Tag: bestseller

  • Best-selling author slams Musk’s plan to charge $20 for Twitter’s blue tick verification

    Best-selling author slams Musk’s plan to charge $20 for Twitter’s blue tick verification

    Elon Musk, who recently acquired control of the microblogging network in a $44 billion deal, responded to bestseller author Stephen King’s tweet expressing dissatisfaction over the anticipated cost for a verified badge.

    There have been rumours that Twitter would soon begin charging verified users a monthly charge for the blue ticks on their handles, Mr King said, “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”

    The monthly charge is the subject of much rumour, with some reports stating it will be around $5 per month and others estimating it to be as high as $20. The author’s tweet on Enron relates to the significant US corporation’s spectacular collapse following years of explosive growth.

    Responding to Mr King’s tweet, Mr Musk said, “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”

    Many people believe it is not worthwhile to pay for a blue tick, while others contend that there is nothing wrong with charging individuals for the blue tick. The buzz surrounding the charge for a certified badge has ignited a heated debate.

    According to Musk, who oversaw the dramatic events that led to the dramatic developments of the Twitter takeover that also reached the court, the verification process for accounts is being updated. He made no further explanations.

    If the initiative is approved, users would have to pay $4.99 per month for Twitter Blue in order to keep their “verified” badges.

    Although the project may still be shelved because the CEO of Tesla Inc. has not made a final decision, Platformer predicts that verification will most likely be included in Twitter Blue.

    Musk dissolves Twitter’s board of directors

    In order to further solidify his authority over the social media network, Elon Musk earlier dissolved the Twitter’s board of directors.

    After purchasing the business last week, the multi-billionaire will serve as its CEO, putting an end to months of negotiations over the $44 billion acquisition.

    He has taken swift action to leave his stamp on the company, which is utilised by journalists and politicians all over the world.

    He is thinking about making adjustments to Twitter’s verification process and eliminating positions. According to reports, the first round of layoff is being discussed and may affect 25 per cent of the company’s workforce.

  • Popular Fiction: Don’t feel like you’re Normal?

    Popular Fiction: Don’t feel like you’re Normal?

    It’s a trend now. To talk about the non-conformists, the ones who don’t fit in and the ones who don’t want to.

    In her 10th novel, Japanese fiction author Sayaka Murata doesn’t make up a story. She calmly and incredibly coolly takes us into the world of the straight face life of a “convenience store woman” in her internationally best-selling book of the same name.

    Stores of Convenience

    It’s a weird book and it’s so much fun. We enter the world of a convenience store worker, Keiko, who is 36 years old and single, has never dated anyone and has worked part-time at the same store for the past 18 years.

    No one seems to understand why she has worked in the Smile Mart for so long, why she yearns to be there and how it literally becomes her day and her night. But then she isn’t one to do things normally.

    The first blow that Keiko gives us is a memory of her childhood, when, to break up a fight, she hits one of the boys on the head with a spade and doesn’t understand when everyone is shocked by what she does. They did say they wanted the fight to stop.

    Deadpan and almost robotic, Keiko is the person we would tend to avoid — lacks emotion, copies emotion, and doesn’t get angry. You can’t trust Keiko but you can’t help but like her. Murata has so beautifully carved out Keiko’s character that you somehow don’t feel bad for her at all. Perhaps because you know that she already has everything; a job she lives for, a convenience store she loves and that’s enough for her.

    Murata, through Keiko, takes us through the experience of milestones that are part of every single society in the world. Work, life-partner, marriage, children and how we tend to isolate and judge people who don’t fit in society’s norms.

    Keiko’s counter, the young, lanky, and smelly Shiraha, is full of disdain. He joins the store and soon gets fired from the Smile Mart for not doing his duties. Figures that his only reason for taking the job was to find a woman, stalk her and marry her.

    The utter stench his words produce when we meet him is more effective than repellent. He is a loathsome character and as we move through the book, and discover that he might be important, we try to like him when there is nothing at all to like.

    But to be fair, Murata rushes through the existence of Shiraha. Maybe because she doesn’t want to marry the crazy beauty she has created with Keiko and perhaps she realises that the reader might relate more to Shiraha; whether they like him or not.

    It’s a short read, ends in 162 pages, bound to finish in a few hours because of how perfectly normal it is. It’s not at all a judgey book but it takes us into such a quirky and strange journey through Keiko that we can’t help but reflect on how judgemental we can be. How she, without question, anger, regret, tries to adapt to her society, where she doesn’t fit in. She cleverly and poignantly highlights what we all do: mirror others, judge others for not fitting in molds and feel happy for them when they do.

    At one point of the book, Keiko is told off by Shiraha who says, “You’re not human” to which Keiko thinks, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” a thought which will leave you with a smile and simple reflection on life’s ambitious rat race and the simplicity of the convenience store worker. For a moment you’ll want her contentment, her creepy thoughts (inertly thinking that you might have had one or two of those yourself) until you conveniently forget and go back to ignoring the simple, convenient things.