Why Buy the Cow When You Can Get the Milk for Free? + The 10 books I read in April
Most people don't read the fine print when their tech devices push "updates to terms and conditions." Including me. Who has the time? Not me. ACCEPT. ⏭️
Buuuut: I will read them if need calls. This is one of those times.
UGH but why?
When you post your creative work on Mainstream Social Media (and dump it into GenAI products), you might be giving away your milk for free: not just in that moment, but also as to potential future value of your intellectual property.
OK, lady, what are you on about with the cow and the milk thing?
Heh 🙃. Extended metaphor time! Here is what I mean.
There is this lovely old saying used by Boomers Of Yore and their predecessors to warn girls about having seshual relations or moving in with their boyfriends before getting married.
"He won't buy the cow if you give him the milk for free!'
The meaning being: he isn't going to marry your wh*re ass if he's getting what he wants from you without legal documentation.
So anyway, that entire concept is, of course, completely psychotic, but rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, I'm going to repurpose this saying for a much higher use!
When I say "they won't buy the cow if you give the milk away for free," I'm talking about this instead:
When you post your art and other creative work directly on Meta platforms, as an example, you're giving that platform what is basically a perpetual license to monetize your intellectual property and give you absolutely nothing. You're quite literally giving your work away for free.
*(For the record: this post today does not contain legal advice, and you should not take it as such. Any human being can pull up the Meta Ts&Cs, read them, and figure this out. Consult a lawyer if you have questions that arise from this lay discussion.)*
OMG, no way!
Yes way.
Take this bit from Instagram's Terms & Conditions. Don't let the first sentence stop you: that is very much done on purpose. Keep reading.
Your beautiful poem? The painting you spent five years on? Meta can, without paying you a cent, monetize your creative work, modify it, add to it, perform it, reproduce it, and basically do whatever they want with it.
Said another way: Meta can do whatever it wants with your work, make money doing it, and give you nothing.
But wait! There's more!
"Freakin' shut up right now, are you kidding?"
Nope. Sorry, buddy.
Very loosely stated, you actually have to do stuff to protect your copyright. It's not quite as stringent as a trademark--where you have to protect it/defend it or you lose it--but basically handing your IP out to giant technology megacorporations willy-nilly, while making no effort to maintain your claims over it, will really complicate enforcement. Most people don't have the resources to hire lawyers to tussle on this in civil court.
And all the giving-away-the-milk-for-free isn't going to look good to a judge, should you ever seek to enforce your copyright in the future.
Think about it:
You: "Hey, Judge! I'm mad this weird Australian company is using my painting in its marketing merch. They haven't paid me a red cent!"
Judge: "Where did they steal it from?"
You: "Well, I posted it to Instagram, and--"
Judge: "Cool, I'll stop ya there. When you posted, you gave that platform a license to reproduce your work without paying you royalties and also sell your work without your permission, right?"
You: "Uhhhhh..."
Judge: "Next!"
We go even a layer deeper when people use GenAI to develop their creative works, like on ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or MetaAI: as in, whatever grotesque simulacrum of "art" that comes out of those dumps PROBABLY ISN'T EVEN COPYRIGHTABLE ANYWAY lol.
That's too deep a rabbit hole for today, though I'm unlikely to ever bother covering that here. You should not be using GenAI for any creative purpose for the many reasons I'm always screaming about, and I will take that fight to the mat anytime, anywhere.
So, what, Charlotte, I'm not supposed to market myself?
The good news is: not all platforms take this kind of license.
For example, consider the platform I use for this newsletter! Ghost.org, baby. A nonprofit competitor to Substack and Medium that also doesn't take a cut of your proceeds.
But even Substack doesn't do what Meta does. Neither does BlueSky. Here is BlueSky on the topic:
To start, BlueSky incorporates a limited scope for use, saying "we can only use [your IP] for the explicit purpose of improving the functionality of our website and rendering your content postable in the first place."
