Perdí la inocencia literaria tras aquel encuentro. Hasta entonces no entendí que detrás de lo que se escribe hay toda una industria que necesita seguir funcionando. Aún me quedaban fuerzas y años por delante y me rebelé contra la evidencia para rescatar mi visión pura de la literatura. Encontré un grupo literario (La Caterva, en Casa de Porras) en el que nos negamos casi rotundamente a pasar por el aro de vivir el hecho literario como quien va a la fábrica a apretar tornillos. Lo nuestro era la escritura artesana. No éramos rentables editorialmente, claro (nadie nos hacía ni el más mínimo caso), pero escritores como Agustín Cerezales –educado literariamente por su madre, Carmen Laforet– nos animaban a vivir de un modo distinto de ese literato que vende ficciones por kilos. Aquellos años de ilusión me dejaron claro que una cosa es escribir bien y otra que te publiquen. Y ya, si encima vendes a lo Ruiz Zafón, pues a lo mejor es que el mucho vender no es proproporcional a la calidad de tu libro.
Pero si no hay venta, no hay ferias. Suena frío, y hasta paradójico respecto a lo antedicho, pero es la pura realidad, como nos dejó claro aquella editora de piernas de gacela y dientes de tiburón. Editoras así, a lo Cruela de Vil, te permiten entender mejor fenómenos como estas ferias que proliferan por mayo en toda España. Las ferias, de libros o de ganado, se hacen para vender: se organizan con el mismo fin crematístico que la ‘hiperferia’ de Arte Contemporáneo (ARCO, al paso que va, un día será un mercadillo de todo a 6.000) o el salón del automóvil o de estufas. Si no hay movimiento de cifras, la cosa no pita. Y si no se alegran los libreros, todo el tinglado se viene abajo: los distribuidores sollozan, la editorial cierra y los escritores dejan de soñar con un día vivir de lo que hacen.
Si la diferencia entre la creación y el márquetin literario-mediático se tiene clara, la cosa va bien. Lo malo es cuando los escritores empiezan sus novelas pensando en el nuevo coche. Después no hay quien les lea. Y entonces ya no nos queda ni el consuelo de que, aunque sea en fotocopias, podamos leer algo que nos redima de este mundo con las garras tan feroces.

Quizá sin proponérselo, mi mamá se ha convertido en coleccionista de revistas.

Recibe, en la casa, todas las que envían a domicilio y las demás, que no han entrado a la moda del delivery, han pasado a formar parte de una nueva partida en la lista de compra del súper.

A la Moda, Vanidades, Mujer Única, Sexo, Salud, Belleza, Ejercicios, Cocina, Jardinería, Hola, Cadena…. Uf!, las tiene de todos los temas imaginables.

Desplayadas sobre mi librero me “roban” el poco espacio destinado para mis libros, los cuales se encuentran amontonados unos encima de otro.

El otro día le pregunte:

- Mami, ¿por qué guardas tantas revistas, si después que las lees, contrario a los libros, no te sirven para nada?

- Eso no es así, si las compro es porque son útiles, además tienen artículos interesantes que puedo volver a leer. ¡No te atrevas a tocarlas!, me advirtió.

- ¡Sí, claro!, respondí

A sabiendas de que todas esas revistas estaban repletas de recetas, que nunca hace; tips para sembrar plantas, pero no tenemos patio; guía de ejercicios, y nunca sube trotando la escalera; chismes de artistas, que no viven en este país; modas de vestidos, por si baja de peso… en fin un molote de cosas para “algún día”.

No me molesta que compre revistas, a mi también me gusta leer. Mi queja es que las coloca sobre mi pequeño, viejo y maltratado librero y se adueña de mi espacio.

Dice Víctor, mi padrastro, que es bueno que empiece a conocer a las mujeres, y analizando el caso, creo que me quiso decir que cuando tenga mi esposa, piense seriamente en la idea, de regalarle un librero.

http://lujoymoda.fotoblog.com.mx/

En breve comenzaremos a dar toda la información sobre el curso que resulte de interés: Fechas, lugares, requisitos...

Esperamos que os sea de ayuda

I have just come away from the launch of two new books by ORBICOM. ORBICOM is the International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communication. Two confessions. First, I have not read these books yet. Well, I just scanned through them. After all, they have just been released. My opinions are based on first impressions supplemented by overviews from the authors during the launch.Second, I am a board member of ORBICOM. This does not, however, mean that I will be biased in my opinions of the book. The two publications, published with support from Canada's International Development Research Centre, are as follows:

1. Orbicom (2007). Emerging development opportunities: the making of information societies and ICT markets. Montreal: Orbicom.

