Quoth AliceB, quothing Greg London: "The problem with this fallacy is that COPYRIGHT isn't why writers are poor. And some writers are quite insistent on ignoring this fact. Writers are generally poor because, generally, it's a BUYERS market, and writers are the SELLERS in this market. There are a lot of writers willing to write cheap instead of not write at all, and like any job market, that keeps overall salaries down."
You know, if I were really evil, I'd point out that you've made the perfect argument for how fanfic hurts writers...
Maybe you could expand on how you see it hurting writers? In my experience, fanfic tends to swell the ranks of buyers (ie fans), maintaining interest in fandoms that have been inactive on the seller's end for a long time.
Stephan Zielinski wrote: Hrm. My guesses were either "Baby boomer"-- and doing anything with six white ones would be problematic-- or "boomer" as in "submarine carrying nuclear missiles," which I figured was a tie-in to Christmas at Ground Zero.
Yeah, out of context the "boomers" thing would give anyone problems. 'Six White Boomers' is about a little joey who's lost his mummy, and Santa comes to help him find her; the chorus hinges on the otherwise-commendable notion that in the Southern Hemisphere Santa's reindeer get a break and six white kangaroos pull the sleigh (commendable, that is, unless you start asking questions like "how do kangaroos fit into harnesses? Wouldn't all that jumping make a really jerky ride? And where did he get *one* white kangaroo, let alone six?" Or, of course, simply "Why?")
And yes, I will throttle anyone who starts singing it.
Having worked in a department store at Christmas, I can assure you that *all* songs, no matter how delightful, become nails-down-the-blackboard awful when sung by motion-sensitive animatronic snowmen or electronic cards. Especially when little kiddies think it's fun to jump up and down in front of the snowman or open the card repeatedly while parents/grandparents do the shopping...
The song on my Most Hated list is a variation on 'Jingle Bell Rock', only more frenetic, and with different lyrics, and thank God I can't find said lyrics on the internet. Maybe that means no one has officially recorded it, though it's managed to weasel its way into the local Christmas play...hmm, lessee, at least seven years running, despite having no redeeming features whatsoever. And every time I hear it, I want to run, or scream (or both), but instead end up just standing there cringing and waiting for the torture to cease.
"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock,
Time is tickin' on that Christmas clock
Come on! It's Christmas time!..."
*shudder*
There are other songs on that list, including a Rolf Harris song that I just heard for the first time and would kill never to hear again. I'm with you, Dave - I don't care how un-Australian it is, I'm not singing a song about six white boomers... (Teresa - a "boomer" is a male kangaroo; females are called flyers).
My favourite Christmas song, on the other hand, is 'O Holy Night' as she is sung in my own head. Closest real-world version is Rickie Lee Jones and the Chieftains, even though Rickie sounds somewhat sloshed. There are worse ways to sound when singing Christmas songs :).
Maybe this time I can get in first! Julie's is Bluebeard meets the Wachowski Brothers' Bound.
Kip - Lord of the Rings meets Pulp Fiction.
I, too, am trying to find the title/author of a story - in this case, a science fiction one my mother read in the 60's.
In it, an Earthman arrives on a distant planet to study the local inhabitants (may have been a cultural anthropologist?), and forms a bond with one of the aliens. He becomes concerned when the alien starts acting strangely, and discovers that at 'puberty' the aliens walk off into the lake or swamp, put down roots and become tall, mute plants. He tries to stop his friend from doing this; whether or not he succeeds, my mum can't remember.
Does this ring any bells with anyone, O wise Making Light readership? *beg, plead*
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