So, I wrote a review. I was trying not to be a troll, I tried to look at the book objectively. What really stuck out to me is the absurdity of Russell's argument, if you really stop to think about it.
I was going to make a burner account to post it, but you have to buy something with the burner account, and honestly, that's more effort than I'm willing to put into this. If someone else wants to post it, be my guest.
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I'm going to ignore the terrible grammar, the abysmal writing, the awful attempt at storytelling, and the jokes that are absolutely not funny.
Actually, no, I am going to talk about the jokes.
Put very simply, Greer's jokes left me frozen in disbelief.
(See, this is funny, because Greer has facial paralysis, so his face is permanently frozen, and the humor is compounded because this is a reference to the fact that Greer stops to explain every single joke in his book, which is, yes, INCREDIBLY OBNOXIOUS.)
(Oh, and I know that joke was dumb, but believe me, his jokes are worse.)
But enough about the writing, I want to talk about the IDEAS in this book.
In this book, Russel Greer argues that celebrities, (most notably Taylor Swift) owe a duty to their fans and should be held legally responsible for not living up to that duty. Let us assume, for the moment, that he is correct. In this world he has created, Taylor Swift becomes either a slave, a shut in, or a pauper.
If Taylor Swift does a nice gesture for any of her fans, Greer argues that she has a responsibility to do such for ALL of her fans.
This idea has a lot of problems. Let's start with the obvious one: Taylor Swift does not have the time or the means to respond to every gift she receives. Her fanbase is massive, and there simply wouldn't be enough hours in the day to do something meaningful for each of them. Never mind the fact that people like Greer would come out of the woodwork to attempt to purchase her time and affection.
Nevertheless, Greer argues that because he wrote her a song, she has a responsibility to respond to him. But let's assume that Greer's dream comes true and they speed off to the nearest Coldstone to have a PG-13 date. When the next Swift suitor shows up with a song, by Greer's argument, she would have to drop everything and run off with him, leaving Greer once again, sad and alone.
Oh, and the song, let's not forget the song. By gifting her a song, Greer has made yet another effort to enslave Taylor Swift. You see, if she even listens to his song, and if Greer can prove it, and then if she creates another song and Greer can prove that it is even slightly influenced by his song, then he can, once again, sue her for royalties. This is why artists aren't allowed to accept unsolicited music, even if the author claims that it's just a gift to prove that he "gets her." On multiple occasions, Greer stops to sneer at the gift of 1,989 paper cranes a fan sent to Taylor Swift. Believe it or not, Mister Greer, that gift was much better than yours - The cranes may have been useless, but your song was useless AND potentially harmful.
So that's the first potential outcome of Mister Greer's argument: That Taylor Swift, and all celebrities, essentially become slaves to their fans after the first time they do anything nice for their admirers. They become completely beholden to their every whim, even when those whims disagree. (Imagine the blowup when ten Russel Greers show up at Taylor's door with "beautiful" songs to convince her how much they "get her!")
The second outcome is that Taylor Swift simply refuses to do anything nice for her fans ever again. After all, if she can be legally held to a standard that insists that she must replicate one nice gesture for every fan, then why would she do anything nice for anyone? Greer's argument is basically that no good deed should go unpunished. If you go on a date with one person, you must now go date everyone - Taylor Swift becomes the concubine to the world. Why on Earth would any sane human being put themselves through that?
Oh, and the third outcome is the nuclear option. Suppose some other lonely, desperate man decides he wants to woo Taylor Swift? What is she supposed to do, drop Greer and go with him? Doesn't that then open her back up to a liability claim from Greer? What happens when a third, fourth, or fifth litigious suitor arrives? This can only end with Swift buried under a pile of lawsuits, penniless, and living under a bridge.
If we draw the argument of Greer's book to it's conclusion, this is where we end up. Swift is either a slave to her fans, working day and night to meet her every whim, or she withdraws from the public eye and does nothing nice for anyone, ever again, or she gets buried under a pile of Greer inspired lawsuits.
It's fortunate that no one was willing to take Greer seriously.
But his book is a good cautionary tale about the power of delusion. Two stars.
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