Pay the Writer

Too bad Harlan Ellison is so quiet and shy. I’d like to know what he really thinks. What a writer and what a unique imagination.

I always used to say “I’m making money every time I sit at this keyboard.” That was before the interwebz, however.

@redmanlaw: old saying is that great producers liked biblical epics because they didn’t have to pay the writers.

@blogenfreude: Explains all the reality kee-rap on teevee these days.

Great clip, but he’s a bit harsh on “amateurs”. Not everybody walks in on the ground floor of “Star Trek” and “Twilight Zone”.

Harlan Ellison is a cranky fucker, but I like the guy. He’s right though. Pay the writer damn it. I do admit I bristle a little as I’m one of those amateurs (more wannabe).

It’s why I applaud when an engineer in India wants to be paid like an engineer in North America. He’s doing the same damn work why shouldn’t he?

Tell that to the CAs and MBAs. I used to harshly joke (within earshot of same MBAs and CAs) at the cafeteria at work about how we should outsource corporate execubots… “Same asshole for 1/10th the price.” They never do like that, but it’s true.

I guess that is what bothers me about today’s work place. They (meaning execubots) degrade/devalue work and people. And WE the worker bees do the same. Anyone but ourselves. That’s the rub for me. This whole self centered asshole idea that only I benefit and no one else can.

For example it’s why I loathe Walmart. Its not because it’s successful or because I’m jealous. It’s because Walmart doesn’t allow anyone else to profit except the Walton family. It’s “lower prices” mantra drive companies and people to devalue themselves to the point where a pack of cheap, heavy metal contaminated disposable cups is worth more than they are (all because folks with no sense or vision are addicted to “bargains.”)

Screw that and screw them.

@blogenfreude: Ahh ha ha haaaaa!

@ManchuCandidate: Join a union.

I don’t know who this person is but he’s rather grandstanding. Are we discussing the Making Of on a DVD? Isn’t that in his contract? I don’t see what the big fuss is, he gets as much out of it as do they. It’s not like he’s standing up to the might of Warner’s. He’s telling off a PA. Which is the one thing we never ever do: take it out on someone who isn’t in the position to give it back. Writers have never been paid. They do best after they’re dead. Melville springs to mind. Even Isherwood. That terrible film of A Single Man aka Fancy Fancy Gay probably shifted a pile of books (I wonder if the rights were already sold or did they buy them for the movie?) Mozart was paid 200 ducats for Idomeneo when the star singer was paid 1500. Motherfucking Mozart! And he didn’t get any royalties. So this is mere pissing in the wind. A story he can tell to make himself look like a rebel on some other DVD. It’s not outrageous for the studio to ask. In the theatre you do endless audience talk-backs. And they don’t send a car to pick you up or give you lunch.

What I would say is that since the colleges have discovered that they can make a ton of money pushing Creative Writing it’s made things harder for everyone. As the actress said… That and motherfucking Word.

But you know who always gets paid? Before anyone else? You know who gets paid? Motherfucking lawyers, bitchez, that’s who gets paid.