Delicious LiveJournal Links for 9-23-2010

[andrewducker]

• PC gamers buying more games via download than in stores (spendnig more in stores though)
  (tags: games gaming computer_games computers)
• Horniest dinosaur ever discovered
  (tags: dinosaurs)
• Scots renewable energy target likely to be surpassed
  (tags: renewables scotland uk energy electricity)
• Asthma genes found
  (tags: asthma genetics health)
• Lib Dems closing in on concessions from Tories on Trident and migrants
  (tags: nuclearweapons trident uk politics migration immigration libdem)
• DC shuts down WildStorm - various creators reminisce
  (tags: DC comics wildstorm)
• Mini-reviews of many, many filmed versions of Hamlet
  (tags: hamlet shakespeare movies)
• Why the fuss over a lack of YA for boys is nothing more than backlash
  (tags: books feminism writing publishing literature reading women)
• Possibly the finest bit of failed translation I've ever seen.
  (tags: japan translation computers EpicFail)

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

That translation is almost poetic, in a rather disturbing way.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

It's now on Language Log (via marnanel) and Charlie's Diary (via us in the pub last night - which led to Patrick giving Charlie the Portuguese menu).

I've been keeping a kinda-sorta proprietorial eye on it since Tuesday night when it hit the Shib mailing list....

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> Can you imagine whole semesters of reading about vaginas?

I'm going to go away and think about that now.

[usmu.livejournal.com]

Aren't we already doing that with biology and sex ed? ;)

Boys reading...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

File that article under the, "If only we approached them properly and persuasively, boys would stop being boys."

For example, "Maybe this idea that there aren’t enough boy stories gives credit to absolutely no one, especially not the boys who will happily read stories by women, about women"

This is utter bollocks.

It's not a question of author gender, or to do with how they are marketed. It's to do with content.

Most boys want to read certain kinds of book. If you want boys to enjoy reading, then that's what you have to offer them.

Sticking a tank on the cover of a female written book about Feelings and the Tragedy of War won't actually make most boys want to read it. A book about a Roman centurian reclaiming a lost eagle, however, will do very nicely, despite the author being a wheelchair bound lady artist.

It is bizarre and suspicious that the boys stories of less than 30 years ago have vanished, leaving a gaping niche, and yet tales of manly adventure for men (Scarrow, Cornwall etc) are doing very well indeed.

[Utterly agree with her about the way in the past male voices have dominated literature, and how unacceptable it is that female focussed fiction gets dismissed as froth.]

Re: Boys reading...

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

I think you're saying "I don't care who writes the book, as long as the content is interesting to me".

I have read and enjoyed many books written by women, e.g. (in no particular order) Trudy Canavan, Anne McCaffrey, Jill Murphy, Robin Hobb, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Jan Pieńkowski (that's going back a bit), Gillian Cross, Elizabeth Moon, Ursula Moray Williams, Diane Duane, Barbara Hambly, Enid Blyton, Beatrix Potter and J K Rowling.

You might note a few trends there, unrelated to the gender of the authors.

It's the same as in films. For some reason people seem to think that since I'm male, that I'll only watch films featuring men being manly. I have loved most of the films I've seen where the star is a woman; all that matters is that the subject or genre is something I like.

Re: Boys reading...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

The original article was cited as relating to YA (Young Adult, approx 12+ I think) and actually seemed to talk abotu childrens books in general.

As an adult male, I enjoy a variety of books including ones supposedly "chick" orientated. I also like lots of different types of films, and will happily settle down to watch a supposed "chick flick".

As a boy... well, I was interested in being a man.

Re: Boys reading...

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

Ah, so that's what YA stands for, I was wondering. As a boy I was interested in reading about adventure and magic (still am really).

Re: Boys reading...

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, later checking would reveal that Jan Pieńkowski is in fact a man. I made the assumption because I thought Jan was a female name, and his partner is called David.

However, since he wasn't in fact the author I was thinking of, but instead the illustrator, and the author was a woman called Helen Nicoll, I think I got away with it.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

'Please apologize for your stupidity. There are a many thank you' is particularly wonderful.