Welcome to Forgotonia

My parents bought me a Kindle for Christmas.

And, ingrate that I am, I’m going to publicly list everything I don’t like about it.

I feel the need to do this, you see, because I once hated the idea of the iPod, (which I now can’t live without).

I’m aware that I’m on the brink of abandoning something I care about deeply (the book, the printed word, the future of human civilization, blah blah blah). So,

I Knock Before I Try, Because:

1. The damn things necessitate accessorizing. I dread this scenario (which I’m sure will happen in the not-too-distant future): Person 1: “What color Skin did you purchase for your Kindle?” Person 2: “I got a pink polka-dotted one to match the pink supply of Air that I purchased to breathe for this month.”It’s like taking the last decent, non-materialistic part of our culture and turning it into one more consumer experience. This is just simply wrong. (Never mind that a certain person  may or may not have added a bright pink, lighted cover to her Amazon Wish List today).
   
2. Books were the last things that encouraged patience, sitting still, focusing on one thing at a time. Now you can buy another book when you’re supposed to be reading the one in your hands. Soon we’ll see the new Amazon “Order with One Blink” option. (Amazon Prime will provide a free tube of Latisse.)
3. Libraries, which you could say are central to democracy, are already struggling. So, you’re already down, eh? Well here’s a big swift kick in the arse!
4. The way people defend the necessity of the Kindle’s existence by saying “It’s so much more convenient.” Really? Holding a small paperback in your hands was seriously “inconvenient”? I will allow this line if you are, say, Susan Orlean, or the President, and are therefore traveling constantly and reading and researching a lot. (That’s the kind of President I hope for, anyway). But otherwise, the number of books you’re reading simply cannot be breaking your back. My great-grandmother probably hauled water for the wash–which she conducted with a washboard–from the well to the farmhouse and back again. My ancestors’ ghosts laugh at your definition of inconvenience. (Take that, Jeff Bezos.)
5. Magazines don’t mind if you drop food on them. (I read at the table when I’m eating lunch. A lot.) Kindles probably cannot tolerate such abuse. (Wimps.)
6. The fact that I know I’m going to be an underdog here. Just like all those poor fools who are trying to save the U.S. Post Office from going under. (If only the U.S.P.O. had invented Blink Mail or colored Air.)

Left: books I received for Christmas. In this corner (right) the opponent awaits.

Earlier this fall, Sufjan Stevens’ record company issued a statement arguing that consumers should think twice before taking advantage of Amazon.com’s  five-dollar pricing. (See the Nov. 2010 list of multi-genre cheap albums here.)

Sufjan’s company was wise to say in the statement that it’s a plus when a low price helps fans discover new music. But, according to their argument, artists’ effort and creative product–such as Stevens’ most recent album–”is worth more than a cost of a latte.”

On one hand, I totally get where they’re coming from. To be honest, I was surprised when Amazon started doing its $5 pricing, (or at least when I first discovered it, a couple of months ag0), there wasn’t more of an uproar from the recording artists. (Where are you on this one, Lars Ulrich?!).

An Sufjan Stevens, with his creativity and originality represents the very kind of non-corporate artist I dig.

By the time his company made that fuss, I had already realized that my instant Amazon purchase of the Arcade Fire‘s The Suburbs– the week it was released, for five bucks–was the equivalent of buying something at Wal-Mart because it was easy and cheap, even if I don’t believe in the values of the Wal-Mart way. I knew that as I sat at my computer contemplating the purchase, I should probably log off, walk up the street, and pay $10 or $12 for the tangible album at The Phoenix, (which, true to its name, has arisen multiple times and endured in several different locations around Macomb, but which I fear is surely struggling.)

So the comment from the Sufjan camp did cause me to stop and think.

But then I was done thinking about it.  “Purchase with one click?” Why yes, Amazon, thank you, I believe will!

And so I basically ripped off an artist I like and respect (not to mention a local store owner). Just like I’ve done over the last couple months, when I bought the latest albums by

• Broken Bells
• Yeasayer
• The Hold Steady
• Band of Horses
• My Morning Jacket
• LCD Soundsystem
• The Avett Brothers
• The Weepies
  and others.

In other words, I’ve purchased more new music in the last few months than I have in the last couple of years–or maybe since I became an adult.

It’s like a floodgate has opened after a drought–a drought so long and severe that I had resigned myself to the idea that it was permanent.

Depressingly, my lifelong passion and devotion for pop music began to wane as soon as I had to start facing such things as,  say, an electric bill.

For the music fan, everything about adulthood slowly begins to take you away from what you love. From being able to go out and comb used-CD stores every weekend to discover that gem that’s going to change your life. From racing out to get the latest from your favorite band on the day it’s released. From going to shows, which require tanks of gas to get there, Ticketmaster fees, overnight accommodations, etc. (And btw, Sufjan, I did go to see you in St. Louis a couple years ago, and those tickets cost me at least a week’s worth of lattes.)

So does five-dollar pricing suddenly change all this and turn you into a teenager again?

Well, no. But it makes a difference.

It allows work-pants-wearing, responsible adults like me to feel like they can stay connected to their passions without worrying about whether they’re exhibiting arrested development by purchasing the new hyped Gorillas album when they’re supposed to be buying a hypoallergenic heater filter.

Somehow, even though it’s not that huge a difference, spending $5 rather than $15 or $20 seems like something I don’t have to feel financially guilty over.

But then we’re back to the ripping-off-the-artists problem.

I certainly want artists like Sufjan and The Weepies and the Avett Brothers to be able to make a living by creating, and not having to work crappy jobs to support themselves. But the company’s decision to issue a statement feels sort of akin to parents leaving for the weekend and saying to their teenagers, “Hey, that beer in the fridge? We know you want to experiment, but…it’s wrong, okay?”

I can’t pretend to have any real answer for how the music business can continue to make money, or the legitimate concern about artists not receiving what’s due to them.

But when it comes to easy-access digital music being Good for Fans vs. Bad for the Company, isn’t the horse already a long way out of the barn?

I wouldn’t have heard any of these new albums listed above if it weren’t for Amazon’s new deal–unless a friend pressed a ripped copy into my hands. Which would mean zero dollars for the artist or the company. Maybe the price of a latte is better than nothing at all.

What do you think? What’s your stance? Support artists and local stores, but go broke trying? Amazon and Wal-Mart to be the death of independent artists? Leave me a comment below, or like/share/comment on Facebook or Twitter.