statements not actually made to Vonnegut, amongst other benign or nefarious mistakes.

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