I have this sweetie who also adores sci-fi books. We were on a bike ride at some point, and he asks if I’ve read There is No Antimemetics Division. I reply that I have not, and he offers to give me his copy (he knows I prefer reading paper copies in bed even though I love a good Creative Commons story even more, and self-published copies are also a way to support the author). I say yes. I read it, it’s delightful, I find the ending a bit flat because it’s antithetical to how the rest of the book went, BUT it’s still very good and I’m glad I read it. I stick it somewhere as a book I like enough to want to share with other folks if they spot it.
I suggest Reed also read it. He picks it up and likes it so much he also gets a copy for his brother for Christmas. The new copy is different, a hardback, and the main character’s name seems to have changed. That’s ok, sometimes there are further editions of things, must meant the author is doing well.
Reed comes to me and says “hey do you still have your copy?” and I reply that yet I do unless I stuck it in the LFL. He tells me it’s now worth $500. Apparently the bitcoin bros have found out about it and want copies of the first self-published run.
Now, I have some Feelings on this. Mainly that it’s under Creative Commons and so you can just get the actual words for free, and so wanting this particular printed version is pure status signaling, which is not a thing I think you should be able to be able to come to via money. I’m a goth punk kid from the Midwest where people didn’t even WANT to pretend to be like us, who then moved to bigger cities where having stuck to that background made you “cool” and so there were lots of folks adopting the trappings without the values alignment (history is something you can always build).
But also, I’m doing a bunch of stuff in my neighborhood out of my own pocket and I don’t like asking my neighbors to throw in to help cover the costs, and this book could now cover nearly all of the radios I just got for all of us. And that would be nice, and it’s ridiculous to throw money at something that’s literally freely available.
So I’ve offered to give the copy back to the sweetie who gave it to me. Philosophy is not my favorite place to be trapped.
