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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday October 28 2015, @10:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the one-ring-to-rule-them-all dept.

"I never expected a money success," said Tolkien, pacing the room, as he does constantly when he speaks. "In fact, I never even thought of commercial publication when I wrote The Hobbit back in the Thirties.

"It all began when I was reading exam papers to earn a bit of extra money. That was agony. One of the tragedies of the underpaid professor is that he has to do menial jobs. He is expected to maintain a certain position and to send his children to good schools. Well, one day I came to a blank page in an exam book and I scribbled on it. 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

The piece is a pleasant read about the greatest fantasy writer of all time.


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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday October 29 2015, @06:57AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday October 29 2015, @06:57AM (#255915) Journal

    "It all began when I was reading exam papers to earn a bit of extra money. That was agony. One of the tragedies of the underpaid professor is that he has to do menial jobs."

    So, if we want more "creative works", we need to pay professors less, not guarantee them income through copyrights! Look what has happened with the textbook market! Books that if they were trade (and of course they could not be) would be going for $19.95 are suddenly selling for $195.95 in the University Bookstore! Why, you might ask? Well, because they can, and copyright. This is a backwards state of affairs. Knowledge should be make as widely available as possible, so that people cannot be duped by Republicans, TeaBaggers, and Donald TrumP! Intellectual property is no such thing, it is artificial restraint on culture, on thought, and as such an anathema to everything that LIberal democracy stands for. Did I mention that the only real form of democracy is a liberal democracy? Just checking. Copyright is not liberal, it is not democratic, and I and everyone I know have taken a pledge, upon our property, our lives, and our sacred honor, to ignore copyright. Copying your stuff, fool! Don't know why, since it really has no redeeming qualities outside of being copyrighted. Whoa! That's the plan? Sub-optimal works (mediocre!) that are only valued for the cred of hacking the DRM protections to make them go viral? Oh, you are so sick! It is a Warboy approach to copyright!!@ Witness me! Oh, what a lovely day! (wait, was that just a copyright violation right there? But I did not give any cred to the original work! If it is just a social reference that everyone gets, is it not just Kleenex, and not Mad Max at all?)

    In conclusion, pay professors less. They are already lower than their MA students. Lower than Plumbers. Lower than Lawyers, if that is possible. So if we get them low enough, we can expect another "Hobbit". Unless, of course, they are professors of Accountancy, or of Human Resources Management, or in fact of any kind of "Management". Or professors of "computer science", which seems to involve using Micro$ert Word and Excel. Or professors of Psychology, like John "Bruce" Jessen and James E. Mitchell (may they both burn in hell, with no torture, but the eternal expectation of it in retaliation for what they have done.) OK, seems I am on the way to limiting the salary of only Professors of Anglo-Saxon Literature, which then almost limits it to England (back off, Kiwis!), so really only JRR Tolkien, and that boat has already sailed (to the West, with Bilbo and Frodo!!), so there is not point. Pay the professors better. Nothing is worse than professors having to prostitute themselves by reading exams (especially for a Bush related company! Look it up. ) or engaging in actual prostitution, which often does not work out so well anyway.

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 29 2015, @03:40PM

    by Freeman (732) on Thursday October 29 2015, @03:40PM (#256073) Journal

    There is so much wrong in your post, but a few tiny nuggets of possibly interesting stuff. Perhaps you shouldn't drink and post?

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"