Onze god is niet degene die al die geweldadige en soms mooie boekjes die duizenden jaren geleden achtergelaten zijn. In het marktfundamentalisme is economie god. Het gebruiken van de naam van de messias in een beledigende manier moet verboden worden!
| I thought about this when I heard about H.R. 683: the Trademark Dilution Revision Act, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last year and is now headed for the Senate. The most interesting part of this bill?to me, at least?is that it may make it illegal to use trademarked names in fiction. So I might henceforth be unable to publish a novel like Syrup (which is set partly within Coca-Cola) or Jennifer Government (which features Nike, McDonald?s, and others).
Many people seem to think that?s illegal already. When I was writing Syrup, I was often told it would never be published until I took out all the real company and product names. I remember one guy in particular telling me the ?Golden Rule? of fiction writing: ?Never use a Coke can as a murder weapon.? Because, apparently, Coke would descend on you with an army of lawyers. You could only get away with it, he said, if you used the product in a positive way?for example, your hero loves drinking Coke. But he doesn?t use it to kill anyone. |