Saffron: You're a good man. Mal: You clearly haven't been talking to anyone else on this boat.

'Our Mrs. Reynolds'


Natter 62: The 62nd Natter  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Barb - Jan 06, 2009 7:11:08 am PST #9550 of 10002
“Not dead yet!”

Well, what's making me crazy is that it's a writer's loop and it's not so much that they're going on about Twilight, but they're going on about this one paragraph:

"The salient fact of an adolescent girl's existence is her need for asecret emotional life—one that she slips into during her sulks and silences, during her endless hours alone in her room, or even just when she's gazing out the classroom window while all of Modern European History, or the niceties of the passé composé, sluice past her. This means that she is a creature designed for reading in a way no boy or man, or even grown woman, could ever be so exactly designed, because she is a creature whose most elemental psychological needs—to be undisturbed while she works out the big questions of her life, to be hidden from view while still in plain sight, to enter profoundly into the emotional lives of others—are met precisely by the act of reading."

The utter generalization of this paragraph made my head explode the first time because I'm sorry, not all readers are built alike and certainly, not all adolescent female readers are built alike.

And yet here are all of these writers basically saying "Yes! So true! And that's exactly why we want to write YA!" which to me does such a tremendous disservice to the very audience they're hoping to reach.

Or, it could just be that I'm cranky.


lisah - Jan 06, 2009 7:22:50 am PST #9551 of 10002
Punishingly Intricate

Look what my boyfriend made for me!

[link]


sarameg - Jan 06, 2009 7:24:29 am PST #9552 of 10002

I am back from the dentist. I *should* got in to work, except my stupid company requires I take a full day or nothing, and it being 3.5 hours into the day and my tooth is throbbing (abuse from getting the temp crown on) and I'm just going to say fuckit. Even though I have already missed 2 important meetings and will miss a 3rd.

Add to the cranky of my dental plan sucking so icky bill and I'm REALLY like fuckit.

I think I'll go make soup.


Ginger - Jan 06, 2009 7:28:16 am PST #9553 of 10002
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

This is a great sentence: ""The poor little buggers have copped such a hiding," Mr Marsh said. "Oddy is really protective of the chooks, so to her the penguins were only chooks in dinner suits."

This is why the second article was so much more satisfactory than the first one.

Barb's quote just made my head explode. I read at least a book a day from age 7 to 17. Did I have a peculiarly long adolescence? How, exactly, did I enter the emotional lives of others while reading everything I could get my hands on about dinosaurs and Roman Britain?


Gudanov - Jan 06, 2009 7:35:35 am PST #9554 of 10002
Coding and Sleeping

Roman dinosaurs in Britain had very complex emotional lives.


tommyrot - Jan 06, 2009 7:39:08 am PST #9555 of 10002
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Roman dinosaurs in Britain had very complex emotional lives.

That's why they built Stonehenge.

eta: Anyone else remember this? Steve Martin's Best Show Ever


DavidS - Jan 06, 2009 7:39:57 am PST #9556 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Roman dinosaurs in Britain had very complex emotional lives.

::note to file: Gud's into that "dinosaur stuff" - look for used copies of Land Before Time IV::


Barb - Jan 06, 2009 7:40:33 am PST #9557 of 10002
“Not dead yet!”

And had concerts.


Gudanov - Jan 06, 2009 7:42:58 am PST #9558 of 10002
Coding and Sleeping

::note to file: Gud's into that "dinosaur stuff"

Well, if Joss makes a dramatic comedy show about Roman dinosaurs in Britain, I'm totally there.


tommyrot - Jan 06, 2009 7:46:18 am PST #9559 of 10002
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Well, if Joss makes a dramatic comedy show Roman dinosaurs in Britain, I'm totally there.

After Rome-that-was got used up, all the dinosaurs traveled to Britain....