Yeah, I suppose "stupid" isn't the term I want to use, and it's not quite willful ignorance, either. Hmm.

I just can't fathom walking into a bookstore to look for a book by its cover, without any other identifying information. Then again, I probably don't consume media like most Americans.

"Yeah, I'm looking for that manga? With the boys? The pretty ones?"

I just can't fathom walking into a bookstore to look for a book by its cover, without any other identifying information.

This was my problem. If you don't know the title, the author, or even really what a book is about why do you expect someone to be able to find it for you.

We are visual creatures. I bet 96% of you could recognize pages from a Harry Potter book, even if the actual words had been replaced with nonsense.

My favorite gaffe of this ilk was the considerable complaining when a novel came out, The Little Black Book of [memfault], and neither the hardcover nor the paperback was black. (They were both brown.)

Um, not me. But I did recognize this, from my friendly spammer (

Subject: Neptune green now-accumulated

Full text: "this account then is what he has received from mr. darcy. i am satisfied. but what does he say
consent to be of the party. indeed, eliza, you will be as welcome as either of them."
"that is to say, you had given your permission. i guessed as much." and though he exclaimed at
country; and within five miles of lambton, elizabeth found from her aunt that pemberley was situated.
"what do you think of this sentence, my dear lizzy?" said jane as she finished it. "is it not clear
"a little."
and sat with her till summoned to coffee. she was still very poorly, and elizabeth would not quit her at
creditors in meryton, of whom i shall subjoin a list according to his information? he has given in all
"so much the better. i hope they will not meet at all. but does not jane correspond with his
"now i am quite happy," said she, "for you will be as happy as myself. i always had a value for
"we will go as far as meryton with you," said catherine and lydia. elizabeth accepted their
"some time or other he will be-but it shall not be by me . till i can forget his father, i can never
a day or two passed before jane had courage to speak of her feelings to elizabeth; but at last, on
besides, it was such a pity that lydia should be taken from a regiment where she was acquainted with
"good gracious!" cried maria, after a few minutes' silence, "it seems but a day or two since we
"and they are really to be married!" cried elizabeth, as soon as they were by themselves. "how
"certainly, my dear, nobody said there were; but as to not meeting with many people in this
"what think you of books?" said he, smiling.
as i abominate writing, i would not give up mr. collins's correspondence for any consideration. nay,

Huh. Just got another all P&P spam. This one titled "midnight sun panic-proof." Sounds like a good paint color for your underground bomb shelter, if nothing else.

brenda, heh. I just deleted a P&P spam yesterday, a brief passage about Elizabeth Bennet's skill but lack of diligence in regularly practicing on the pianoforte, entitled "VIARGARA Inspire 3."

Which I thought was really cool -- it's hard to come up with a scenario where a guy could have no name and no nationality.

With millions in refugee camps these days? There are still a fair number of elderly U.S citizens without birth certificates. A rural refugee from the Congo, or Sudan could easily end up without any documentation - no birth cerificates, no passport. You would be issued some sort of documentation soon enough (probably a ration card) but it might well be with a made up name and nationality unknown.

In non spam news (unless you count me), does anyone know anything about this book? [link]

Looks kind of intriguing.

A rural refugee from the Congo, or Sudan could easily end up without any documentation - no birth cerificates, no passport.

Right, but -- refugees from Sudan are pretty much mostly from Sudan, you know? The coolth of the DP camps was that you might be a German or a Polr or a Czech or a Bulgarian originally, and nobody would be really sure if you could hide your accent. You can totally reinvent yourself, so much so that the novel implied that No-name had no passport at all and could cross borders anyway.

I know there are still a bunch of people out there who were born in DP camps, and thus have no native citizenship. There was a guy a couple of years ago, who'd been naturalized as an American, and then got stripped of his citizenship for some felony or other, and the problem was, they couldn't deport him to his native country, because, he kind of didn't have one.