| Author |
Topic: The Amazon Tip Jar |
grant
Operative |
posted November 19, 1999 08:12 PM
  
Hey Tom,
do you get the kickback if I a/ get books not on your bookshop
list or b/put them on a wishlist and buy them later?
|
Tom
Archon |
posted November 19, 1999 09:49 PM
I know I get a kickback if you buy any books at Amazon having
followed a link from barbelith. But I have no idea about wish-lists
and stuff like that. I'd LIKE to know, but i don't...
sorry.
|
Tom
Archon |
posted November 19, 1999 09:51 PM
I should make that clearer - if you follow a link for a Terrence
McKenna book from barbelith, and then buy Mr Strong from Roger
Hargreaves inestimable Mr Men series instead (but in the same
session) then I get a small cut - I think it's about 5%.
Still no idea about wishlists though...
|
Ganesha
Myrmidon |
posted November 19, 1999 11:49 PM
Mr Uppity was my favourite...
|
70sman
Operative |
posted November 20, 1999 10:30 AM
put my vote down for Mr.Bump.
|
PornoHolocaust
Operative |
posted November 20, 1999 03:50 PM
Hey, what's with you Brits always spelling Terence Mckenna with 2
R's in his first name? Is this like calling the trunk of your car
the "boot" or spelling "realize" with an S?
|
Twig the Wonder Kid
Operative |
posted November 20, 1999 04:34 PM
tell me Mr Tickle wasn't a progenitor of the slacker generation.
Being able to raid the biscuit barrel without getting out of bed.
The first inaction hero.
|
Ganesha
Myrmidon |
posted November 20, 1999 09:21 PM
Y'mean doing it the proper way, Pornoholocaust? Like pronouncing
'herb' with an 'h'?
|
Loz
Operative |
posted November 21, 1999 08:33 AM
But what about Mr. Mischief, the Invisible Mr Man? And Little Miss
Bossy, the Myrmidon Little Miss?
Oh dear, I feel a Mr.
Man/Invisibles crossover coming on...
|
number nun
Operative |
posted November 23, 1999 05:22 AM
Wow kickbacks from amazon, huh? Makes me feel like going to the used
bookstore in my city, the one i bought the illuminatus triligy and
loads of philip k dick, and all those neat-o 70's occult books...oh
wait, he closed down six months after borders moved in down the
street...Every one bow down to the faceless world of conveinance,
its a new era...oh yeah, was there something we were fighting for? I
forget.
|
Jackie Susann
Operative |
posted November 23, 1999 05:52 AM
My, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
If all things corporate are as utterly despicable as you seem to
think, why do you read The Invisibles?
If we are fighting for anything, don't you think it's a little
more complex than the right to buy our consumer items from small
businesses rather than large ones?
|
Ganesha
Myrmidon |
posted November 23, 1999 09:49 AM
That's right, number nun, we're all heartless whores to the evil
that is capitalism. Except you, no doubt.
|
Topper
Operative |
posted November 23, 1999 01:40 PM
Jackie said:
"If we are fighting for anything, don't you think
it's a little more complex than the right to buy our consumer items
from small businesses rather than large ones?"
Maybe so, maybe not. It's part and parcel of the whole. A
fractal. As above, so below. Etc. One thing the Invisibles stand for
is diversity. A Barnes&Noble, Starbucks, and Wal-mart on every
corner is not diversity.
|
grant
Operative |
posted November 23, 1999 01:44 PM
But is Amazon?
|
70sman
Operative |
posted November 23, 1999 02:04 PM
Amazon offers to post me , within a day , a huge selection of
literature so diverse and esoteric that the old lady who runs my
local bookshop would have a stroke if i went in and read out the
titles.
Thus , amazon is good.
|
Jackie Susann
Operative |
posted November 23, 1999 10:21 PM
Topper said:
"One thing the Invisibles stand for is diversity. A
Barnes&Noble, Starbucks, and Wal-mart on every corner is not
diversity."
But a whole bunch of equally capitalistic, but less powerful,
small businesses is diversity? As above, so below: small businesses
are the same as big ones. If you're taking this revolutionary
rhetoric at all seriously, it means getting rid of capitalism, not
scaling it down to a nice friendly size.
|
Topper
Operative |
posted November 24, 1999 02:35 PM
True. But let's stay within the confines of capitalism for a moment.
Yes, I think it's a given that a whole bunch of equally
capitalistic, but less powerful, small businesses are more diverse
than monolithic corporations. You walk into a Starbucks (or UK
equivalent) and you know what you're getting. But Freddo's Coffee
might serve Mint Delight. And Teddo's Coffee might have cherry
cheescake, plus internet terminals. And Teddo and Freddo both have
more friendly, personal service than Starbucks. Teddo might brew me
a cup of green tea with honey even though it's not on the menu.
Therefore, more diversity. Right?
Now let's step away from capitalism. Far away from it. Personally
I hate the way it commodifies everything - from a pristine natural
landscape to man's artistic drive. Trees = paper. A stream = white
water rafting course. A field = parking lot. Capitalism doesn't let
you value things for what they are. And I'd love to have a system
that did.
You say you want a revolution? Well I'd love to hear the plan.
But for now I'll take diversity where I can find it.
Cheers, and happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States.
|
Jackie Susann
Operative |
posted November 24, 1999 09:04 PM
Okay, so Freddo's cafe serves Mint Delight - does that really mean
diversity? It just sounds like Coke vs Pepsi to me. I could go all
Situationist and explain how the spectacle of diversity is nothing
more than the natural form of capital in these cynical, postmodern
times - the recuperation of the desire for change. Or I could go on
a crit. theory tangent and suggest that such models of diversity
mask the social contradictions they help to constitute, reifying
difference as an abstraction so as not to introduce conflict with
the preimposed, hegemonic social categories of life under capital
(i.e. class, race, gender, etc.). Or, to put it more plainly, the
right to buy stuff, however supposedly diverse, does not in itself
count as diversity. Consumption is consumption, not difference or
change.
I don't have a plan for revolution so, like you, I'll take what I
can get here and now. But that doesn't mean thinking a piece of
cheese cake counts as difference, or that I can consume my way into
a better tomorrow.
Happy thanksgiving, by the way, I wish we had more holidays over
here. (What am I saying? I'm unemployed.)
[This message has been edited by Jackie Susann (edited November
24, 1999).]
|
Topper
Operative |
posted November 25, 1999 10:28 PM
When you're unemployed, every day is a holiday 
|
Karen Elliot
Operative |
posted November 27, 1999 06:24 AM
amen to that, but, could you tell my mother?
|
grant
Operative |
posted December 17, 1999 01:28 PM
Hey Tom, I just bought a few things for Christmas on Amazon via your
site. I stuck
em in the shopping cart overnight and went
directly there the next day (last night).
If you don't get kicked
back around $5 or so, lemme know.
-- gab
|
Tom
Archon |
posted December 18, 1999 01:13 PM
You're a star! That might help fund the spiralling cost of running
the Nexus...
| |
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