Sunday, October 30, 2011

History Repeats Itself -- a second time?

Nancy Kress has posted an excerpt from sir John Froissart, about the Peasant's Revolt in response to the Statute of Labourers (1351). 
Occupy London, 1381

5 comments:

  1. So? Were they right? They weren't successful, but did they have a point?

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  2. The medievals were smart enough to protest against the government. After all, it was a Law passed in Parliament that put a cap on the prices they could demand for their labor.

    (Recall that after the Black Death there was a shortage of labor and as in any shortage, the providers were "price gouging." We don't tend to think of wage demands in that way, but shortages - whether of bread or labor - do drive up prices to levels the purchasers thereof regard as double-plus unfair.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr Flynn,
    I have a sad story to relate.
    I used to read science-fiction books ten at a time when I was just a young lad but it became more and more difficult to find good science-fiction that wasn’t morally reprehensible and I fell away from that genre a long time ago.
    I recently found a link to you through Mark Shea and began the arduous task of obtaining some of your work. I own a Kindle and love it. I normally download and start reading an eBook with about two clicks. Your work is not sold as an eBook at Amazon so I did some research and discovered that I could convert your books to Kindle via a program called Calibre.
    I tried to purchase an example of your work through Barnes and Noble but I’m in Australia and at the very end of the complicated account creation process it not only asks for a billing address in America but a delivery address too (for an eBook!) So that was twenty minutes I’ll never get back. So then I found one eBook in Australia (one!) and spent another portion of my life creating an account and purchasing it.
    Then I tried to download it so I could convert it and had to spend another sizeable portion of my life creating an account at Adobe to allow that. Then I finally downloaded it and it’s in German! I have appealed to Angus and Robertson for a refund but don’t like my chances and at this point in time I have a German eBook and have not been able to find where to purchase any other eBooks in English by you for Australia. There probably are places but I’m writing this now because I’m frustrated and I thought you might like to know how much I am suffering for YOUR art!
    Rant completed. I will return to the battle. By crikey, this had better be worth it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mr Flynn,
    It's me again :(
    I tried another place called Diesel online but like everyone else they only tell you at the very end of the process that you can't buy it in Australia. I can't find anywhere else and I've given up. This is a sad day. Can you help?

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  5. Auf deutsch? Das musst "Der Fluss der Sterne" sein.

    Leastwise, that's the only German edition I know of. I've asked some who might have answers that could help. We'll see. I had thought that Eifelheim, The January Dancer, and Up Jim River were Kindle-vailable -- but maybe not Down Under?

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  Hello family, friends and fans of Michael F. Flynn.   It is with sorrow and regret that I inform you that my father passed away yesterday,...