At least BlueSky won't sell your IP without your permission. Whereas Meta can (and does) sell your IP to third parties and sublicensees to make $$$ because I mean, shit, I guess Zuck needs like, more yachts and islands and sick gold chains and...
(P.S. Meta can (and does) sell photos of you and your kids, and companies can use them for advertising and other purposes to make money without your permission btw. 🫠)
OK thanks, but I actually want people to see my art, so I need to use King Meta.
OK, WELL: as you know, I also use Instagram.
But if you look, really closely...you'll see I do not publish much original creative content on social media. I only really publish my writing here or in literary magazines (and hopefully through a book publisher one day!). I don't publish drafts of my book, or sketched out poems I plan to write. I even stopped publishing my book reviews there, which I think are very cute and fun, and I don't think Meta should get to use for free.
I mostly post art in the public domain or photos of books I own and then route people to this newsletter to view the actual content.
Sure, do I own a copyright to the photography of my bookshelves? Yes. Am I just caving, giving, for example, license to reuse the photo below for free? I am.
But I'm selectively choosing what NOT to give the STEMLords.
And I think you should consider it too! Imagine the work you slaved over getting repurposed and redistributed by a technology company for a whole bunch of money. They make the money, you make NOTHIN'. Wouldn't you want to scream?
Don't think I'm just being paranoid: tech companies have 100% done this and are doing it without you realizing. A lot of actual artists are finding their visual art modified but only slightly (this is still a copyright violation if you haven't granted a license for it) and sold in developing markets. Or, consider the now shuttered platform Wordstream; they got a lot of crap for stealing work and repackaging it, for sale, as AI-generated audiobooks.
Decca Muldowney
By the way: Cliff Weitzmann, who did the Wordstream theft, is the current CEO of Speechify, which boasts essentially identical terms of service to Wordstream. 🫠
Maybe you keep this in mind when you're choosing what to publish and where. Maybe you do nothing different and you simply don't care.
I know a lot of people who are like, "meh, it's fine," and they go on to have what are probably far more unbothered lives compared to my mine.
And FYI–if you post unpublished or unfinished work on socials, you also may be excluding that work from all sorts of publication opportunities. Nearly all literary magazines "count" online posting as "published" and therefore they are not open to those submissions.
In true tinfoil hat form, I leave you this last thought, written with my favorite calligraphy brush pen on handmade paper from a small farm collective:
Book Reviews!
I went ham in April. Great month.
As a point of order: you'll notice an uptick in stories about women who have had it up to HERE 🤬😾😤.
It's going to really pop off when I do book reviews in May; I'm swimming in the soup of inspiration for my nearly complete female rage revenge thriller, What The Body Wants, which I hope to start querying for agent representation this summer.
Between Two Fires, by Christopher Buehlman
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Squick: 3/5
Super Short Synopsis: We're at the late stages of the Bubonic Plague, and when a disgraced knight stops a group of marauders from r*ping a tween girl, the pair become an unlikely duo on a mission to...do something (can't tell you without spoiling). They encounter numerous fantastic beasts and demons and angels and also terrible, terrible human beings. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: Really good one. The knight isn't like a perfect guy or anything, but he's decent. The girl has St. Joan of Arc vibes, just not quite at sword-swinging stage yet. The fantasy elements were impossibly realistic, because the scene work feels visceral and real. I was impressed to find I could SMELL the scenery often. Given this book was set in the Bubonic Plague, that was quite an experience. Woof.
Maybe the monstrous felt so realistic because now we know the Epstein Class/Men Who Rule The World are worse than any fictional villains writers could have invented. So when it went from "realistic" to hyper-horror on the page, I was like, "Hmm, yeah, this passes the reality check for me."
There is definitely some squick, including gross body stuff re: Plague. Also, I think it's a very hyped BookTok book or something, but in this case, it's very good!
Figuring, by Maria Popova
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Super Short Synopsis: Popova follows various scientists and artists whose work brought us closer to understanding each other, the natural world, the Divine, and ourselves. 10/10 no notes.
