Baz Luhrmann — Tragt Sonnencreme

:)

“[…] [D]efinition of a liberal: a conservative who just got arrested. A conservative, of course, is a liberal who just got mugged.”

just stumbled on it in the book “Steel Beach” by John Varley.

Although this will be yet another literature suggestion and I’m usually doing these in german, this one will (hopefully) come along (nicely) in english. I just started a book that appears to be one masterpiece. I can’t really put into words what makes a book a masterpiece in my view but it seems to be something that is between the lines. Occasionally, there are books that make you feel bad and take your energy away - and by that I don’t mean that they are boring. And there are masterpieces that do the exact opposite: They set your mind on fire in a positive way. They give you a starting point for a thought on its own with every of their sentences.

On of those seems to be “The Wealth of Networks” by Yochai Benkler. Benkler is a professor at the famous Berkman Center For Internet And Society at Harvard. Fame aside, he also seems to be someone with a very beautiful writing and thinking style. I merely read the first few chapters yet and already if not learned then understood deeper allot of things that move the creation and distribution of information goods. He is an advocate of free and open software and a general information commons and gives allot of reasons for everyone, even hardcore economists, to also embrace the emergence of a new world of culture creation. I have yet to see what is coming but it seems be a strong statement against strong copyright policy because of simple economic reasons and not some 69’s dream of equality (not that I wouldn’t like these dreams). So for everyone who already loves commons and who would like to bring light into his understandings of motivations for information production and who wants to get insp(f)ired, I can really suggest the read. :)