[Air-L] book announcement

[Charles Ess]

well said and to the point - exactly.
That said: what is to prevent anyone from contacting an author whose name
s/he notices in a table of contents and asking for a copy of a given chapter
or article?
Without speaking for anyone else - this is a practice I engage in, as both
requester and sender. It is also true in my experience that most authors are
(generally) happy to respond positively to such requests, most especially
under the sorts of circumstances you describe. Obviously, we want our work
to be read and critically evaluated - not sequestered.
An advantage of this practice, in my experience, is that it sometimes
fosters helpful dialogue and creative collaboration between scholars who
otherwise will not likely meet.
Not an ideal solution, perhaps, but perhaps not also such a bad one?

My two bits - and please keep throwing in yours!
- charles
 


On 3/9/11 8:30 AM, "Alan Sondheim" <sondheim at panix.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> Hi -
> 
> Want to add my two bits here - that for people like myself, who are not
> university affiliated, prices like these just keep the books out of our
> ken altogether. The same goes for conference fees (unless they're waived,
> which is a rarity), etc. The two tiered system is in place, here and now,
> and a lot of us are tired of back-peddling to get the latest findings in
> research, JSTOR, etc. This creates an academic enclave that parallels
> those described by Davis re: homeowners associations, etc. You pay your
> dues, literally, or remain ignorant and end up always - always - watching
> the dialog occur elsewhere.
> 
> Personally, I'm disgusted by these prices; I wish there were waivers for
> those of us in the pale, below the poverty line, whatever. A 'Handbook' is
> supposed to be useful, almost in the sense of fieldwork - but whose field-
> work?