Publishing House Xiomondis (Ch.13e : Part 2)

Ch.13e : Publishing House Xiomondis (Part 2)

‘There is a potential market for your work out there,’ said Xiomondis, ‘but it is difficult to reach because the viewing public is saturated with entertainment.  Most people just watch or read what is put before them by the Vidstations.  Books become big sellers only if they are promoted strongly on the main Vidstations.  The newly published books listed on the Current Book File are usually the ones which attract the most attention, except the backlog books of the most famous writers.  Yours will be on the Current File for a month, after which it will inevitably fade into relative obscurity unless it achieves the large scale popularity which would enable it to be placed on Classics lists.  It is however available to the public on the regularly updated specialist indexes.  Yours for example will certainly be entered on the history lists even though it is not an officially academic work and will persist there for somewhere between ten or twenty years.  If it remains one of only a few works in your subject area it would be preserved there for many years or forever.  Vidnet employs independent subcontractors as required by the Government legislation on the Freedoms of Trade and Speech in the Public Media.  They review the index lists and the data banks periodically and they would ensure that  fair criteria have been brought to bear when decisions on listing books in indexes have been taken, such as usage, academic importance, quality and things like that.’ 

‘It probably won’t last long then?’ said Janus cynically.  He had almost forgotten that the deal with Xiomondis was not fully signed and sealed and he should be careful to accentuate the virtues of his book in the interests of acquiring a good deal.

‘Oh, not necessarily,’ Xiomondis raised his hands towards Janus in an unusual mannerism, as if to calm him down, adding to the image of the man as a sympathetic listener and a free thinker.  ‘There is every chance that your work will survive on the history index for longer than ten years.  How many people are there writing about the Creadds in this day and age?  You say yourself in the book that there is a lack of interest or knowledge about them and other periods of humanistic advancement in the modern world.  There aren’t many writers on this as far as I know.’

 Janus himself had scanned the Vidbase history index and the deeper indexes more thoroughly than most.  He knew that much had been written in the past, but almost nothing in the last few decades.  He had scanned.  What had been written was often critical of the period, written by writers who believed in the conventional philosophies of Modernistic Progress.  ‘Yes, that is true.  There are not many and virtually no recent writers.  There are very few who share my own opinions.’

‘Well then – the chances are, for the sake of balance, the reviewers will keep your work in the surface level history index for many decades because it gives an almost unique opinion amongst writers on the subject,’ said Xiomondis.

‘It will not be considered academic enough.  There are academic works on the period – they will be chosen to remain in the indexes because the censors will judge them to be more valid.  I read some of them.  They are dry and seem to miss some of the essential lessons of the Creadd period,’ complained Janus.

‘I think I can guess, but what do they say about the Creadd period?’ asked Xiomondis.

‘I did criticise the Conventional Received Wisdom on the subject in my book.  Most recent academics have written that the Creadd movement was an expression of self-centred freedom created by young people at a time when there were no threats to Gallanolian Civilisation and the system was working well.  They take the view that the movement was a piece of childishness quite irrelevant to the real progress of a society.  It did nothing to promote the economy, to produce more goods, raise efficiency or to aid the cause of scientific knowledge.  It probably damaged all of those aims.  As it did not raise the material wealth of the High Kingdom it was not a good thing!

‘In earlier centuries there were schools of thought with Communalist leanings or other priorities which have praised Creaddism but these ideas were swept aside by newer generations of academics who believed in the great strides of material progress which have occurred.  Academics in recent years have been highly educated people with strong scientific or logical backgrounds but less artistic and free thinking in their orientation.  To achieve a successful career they worked very hard.  Strong motivation is required for success and it becomes necessary to believe in material progress to justify their own hard work.

‘There is very little important debate in academic circles today.  They argue strenuously over small legal or statistical points but the big issues have disappeared from the table.  There are no Communalists in universities any more.  There are some Nationalists and even a small group of Maneddonists, but to fit into their surroundings most of them accept the basic precepts of our society.  Hard work and progress are two subjects everyone agrees upon.  Belief in them is a precondition to membership in academia.  Anyone who does not espouse those principles is deemed to have a problem of some sort.  They are dismissed as immature, lazy or depressive or have probably ignored opportunities in their own life and feel unjustly critical of society.  Such people are lacking the ability to think objectively and logically.  This is often felt to be because they are not intelligent enough for university life.  The Universities do not need people who cannot think sensibly.  That is the way they exclude anyone who does not share the conventional wisdom.’