2. Librero, F (ed). (2007). Digital review of Asia Pacific 2007-2008. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore: Sage. The books are a welcome addition to the ever growing body of literature on the subject of ICTs. Both of them have a strong slant on the development agenda in the information society. The first book, in which the term "information society" occurs repeatedly, does not seem to have an elaborate definition of the concept of the information society. A conceptual definition is useful in such matters because it signals what is being measured quantitatively -- and qualitatively. Indeed, this is a largely quantitative study, although it does highlight the more qualitative issue of the kinds of policy environments within which the information society is unfolding. To be fair, the book locates its statistical indicators for "monitoring progress and informing policy" within what it calls the "ICT Opportunity Index (ICT-OI) which "enables analyses across and within countries over time, as well as the monitoring of progress with regards to specific ICTs". The framework uses notions of "infodensity" (ICT infrastructure, ICT skills) and "info-use" (ICT uptake, ICT intensity of use). It then places these indicators within the broader "socio-economic, geopolitical and cultural environment" (p.1).

As I have said, a clear conceptual definition is called for. The ICT Opportunity Index seems to capture much of what Frank Webster defines as the key characteristics of the information society. According to Webster, the information society can be defined in terms of (i) technological, (ii) occupational, (iii) economic, (iv) spatial, and (v) cultural features.  

To explain: The technological definition highlights the huge innovations in technology. The occupational definition charts the emergence of employment in the information sector. The economic definition involves ascribing an economic value to the various sectors of the information society, including charting the contributions of each sector to the Gross National Product (GNP). The spatial definition is concerned with the role and importance of information networks, which connect locations and consequently impact on the organisation of time and space. The cultural definition invokes the extraordinary increase in information in social circulation and how it affects the pattern of our everyday lives.

The first book, like many other studies before it, highlights the tremendous uptake of mobile telephony in Africa. However, it laments what seems to be a relatively small growth in the ICT industry. Various factors are responsible for this. What I seemed to miss were the endogenous cultural reasons for the consumption of ICTs, and for the slow growth rate of the ICT industry. To be fair, the author of the chapter on Africa remarked upon the paucity of research into the consumption patterns of ICTs. My sense, however, was that the literature survey on Africa was not extensive enough -- there is much more work that has been in this area by the likes of Arthur Goldstuck, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and so on.

The second book -- Digital review of Asia Pacific 2007-2008 -- struck me as particularly interesting. It also seems to subscribe to the same definitional categories of the information society as the first book. The authors were quick, however, to point out the problem of statistical generalisation. An example cited was one to do with how China's purchasing power parity (PPP) -- a measure often used to compare the standards of living between countries-- seemed to have just been adjusted by the World Bank. This raises fundamental questions about the reliability and validity of the "economic" measurement of the information society, not to say the ideological motivations and uses of such measures. In a nutshell: it is not an easy task to quantify the information society.

Which is why I was intrigued by the publication's synthesis of such other key issues as follows.

• First, they point to the idea of "e-waste". We seem to forget that every new technology replaces an old technology, which becomes obsolete and creates "e-waste". Most e-waste finds its way into the countries of the South, especially Africa.
• Second, there is still a tenuous relationship between ICT and economic growth, especially in Africa. Can ICT really enable economic growth?
• Third, issues of "net neutrality" and "public networks" still require sorting out. Is the Internet ideologically "neutral"? What public policy benefits can really be derived from it?
• Fourth, the issue of Internet governance is still a hot one, defying easy solutions.
• Fifth, what are the thorny issues surrounding the notions of e-government and e-governance? Such issues include limited expertise, budgetary constraints, and so on.
• Sixth, the question of open source and open content still remains problematic.
• Seventh, what issues are defining education for the information society? For example, is the acquisition of new skills resulting in new socio-economic inequalities, with the multimedia-savvy standing a better chance of employment in and deployment to lucrative information sectors?
• Lastly, I was happy to note that the study highlighted the issue of "localisation". It doesn't do a particularly thorough job of unpacking this concept, at least in terms of its cultural motive force in explaining the processes of consumption that challenge dominant views held about the almost inexorable cultural effects of globalisation.

Well, enough of that. Time to look at other things happening here at the GKP3 in Kuala Lumpur.