

The Whore of Mensa - gnosis
http://woodyallenitalia.tripod.com/short-uk.html

======
lucumo
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the owner of that site doesn't have
permission to have that story on his site.

Edit/Elaboration: This is pirated content. I don't think pirated content
should be spread on a site like HN. It's very similar to blog-jacking, only
now the original content is a book. If you want to read it, you can buy it
here: [http://www.amazon.com/Without-Feathers-Woody-
Allen/dp/034533...](http://www.amazon.com/Without-Feathers-Woody-
Allen/dp/0345336976/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250587057&sr=8-1)

~~~
swombat
Assuming that there's more than one story in this book, chances are that those
of us who do occasionally buy books are now that much more likely to purchase
that book, if we liked this story.

The percentage of us who both a) buy books, and b) enjoy reading books on a
computer screen, is so vanishingly small that it is unlikely to cause any
financial damage to Mr Allen. In any case, Woody Allen is already filthy rich
(deservedly), so I doubt he gives a toss.

~~~
azgolfer
It's up to Mr. Allen to decide if he wants to give away his work for promotion
and his wealth doesn't make stealing from him right.

~~~
swombat
It certainly is, from a legal standpoint.

From a moral standpoint, I think the fact that the story was written in 1975,
34 years ago, makes it really a borderline case whether Woody Allen _should_
still have exclusivity over the story he published and profited from for 30+
years.

Even going by the 2x14 years principle, he's out. Imho, the world would be a
better place if there was a deadline of about 30 years on the exclusivity of
reprinting rights.

~~~
lucumo
The problem with morals is that they are different from person to person. If
you want to have a debate on copyright law, I'm perfectly happy to have it,
but I don't think anyone should rewrite copyright law based only on their own
morals. After all, that's why laws are created, to unify all morals and all
interests in a country.

In any case, I don't think HN should be a place to swap pirated stories (or
movies, music, etc.). Especially not so when they are as terrible and
uninteresting as this one.

~~~
delackner
I'm surprised that the original comment here was voted down. It was thoughtful
and although I disagree, it expresses a point of view that is respectful.

The Law governing the area you reside in is not magically imbued with moral
authority. It is simply a set of rules, some of them enforced, some not, that
are backed up by the threat of violence.

When the law contradicts a society's overwhelming sense of morality, conflict
occurs and either the law changes or (worse) police begin to refuse to apply
the law, further undermining the clear authority of the law.

------
jobenjo
Not sure why it's posted here, but this is one of my favorite stories by Woody
Allen.

In high school, I used it as a Humorous Interp piece for my debate class and
ended up winning state.

Even with his flops (I couldn't stand Whatever Works) Woody Allen is one of
the few artists who's made an incredibly vast series of excellent works and
managed to effectively move between different genres without sacrificing his
own vision. Can't say that about many people, and it's certainly something I
aim for myself.

~~~
dylanz
I didn't even realize this was Woody Allen. Awesome read.

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quizbiz
Tripod hosting still exists?

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dylanz
That was awesome. I wish I was understood half of those undertones, but the
story was fresh and somehow sexy in a bizarre, sociopathic, way. Thank you for
sharing that gnosis :)

~~~
jacobolus
It was mostly just name dropping “intellectual” people/books/periodicals for
effect... the specific references didn’t really affect the story, or have any
particular significance. (Still fun though.)

~~~
evilneanderthal
I think the point was to be pretentious to the point of irony, which the
namedropping achieved.

~~~
jacobolus
Yes. My point was only that not knowing the names so dropped doesn’t actually
diminish the story, because they didn’t really have any deeper significance.

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blhack
The story seems very similar in theme to this one:
<http://www.viruscomix.com/page473.html>

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chrischen
At first I was like , this looks long, better go watch some tv. But before I
knew it I had already finished it 'cause it was so interesting.

That was so I intellectually stimulating my mind almost exploded!

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sielskr
Since I like smart women, the story got me a little excited :)

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adam_feldman
context?

~~~
seshagiric
Writers are hackers too.

Adding because of the (-)ve votes. What I meant is the play of words is quite
close to what I hacker would do with his code. At least I think so.

~~~
davidw
Yay, everyone's a hacker!

Except, they aren't. Writers may be clever people and smart, entertaining, and
so on, but there are plenty of them that aren't really hackers by any
definition that isn't so broad as to be completely meaningless.

~~~
bluefish
Have to agree. In general, as much as I like most of these alt stories that
have been posted to HN lately, I came to HN to escape this sort of posting.
I'm sure we could expand the term 'hacker' to apply to anyone who was a
creative misfit in their field; ingenious doctors, writers ahead of their
time, one-handed clock makers, etc but that's not what I consider a hacker in
the context of this community. Still, would love the alternative with links
like this as a companion site to HN.

~~~
10ren
I'm not commenting on this specific article, but, to me, the definition of a
"hacker" has always been someone who "tinkers", as opposed to a design
springing fully formed from the head of Zeus. By this definition, Edison was a
hacker, and Tesla was not. Linus is a hacker, but Dijkstra was not. I don't
know enough architects to say who was a hacker in that field (maybe
Christopher Alexander?), but Frank Lloyd Wright was not (he designed
fallingwater in the time it took his client to travel to meet with him, after
meditating _ahem_ on it for months).

By this definition, for writers, a hacker is someone who fiddles with their
writing - as in _this morning, I removed a comma from my novel. This afternoon
I put it back in._

I don't claim it's _the_ definition of hacking, but I think there's some merit
in its perspective.

~~~
jacquesm
> but Frank Lloyd Wright was not (he designed fallingwater in the time it took
> his client to travel to meet with him, after meditating ahem on it for
> months).

Isn't putting stuff off to the very last moment the hall mark of the true
hacker ?

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diN0bot
two columns of text is the bomb.

~~~
jacobolus
If it all fits on your screen, maybe. Otherwise, having half the visible
content completely disconnected from the other half, separated by a few pages
of scrolling, is absolutely pointless.

But I copy things into <http://amarsagoo.info/tofu/> to read. _That_ is “the
bomb.”

~~~
boredguy8
Why copy when you can bookmarklet:
<http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/>

~~~
jacobolus
Well actually I use an OS X service, so it's just a single keyboard shortcut.

But Tofu is _much_ nicer for reading long prose than the Readability
bookmarklet. Try it some time.

