Marginalia
Sep. 16th, 2004 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentHmm. The summary of this article is 'With a slew of fantasy novelists now landing huge deals, their genre has become publishing's hottest property. But, warns Nicholas Clee, look what happened to chick-lit.' Fair enough (and does anyone want to put money on proper science fiction being a boom category soon? I'm tempted), but on reading the article, it's not actually about fantasy novelists--Susanna Clarke isn't mentioned, for instance--it's about children's fantasy, as though that were all the fantasy there is. Sigh. Elsewhere, looks like Harry Potter isn't translating into increased children's reading after all. Double sigh. [Both via ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
book2book]
Carnivale has picked up a bunch of minor Emmy awards: cinematography, art direction, costumes, hairstyling and (obvious one, this) best title sequence. Really, it's worth tuning in one week (FX289, Sundays, 9pm, people!) just to see the credits. They are a thing of beauty.
People can live without dreams. [vianature_science]
Computer viruses transmitted as images. The actual headline--'Software bug raises spectre of 'JPEG of death''--makes it sound much more like a Basilisk than it actually is. [viafuturismic]
Short story distributed by text message. [viageekpress. I think]
Various science fiction writers discuss the social future, with particular emphasis on global issues and government. Asked whether the latter is possible and desirable, Pat Murphy said no and no, and Kim Stanley Robinson said yes and yes. [Locus]
book2book]Carnivale has picked up a bunch of minor Emmy awards: cinematography, art direction, costumes, hairstyling and (obvious one, this) best title sequence. Really, it's worth tuning in one week (FX289, Sundays, 9pm, people!) just to see the credits. They are a thing of beauty.
People can live without dreams. [via
nature_science]Computer viruses transmitted as images. The actual headline--'Software bug raises spectre of 'JPEG of death''--makes it sound much more like a Basilisk than it actually is. [via
futurismic]Short story distributed by text message. [via
geekpress. I think]Various science fiction writers discuss the social future, with particular emphasis on global issues and government. Asked whether the latter is possible and desirable, Pat Murphy said no and no, and Kim Stanley Robinson said yes and yes. [Locus]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:07 am (UTC)A fantastically wild claim there, Niall, since 1) There isn't a previous study to comp-are too and 2) it found 83% of young people read books in their spare time.
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:18 am (UTC)I do think that's rather too impressive to be honest. We should be a little wary of the fact that this was a self-completion survey, and I'm sure there was some bias of people telling the researchers what they thought they wanted to hear.
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:32 am (UTC)You taunt me with your FX289.
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:38 am (UTC)I guess my touch typing aint as good as I think.
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:49 am (UTC)Note sure Episodic Previews and Re-caps cab be called a special feature though.
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Date: 2004-09-16 04:18 am (UTC)*watches as Hoggy clutches his heart in shock*
S'okay. I'm hoping my Sky-enabled Brian comes through with the goods.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 04:24 am (UTC)Yeah, them PS2s are noisy fuckers for DVD watching.
The world is divided into regions for DVDs. Theoretically, you can't play a DVD from one with a DVD player from another thus keeping prices artificially inflated. Europe (along with Japan, South Africa and the Middle East) is in region 2. Region 1 is the US & Canada. I do believe there are some discs that will unlock PS2s to play other region's DVDs but I'm not sure.
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Date: 2004-09-16 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 04:42 am (UTC)It is much quieter. Most of the time.
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Date: 2004-09-16 04:41 am (UTC)It's not a great article, and these almost certainly aren't statistically significant results. I was being melodramatic, mostly because everyone goes on about how great it is that Harry Potter has gotten kids reading again, without any evidence to support that fact.
And then it goes into the non-fiction bit, and confuses the issue further.
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Date: 2004-09-16 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:09 am (UTC)Some worry that steering clear of non-fiction may effect the development of a child's imagination
I seriously doubt the author meant that. And if they did, then they really should not be complaining about children not reading non-fiction. It would appear that some adults could do with reading more non-fiction, especially if they write the bloody stuff for a living.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:15 am (UTC)From the article at this URL: http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1305205,00.html , written by Anne Casselman, I noticed the following sentence.
Some worry that steering clear of non-fiction may effect the development of a child's imagination, even going so far as to impact their future career choices.
I have serious doubts that Anne intended to use effect instead of affect; it completely changes the meaning of the sentence, and undermines the entire thrust of the article. I find it doubly ironic that in an article challenging the literary abilities of children, someone employed to use language as their primary work tool can make such a juvenile error.
I would expect better of a professional writer; perhaps it is time for your staff to read more non-fiction instead of berating the youth of today?
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 04:25 am (UTC)'The Independent' is crap. It's official. I don't know why people read it.
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Date: 2004-09-16 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 04:45 am (UTC)In this case, it's not as though the fantasy=children's conflation doesn't crop up anywhere else, after all.
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Date: 2004-09-16 04:47 am (UTC)/geek
Sci-Fi and the social future...
Interesting too to see the general concurrence on environmental and climate change challenges. I'm a little surprised that there was a tighter connection between climate change and 'crony-capitalism.'
Seems to me that if things continue as they are, it would be rational to conclude that climate change will lead to the ultimate discreditment of the current capitalist system ... leading to forms of governmental autocracy (emergency powers), or resurgent populist capitalism perhaps. In either case, the discreditment of the current capitalist state will produce a vaccuum that will force a social response.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-17 06:17 pm (UTC)How can "government" not be possible or desirable?? Who is this Pat Murphy?
I will read the article when less sleepy, but please summarise if you get a moment...
To dream
Date: 2004-09-18 01:50 pm (UTC)The paper's the usual over-jargonised neuropsychology claptrap, but it does have one superb passage, where, for no apparent reason, they describe one of her dreams:
You just don't get that in cell biology papers.
-- tom