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Biplane to the Moon

MCMSunday, July 23, 2006

Today as I was avoiding drawing an especially hard pic for the Crow book, I ended up on one of those long-winded Google searches that ends up back at Digg nine times out of ten. But in this case, I stopped somewhere else entirely: I found a book on Amazon that I never thought would be printed again: Other Worlds Than This. It's been out of circulation for probably 60 years now, so I'm wondering why it's back from the dead. Long Tail in action? Or just clearing out an old catalogue?

The reason this fantastically odd book is interesting to me is because it was written by my grandmother... a lady I will never turn into a character in anything I write, because she was far too much of a character on her own without me messing it up. (Incidentally, if there's anyone in Italy who knows anything about genealogy and such, apparently her great-uncle was a poet named Labindo... we've always had a hard time tracking her roots in the Fantoni clan...)

Anyway, I thought it was a funny thing, having my grandmother's old book for sale on Amazon. I have no idea how it ended up there... if the copyright lapsed, if she never really controlled it, if this new book is actually protected that way or if it's essentially a public domain reprint... all the confusing questions that our modern copyright machine has blessed us with (sigh).

If you can find a copy of the book anywhere, definitely read it. I think you'll see my flimsy grasp of reality is actually genetic.

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