Remember When Inventors Were Heroes?
My medical thriller is .99 through Sunday. If you haven't yet read PoJ, co-authored with my husband dbhalling, check it out! The price is right...
“Pendulum of Justice reads like a book on anti-gravity: impossible to put down! My main complaint is how come the next book in the series isn’t out already.”
Peter Cresswell
Publisher of NotPC
“Pendulum of Justice reads like a book on anti-gravity: impossible to put down! My main complaint is how come the next book in the series isn’t out already.”
Peter Cresswell
Publisher of NotPC
It's not just inventors no longer considered heroes, it seems to me anyone that achieves beyond the PC avg/mean is marginalized and set out as someone not to emulate.
Apparently, from a political point of view, it is better to be admired as a gangsta than the gentleman that invented air conditioning. Better to be a drug dealer than the fellow that used the secret recipe to market Coca Cola. We should tear down an older southern woman for the language she once used, instead of teaching the kids Harlan Sanders was 66 years old before he figured out KFC.
IMHO, as a Nation we have been talked into keeping our eyes on the wrong ball.
Come to think of it, a lot of the old-time series books for young people had some thought behind them. The Hardy Boys were crime fighters, but they were also detectives and had a lot of MacGuyver in them. The same goes for "The Three Investigators" (in my day, featuring Alfred Hitchcock--they've been through several incarnations since).
There was a somewhat obscure children's series in my day which featured Mark and Rich, two outdoorsmen who tended to find themselves in the middle of mysteries (some historical) and survival situations, usually in some exotic and/or historical setting. They thought on their feet, used the tools they had at hand, and invariably solved whatever problem or problems they faced. Several of the books led to me developing an interest in the locations they explored, which led me to other things, and so on and so on....
The "Mark And Rich" authors did other series as well. One involved a racing team--all of the stuff about mechanics was accurate. I believe there was another about explorers or treasure hunters as well.
I assume there are still books for young people out there which inspire curiosity and have heroes worthy of the name. At least, I hope so. Am I the only one who is tired of seeing reams of books about zombies and vampires on store shelves? I don't see the appeal.
I think that the ubiquity of 'magic' may also explain the return to religiosity.
Jan
Since writing my original post, I remembered another series of books that I devoured while in elementary school. They dealt with American historical figures as they "might have been" when they were young and had "familiar" names (Alexander Graham Bell was "Alec Bell").
Many were inventors or similar. I remember Alexander Graham Bell and The Wright Brothers, also George Washington Carver and "Tom Edison". There may have been one on Henry Ford also.
Most were about Annie Oakley, Jim Bridger, Davy Crockett, etc. There were a lot of them. All were presented as positive role models and heroic figures.
Off-topic a bit but does anyone remember "The Equalizer"? The show went off-track as it went on, I suspect in an attempt to compete with "The X-Files", but I always found the hero interesting. A man with a dark past who had decided to right wrongs, one person or situation at a time. Violence was a last resort. Almost always, he figured out his opponents' resources and weaknesses, then used them to bring the opponent down. A thinking person's James Bond.
Modern version you might take a look at: "Leverage"
Yes enough vampires and zombies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Equi...
I already had it in my "to order" queue and now it has jumped out of there into my "ordered" list.
Looking forward to adding it to my read (past tense) list.
I believe he still has a web site at woodynorris.com
years ago when I was traveling with just a briefcase.
Thanks for the link!!! -- j
http://hallingblog.com/why-did-rand-choo...
Communal, yep, like "free" software. Patents should be eliminated, but we should fund and protect art and literature.
He used ...sarcasm...
Stone tools? Pottery? Leather?
I'm thinking pink, soft extinction...Well, maybe we'll have Twitter to follow the whole thing.
I always tell my inventors that they are going to have to tell someone about their inventions eventually or they will never make any money. But of course this always results in some risk. VCs almost never sign Non-Disclosure Agreements. In a perfect world obtaining a patent would be quick and not to expensive, but that is not the world we live in. In a perfect world, you would wait to tell people about your invention until after you obtained your patent. In the real world it is important to remember that a patent is a barrier to entry (there are others) and like physical barriers (locks, safes) to entry there is no such thing as perfect barrier. Thus you have to make a trade about how much protection you want or can afford and the ability to take you invention to market.
There are very few politicians who can be considered heroes. My heroes don’t have to be perfect because I have yet to meet a perfect person. One last item, heroes can also be people who change the world for the better (like Ayn Rand).
One of the major travesties of the recent reforms is the law change to "first-to-file". Under this new rule, the inventor is not recognized as the definition of inventor for the purpose of the property right. Rather the first to file a patent application. It is blatantly unconstitutional, as inventors' rights are established in the Constitution.
On the second one: it is sad that many don’t seem to recognize our constitution as the highest law of the land but something to get around or ignored (at least until SCOTUS strikes them down).
I bought the kindle, and the paperback, and read them
with extraordinary relish. I loved every word, and
even loved the words between words, the punctuation,
the nuances, the coloratura of meanings ... it was
more than a book;;; for almost a month, it was my
mistress, pleasing me endlessly, late at night! I still
return for more, months later!
This Is A Good Book! Buy It! -- j
p.s. I'm almost through with my 4th one, now.
I thought that was the title... ".99 through Sunday"
And where?
(after clicking the post title)
Oh... it *is* PoJ...
Why again should I buy it when you were instrumental in getting me sent to Coventry? Even for 99 cents?
Edit: I just ordered it, but you can't make me read it... :mutter:
I regard opening another account as deceitful, and believe others would view it the same.
and why did you not answer my thank you memo? -- j
And yes, I've discovered that there are two kinds of people in the world; Player Characters (PCs) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs).
Kind of like the serenity prayer, I'm trying to accept that.
Especially independent thinking.