They consider people more likely to pay attention while reading than while texting?
I parsed it as more likely to pay attention while reading than playing a game. It would depend on the game, really.
You're wrong about River. River's not on the ship. They didn't want her here, but she couldn't make herself leave. So she melted... Melted away. They didn't know she could do that, but she did.
River ,'Objects In Space'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
§ ita § - May 04, 2009 11:40:56 am PDT #9081 of 28406
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Ginger - May 04, 2009 1:41:19 pm PDT #9082 of 28406
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
ita deciphered my mangled prose. I think the main concern was texting, since you're not supposed to communicate with the outside world, but the judge felt he had to throw in some kind of admonition.
Calli - May 04, 2009 3:24:51 pm PDT #9083 of 28406
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
We had computers with internet connections in the jury waiting room. And they didn't provide books, but I brought a couple. But once we got to the voir dire part of the process we were supposed to pay attention to the judge and lawyers.
Beverly - May 04, 2009 4:45:15 pm PDT #9084 of 28406
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
Well, the coatroom was just in the pit, the bullpen, you know, where they put everybody to pull prospective jurors from. Once in the courtroom we did have to pay attention--that part was pretty interesting.
Kathy A - May 04, 2009 4:57:23 pm PDT #9085 of 28406
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
I haven't had a jury summons since I moved up here three years ago. I had two in 12 months when I was living in Forest Park (lucked out on both--the first was at the Daley Center downtown, and the jury selection took so long that it lasted until after lunch when they sent those of us who weren't selected home, and the second was only a few miles from my apartment and the four courtrooms had either judge trials or cancelations, so they sent everyone home by 10:00 am).
JZ - May 04, 2009 7:00:03 pm PDT #9086 of 28406
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
I haven't had one in a while, which I expect means one will show up tomorrow or thereabouts--I get called pretty regularly. I read in the waiting room, but it's a hazard; the last time I actually had to go in, I got so lost in my book that I nearly missed my name being called.
Tom Scola - May 07, 2009 4:10:54 am PDT #9087 of 28406
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
Here is my synopsis of every Doug Coupland book, ever.
Character A: You remember that Thing*? I remember that Thing.
Character B: I remember that Thing also.
Character A: Our shared rememberance of that Thing constitutes a lasting and real human connection!
Jon B. - May 07, 2009 5:06:28 am PDT #9088 of 28406
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!
* Wherein THING= Hiroshima, limited edition Joy Division record, episode of the Smurfs, short-lived pseudo-obscure sitcom from the ’80s, 8-track tapes.
Excellent!
erikaj - May 07, 2009 9:19:27 am PDT #9089 of 28406
Always Anti-fascist!
Bwah...
Steph L. - May 07, 2009 12:03:17 pm PDT #9090 of 28406
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
Oh dear god, Anathem is breaking my brain. I haven't read anything this dense in a long time.
I had to stop reading when Orolo got volcano-ed. In retrospect, it's not surprising, and had to happen, narratively, but it still freaked me out.
And -- is Laterre supposed to be Earth? Because the phonetic spelling of some of the words that Jules Verne uses are for French words. Not to mention his name being all literary and shit.
Not finished yet. They're just about to head into space.