Review: At times this book was so stunning, it took my breath away. I read the audiobook and I highly recommend that version (though I also bought the paperback and still turn there when I want to feel my heart soar). I learned so much about the consideration of 'figuring' in science--read: using the arts to render complicated scientific concepts to engage a wider audience.
Popova starts with Johannes Kepler, his work in establishing heliocentrism, and his science fiction story about people who live on the moon (called The Dream, starring The Lunatics). True story: Kepler's mom suffered an extended witch trial after Kepler published The Dream because the Men-in-Charge figured she was responsible for his heretical scientific and literary adventures. 🤯
Figuring ends with Popova's deep-dive on Rachel Carson and her master work, Silent Spring. Many credit this text (correctly) to effectively saving the natural world, and human life as we know it, from the ravages of greed. If you hear a bird chirp when you read this newsletter today, you have Rachel Carson to thank for it.
And the deep dives into Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Margaret Fuller, Emily Dickinson? SWOON. Popova also discusses many forgotten women of science whose work was stolen and credited to men, like Maria Mitchell, the astronomer who revolutionized the telescope and identified cosmic movements never before considered, and Dr. Harriet Hosmer, who used her remarkable grasp on modern anatomy to render some of the finest sculptures of the 19th century.
There is so much to say about Figuring. You must read it!
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Literary Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: It's 1941 in Lorain, Ohio. Pecola, an eleven-year-old Black girl, prays for her eyes to turn blue so she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America.
Review: 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
The Bluest Eye is a hard one. The depth of pain experienced by young Black girls in America (then and now) is heartrending, and Toni Morrison describes this life with such relatable specificity, I had to take breaks from listening.
So, yes, it's hard, but I truly believe we must imbibe and observe artistic representations of these horrors, as a matter of empathy and compassion. And also so we don't forget what evil people are truly capable of.
I don't think it's news that Toni Morrison is one of the greatest writers of modern history, but I'll just say that I hadn't read her before now and honestly, the visceral, multi-layered quality of every single line sung for me. Her prose is irrefutably gorgeous but also accessible. Anybody could pick up this book and read it.
You're gonna cry if you do, though.
Animal, by Lisa Taddeo
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Literary Thriller
Super Short Synopsis: A woman observes a heinous act of violence. She leaves NYC for LA, to find someone that will help her process a different act of violence she observed as a child. Upon arrival, she meets a bunch of classic LA weirdos. "Good for her" shenanigans ensue.
Review: This is a multi-layered revenge thriller that is quite atypical. This is no John Wick situation. The trauma that haunts her is shocking, and far less terrible than any revenge she seeks. Some bad men get a comeuppance; idk, I don't feel bad for them.
The best part: Animal is so well-written. A little fancy, actually, writing-wise, but twisty and just freaking good by way of showcasing a woman who is not going to take much more crap à la Gone Girl.
This is one of those books that solicits Shania's voice in your head: "Let's go girls," she orders, as you kick a door down.
A World Appears, by Michael Pollan
Rating: 4.75/5
Genre: Creative nonfiction
Super Short Synopsis: What is consciousness? Where is it? Who's got it? Can it be created? Can you achieve sentience without it? Should you do psychedelics in a cave with a bunch of awesome weirdos to see if you can trasncend it? Learn answers to all these questions and more!
Review: Known as the guy who taught us what a dumpster fire the industrialized food system has made of our bodies and minds, Michael Pollan takes you on a journey toward his newest obsession–consciousness (which has fast become mine). Pollan is a proponent of psychedelic usage for all sorts of medical and spiritual maladies, and lays out the case pretty strong for them in A World Appears. Good news is, though, if you're not ready for that step, a spiritual practice of meditation will probably get you to the same place with practice and whole-hearted effort.
To convince you to read A World Appears, I'll leave you with this banger:
"And let go into not-knowing. My time in the cave had shown me another way to look at consciousness: less as a scientific or philosophical puzzle to be solved and more as a practice, a way to once again be altogether here, present to life and to this vault of stars."
