Helprin on EconTalk

Having knocked Mark “digital barbarism” Helprin around in a trio of posts – in one of which I remarked that the guy should probably listen to EconTalk to learn that libertarians are actually skeptical about the merits of copyright extension – I am duty-bound to report that Helprin was just a guest on EconTalk. (If you don’t know, EconTalk is a very George Mason-y econ podcast, hosted by Russ Roberts. It’s often quite good, in my opinion.) Man, I just knew Roberts was going to turn out to be a big fan of Helprin’s fiction. Also, Roberts’ podcast interviews are always collegial, which is a fine thing as a rule. So Helprin gets off way too light. (I imagine Roberts knows in his heart he let some objectively silly arguments pass unchallenged, and consoles himself with the knowledge that, a couple weeks ago, he conducted an equally friendly interview with someone who argues for the economic rationality of abolishing IP altogether.)

Anyway, if you want to hear the copyright extension arguments from Helprin himself, without buying the book, feel free. EconTalk also features a brutally compressed, Hemingway-writes-stream-of consciousness transcript, so you can skim for potential points of interest.

I do think Helprin overdid it with the Texas Ranger analogy, round about minute 5: “Famous Texas Ranger, Frank Parker, in many gunfights, something like 40, and won all of them, which meant the other person was dead. Technique hard to copy: instead of immediately pulling out his pistol and firing like the bad guys, he waited until he had a clear shot. Rather than respond on the internet, patiently wrote a book; two years after the attack, answer to the attack.” Two whole years to draw and miss the broad side of the barn. That’s like Shane meets Hot Lead and Cold Feet at an entmoot. If Helprin’s arguments are indeed as bad as I still take them to be. Please feel free to report your reactions in comments.

Helprin descends into pretty extreme cultural decay gloom-and-doom mode and mood. Somehow Creative Commons is a collectivist threat to authorial control and individuality. Snip from abbreviated transcript: “Imagine a world in which anyone can attribute anything to anybody – in a way, the internet world. Value more than any money the ability to say something and keep it what it is rather than have someone else misrepresent it.” (Why it doesn’t occur to him to pick one of the CC options that includes ‘disallow modification of your work’ I surely don’t know. I guess he just doesn’t like choice.) But enough of that.

In all false modesty, I think I did the extreme cultural decay theme better over the past two days of Squid and Owl. (Why do I keep having to remind you to read it? Don’t you care about culture? I even rhymed ‘prokaryotesque’ with ‘so very grotesque’. What more could you ask for?)