‘I suppose,’ suggested Xiomondis, ‘the reason for this logical and market orientated approach is that most Universities are run by large Business Houses.’

‘Indeed,’ agreed Janus.  ‘When the Universities were state funded or independent of the Houses they used to be far more questioning of Business and the whole social system.  But most of them have long since become dominated by the large Business Houses who pay the fees of their protégés – the students.  Nearly half of the Universities in the Empire alone are actually controlled by the large Business Houses.’

Xiomondis stood up abruptly as if to alter the flow of the conversation.  Janus thought that perhaps he had said too much and the publisher had become bored with the conversation.  He had thought the man was enjoying the conversation as much as he was.  ‘You must excuse me.  I have kept you talking too much and neglected my responsibilities.  Would you like something to drink?  An orange juice perhaps; or a hot drink perhaps.’

Janus was relieved.  It was an invitation to continue the conversation.  He had not realised before how much he missed human contact.  Even more he missed the buzz of intelligent conversation.  It was so rare in this world that when it was encountered it tasted very sweet.  ‘Oh yes please, very kind of you,’ he said.  ‘I’ll have tea please.  Are you sure you are not too busy for this?’  Janus could not help thinking he must be wasting this man’s time.  The lessons of his education were difficult to throw off.  Despite his few months of timelessness he still betrayed himself a hostage to time and still assumed that others were.  In truth Xiomondis probably was but he was enjoying the chance to talk as much as Janus and was perfectly capable of rebelling from his duties for a short while.

‘It’s quite alright young man.  I like to get to know our clients while I have the chance.  Once we have published them we don’t usually get the chance to see them again.  As I said earlier, many of them prefer not to come in at all.  We deal through the Vidnet.’

Xiomondis pressed the appropriate buttons in the wall and two cups of tea were produced very efficiently by the food and drink processors behind it.  Most offices and homes today were linked up to basic drink supply ducts and common foods such as bread, rice, mueslis were virtually always on tap at the punch of a button.  A complex group of supplier organisations supposedly competed in the supply of peoples’ need through this market.  The systems involved pipelines, maintenance, health checks and all the other things which factory production lines required.  By arrangement you could order your preferred supplies through the Vidnet.  Suppliers were falling over themselves to supply whatever the customer desired.

‘I often wish we did not have to use these things,’ said Xiomondis.  ‘You know, when I was young we still used to buy food in shops.  I used to enjoy visiting those places.  You could see all the food laid out in front of you and there was pleasure in selecting it.  Then when we had chosen we took it to a checkout and paid for it.  We used little plastic cards in those days, and even money – notes and coins.’

‘I have heard of those times.  Is it easier now using credits or has that progress been unnecessary?’ inquired Janus.

‘Well it easier to buy and to be supplied today.  That was the whole purpose of the developments which have occurred.  In those days you had to count the notes and coins in your hand, but it wasn’t difficult, or write your signature on credit slips.  There is virtually no chance of error today.  Computers know all the prices and it is impossible to key in the wrong prices.  In those days you could make mistakes.

‘Today most of us don’t have to carry food or visit a shop to purchase it so the supply is easy.  On the other hand shopping for food was never an unpleasant experience.  Today we have to maintain and constantly improve our food supply systems so many people are employed in engineering and accounting sectors which never existed before.

‘There are many things about  today’s world which I regret, having lived long enough to see some of the more recent changes in the modern world, which is the reason, aside from business, that I am so interested in your work.  You are the first client I have seen in a long while with any sense of detachment from the present general consensus of opinion.  In the old days there were some, but now aside from personal tales of woe there seems to be no one willing to question the whole range of economic, social and political life. Writers either specialise in small topics in which they might be critical, but never take on society as a whole, or they applaud the benefits of progress while regretting some of its side effects.’