The 2016 Atlas of Prejudice Edition Is Out Now!
Dear readership,
I bring you exalting news! A new edition of the Atlas of Prejudice: The Complete Stereotype Map Collection is here!
Last year, when I was wrapping up the complete edition of my internationally bestselling Atlas, I was thinking this is it, now I am going to fearlessly concentrate on my acting. As you know, I‘ve always dreamed of playing a femme fatale in a Venezuelan soap opera. Alas, the world had different plans for my humble persona and one more time I had to postpone my debut in a neo-socialist remake of Topacio.
As the year unravelled, I was overwhelmed by violent inspiration. The Brexit craze and the political retirement of Nigel Farage left a gaping hole in my heart. The thought that the majority of the British people decided to cut their links to the mainland along with their only access to quality dental care, sent shivers down my root canals. Does that mean the descendants of David Beckham will slowly regress into replicas of Austin Powers, just like the progeny of stray dogs, free from the control of their breeders, eventually acquires a common look that appeals only to PETA fundamentalists? Only time will tell. The only thing that’s left for the rest of Europe is to resentfully witness how Anglo-Saxons intermarry.
On the other side of the canal, two towering female leaders stormed the political establishment with ferocity not seen since the first time a Christian nun encountered an electric toothbrush. Marine Le Pen and Frauke Petry redefined the role of women in politics and proved without a doubt that Margaret Thatcher wasn’t a political oxymoron with a gender malfunction. Who knew that women could be as chauvinistic as men! And among those who knew, who was willing to risk their lives and shout it out loud? Fear no more, female fascism is here to stay and we can all discuss it without the taboos of political correctness. My scrotum is itching!
As we are on the subject of scrotums, I am inevitably reminded of the phenomenon of the year: Donald Trump, a tremendously tremendous real estate mogul with the brain chemistry of a 12 year old, climbed the greasy pole of conservative leadership by successfully convincing millions of intelligent (sic) Republicans that he represented the anti-establishment.
These people and the events around them inspired a series of new maps after the last edition was already published. Some of those maps already appeared online, along with a couple of new essays. Naturally, as the year was coming to an end, I decided to update the Atlas to a second edition and add everything to the already existing content. I also took the opportunity to optimize the layout of the book and make it denser without sacrificing readability. The new edition is just 16 pages longer than the previous, something that helps keep the price at an optimal level. In a self-published book every extra sheet of paper matters, even if the actual manufacturing is handled by a behemoth like Amazon.
One of the highlights is a brand new glossary, first introduced in the iBooks multitouch edition. Those of you who have purchased this electronic version probably know that it has been updated for free several times throughout the year. The current version is 1.5 and much of the new content is already present. If you haven’t paid attention and missed the update notifications, open your iBooks app, tap on the “Purchased” tab and look in the “Updates” section. Thanks to the flexibility of ebook publishing, I can add pages without too much hassle anytime I want and readers can choose whether to upgrade their ebooks or keep the versions they have already downloaded.
Printed books, as physical objects, cannot be updated in the same fashion. The only way for you to get the new content on paper is to head to a store like Amazon or Barnes and Noble and purchase the latest edition.
So, if you already have the previous edition, should you upgrade to the latest one at any cost? Not necessarily. Will you make me incredibly angry if you do so anyway and show your appreciation for my project again? Absolutely not! Especially if you keep in mind that the holiday season is just around the corner :)
Whatever you decide to do, thanks for your continuing support! This project wouldn’t have grown this big without you. Topacio can wait.
¡Hasta la próxima!
Yanko
