Re: Book sales, Schiller, and USCF


Chess One wrote:
> <avital.pilpel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1129014926.658398.151780@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Chessone:
> >
> > I perfectly agree that, for example, Bruce Pandolfini's numerous tomes
> > are only marginally better than the Keene/Schiller junk, and I wonder
> > why the chesscafe sells them. That said, it's an imperfect world: for
> > some unfathomable reason, Pandolfini's books are very popular in the
> > USA. Perhaps the chesscafe cannot do without the money. But if it is
> > forced, financially, to support one meretricious writer, why does it
> > follow that it must support all meretricious writers equally? If I rob
> > one old lady, that's bad enough, but must I now rob all old ladies in
> > order to be fair and apply an equal standard?
>
> Yes - I would agree that IF there was a standard of minimal qualifications
> in order to represent a book then by all means employ that standard.

I think the minimal standard has been set, and it obvious to everyone
except Mr. Innes.

> I think the issues here are otherwise; it is not books which are banned, but
> authors. Do you agree?

No.

> Secondly, the [unwritten] standard is maintained [by whom?] against
> /selective/ authors, not weak titles by all authors.

But not all "weak" titles are the same. A "weak" book from some may be
a masterpiece by another.

> Louis Blair has taken to employing the term which has no definition: 'USCF
> enemy'. It is also true that neither USCF nor Chesscafe admit that these
> procedures are in place. Whatever standard is employed is a secret one,
> though an open secret as it were.

I'm not aware that Dr. Blair speaks for anyone but himself.

> >>In which case this is a form of censorship, based on quality of the
> >>titles,
> >
> > Yes. Exactly. Imagine that! Ah, if only the chesscafe applied more
> > censorship of this sort, and stopped trying to unload B. P.'s junk on
> > the teeming masses of patzers, yearning to improve... am I to
> > understand, by the way, that you refuse to engage in this sort of
> > "censorship" in your internet chess book store? What is your
> > slogan--"We do not censor--no title is too worthless for us to sell!"?
> > Thanks for the warning.
>
> I think that is an unwarranted assumption from anything I wrote

No, it is a perfectly valid assumption based on Mr. Innes' writing.

- and
> somewhat heated and facetious, but I will reply anyway:
>
> The store carries whatever titles it wishes!

What a concept!

Regardless of book reviews. In
> fact the opposite situation is more likely to occur, that books which the
> store does not carry will be recommend to it based on their worth.

And if the store feels it will make money selling those titles, it will
add them. What part of this process don't you understand?

> I will also assert the point as I have done before, that the worth of a book
> is to its reader, and in the USA at least, it is the common practice to let
> the consumer make choices of what to buy or not buy.

Philth has discovered capitalism.

Do you prefer another
> standard?

How about a "standard" in which a shill, err, "Business Manager" for a
chess website posts bogus charges against a rival in an effort to drive
up business?

> Chessville uses many more reviewers than almost any other website [more than
> any I know] and this factor tends to deaden any one voice's influence over
> all.

Most of these Chessvile reviewers, to judge by a recent reading of the
site, haven't produced anything other than expanded press releases for
the books under review. Some may tack on a paragraph or sentence
telling us what they thought we should buy it. Some should never have
been published, such as the semi-literate Innes reviews and the awful
Schroeder piece. BTW, the Schroeder review of NY 1936 predates
Chessvile, and first appeared in one of his laughable mailings;
Chessvile must have been desperate for copy in the early days when they
reprinted this wonder.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Whats the relationship between scales and chords?
    ... Standard books would be used to teach beginning ... reviews of books by reputable organizations dedicated to ... against my intimate knowledge of the books, ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: Whats the relationship between scales and chords?
    ... Standard books would be used to teach beginning ... UC/LC truly was the "standard" then I would see that standard ... The UC notation may or may not be generic to Schenkerian ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: Whats the relationship between scales and chords?
    ... across any books in mainstream use that does not use UC/LC with the ... All the texts that I have seen use the standard UC/LC RN ... TONAL HARMONY IN CONCEPT AND PRACTICE, ... INTRODUCTION TO SCHENKERIAN ANALYSIS, Alan Forte etc ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: Whats the relationship between scales and chords?
    ... across any books in mainstream use that does not use UC/LC with the ... All the texts that I have seen use the standard UC/LC RN ... TONAL HARMONY IN CONCEPT AND PRACTICE, ... INTRODUCTION TO SCHENKERIAN ANALYSIS, Alan Forte etc ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: subroutine stack and C machine model
    ... They could have standardized that the language would be ... getting the facts wrong anyway. ... And the answer, for the Schildt books, is that they consistently produced ... to C start with the standard. ...
    (comp.lang.c)
Loading