Hekate, by Nikita Gill
Rating: 4.75/5
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Super Short Synopsis: It's the Hekate myth, but good because it's written by a woman. Hekate is the bae who helped Demeter find Persephone when Hades kidnapped her to Hell, and brokered the 6-on, 6-off deal. But, honestly, Hekate is so, so much more, and the shenanigans do ensue.
Review: Hekate is the goddess of crossroads, witchcraft, a protector of women. This book also made the Shania refrain ping-pong around my head, which had the impact of making me want to kick a door down, as previously noted.
Also, I read the audiobook, and the author (Nikita Gill) reads, and her voice is incredible WOW. Highly recommend this option! Gill is also a vociferous defender of women, much like her titular character, and instigator of holding vile men accountable. She's a great follow on social media. She also writes bomb poetry.
A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Switch Sides, by Gisele Pelicot
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Memoir (🤬)
Super Short Synopsis: You know what happened.
Review: Would you believe me if I told you that I was reading this audiobook when I found out about the R*pe Academy on Motherless? The CNN article had been out for a few weeks, but I'd only just stumbled on it because, as you may well know, almost all American media now is all run by the kinds of perverts who are using Motherless and their sycophants. So the coverage was not wide.
Pelicot's story is very well-written, but you're just going to want to scream the whole time. Steel yourself and take it in, though, because only when we talk about these things will the shame switch sides. Gisele is a true hero.
The Chronology of Water, by Lidia Yuknavitch
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Memoir
Super Short Synopsis: A master writer reckons with her extensive traumas and occasional joys in a non-traditional, non-linear memoir that changed the landscape of memoir and creative nonfiction writing forever.
Review: ....gibbers dumbly...This is hard because any praise I come up with will just feel flat.
But I'm forcing myself to give you something!
SO, Lidia kicked off an entirely new style of institutionally acceptable writing with Chronology of Water. It's famous in the literary world. The braided narrative, the non-linear scheme, all goes back to her. Unfortunately she had to go through hell and back to open the kinds of spaces/folds a person would need to challenge the very structure of the writing establishment, but talk about taking back your power.
Gold, Poems by Rumi, translated by Haleh Liza Gafori
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Poetry
Super Short Synopsis: 🤯
Review: 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯.
Here is this banger as an example:
Why paint night over
nightless day.
Every religion has Love
but Love has no religion
Love is an ocean--
no borders, no shores.
Drown there and you won't lament it.
The drowned have no regrets.
Sex Object, by Jessica Valenti
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Hybrid Memoir
Super Short Synopsis: A woman shares her personal experiences that speak to wider mistreatment of women and girls and the sexual harassment and violence we're blanketed in every day. Shenanigans ensue. It's honestly exhausting.
Review: Valenti is an excellent writer, and her experiences are terrifying. She catalogues the various ways in which sexual violence is committed upon women and girls, and how patriarchy's misshapen narrative around this violence makes girls and women blame themselves. She shares her fear of burdening her daughter with generational trauma, and considers if she has the stuff to break it. Sex Object was a quick and solid read, but I do feel like we lost the thread sometimes and the end felt more like a coda, thus I went with a 3.5.
Valenti includes some of the email and social media comments she's received from various anonymous men, and it will honestly make you want to barricade the door of your house and never leave.
Like I said: next time, be prepared to see me wanting to kick down a LOT of doors. Female revenge thrillers will abound. I also expect I'll be partially deranged from the final sprint to complete my debut novel, What The Body Wants!
Thank you all for the love and encouragement in between issues of HAVING WRITTEN, please send to your friends and ask them to subscribe! Don't forget to like and comment too. ❤️
And please tell me! Have you read any of the books I reviewed today? What do you think? Would you give something new-to-you a shot? Or maybe you'll REMOVE it from your TBR, ha?
Have a good week, and read banned books.
LYLAS/B,
Charlotte
IG: @charlotte.chambers.writer
BlueSky: having-written.bsky.social