Part of the requirements of working at an indie bookstore is sneering at customers buying anything we don't like.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 03:43 (three years ago) link
dan brown is such a bad writer it's kind of amazing in a way
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 03:55 (three years ago) link
Brown understands the need to move the plot along fast enough to glide past the other weaknesses of his novels, and knows how to select plot elements that readers will want to see resolved, so they keep reading with interest to the end. That's a talent, but it's just for making books people are excited by briefly, then forget a week later.
― Respectfully Yours, (Aimless), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 04:38 (three years ago) link
I suppose a person who doesn't watch sorts sports inventing a sport wasn't going to go well
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, December 22, 2020 4:38 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
i'm a sports fan and probably my most unpopular opinion about any popular property is that rowling actually invented a good, well-balanced sport - she just had no idea what she was doing and clearly didn't spend a second thinking about how a game would actually play out, so she presented it in the stupidest way possible
i would lower the snitch value because 150 is ridiculous (just cut it to 75 to make ties impossible, but even 100 wouldn't be terrible) but it's good tbh, would be engrossing to watch assuming the teams are actually employing strategy to win which they never do in the books
― ✖, Wednesday, 23 December 2020 05:22 (three years ago) link
But that's the thing--there were numerous people who just seemed to wander into bookshops, demand an as-yet nonexistent book, and then leave, without buying or even looking at any other books.
― scampish inquisition (gyac), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 05:56 (three years ago) link
It definitely worked as a gateway to reading for many kids, as a very brief pathway to a bit of other reading for some kids, and I'm certain that James' personal experience is honestly reported.
― huge rant (sic), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 06:21 (three years ago) link
none of those people read the Ballard. you just sold them paper
― plax (ico), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 07:56 (three years ago) link
yeah, that's bad bookseller practice imo. sell 'em something that influenced Rowling but is very good, like Dianna Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series and Archer The Goon, or is popular fantasy but excellent, like Pratchett, especially the witches and young-protagonist novels. stepping-stone them in towards literature.
― huge rant (sic), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 08:12 (three years ago) link
treeship. at 1:19 23 Dec 20The illogical and dumb rules of Quidditch was intentional I think. The wizarding world felt very small and sclerotic, with their political, media and education system rooted so firmly in tradition. (The slytherin house was still allowed to exist even after it was shown that its founder installed a monster in the school to kill minority students). In this world, there is no space for innovation and progress. The wizards know it which is why they seek “rejuvenation” through the Nazi-esque politics of Voldemort, who gains the support of the majority of the government, I think, almost immediately after regaining his bodily form. Theirs is a dying world, and its vulnerability lies precisely in its resistance to change.I’ll take the fps.
― ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:15 (three years ago) link
yeah hermione/ron was where i was finally like oh wow - she doesn’t understand her own characters! very odd.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:19 (three years ago) link
Lads I stg if this revival gets diverted into discussing one of the the internet’s most prolonged shipper grudges I’ll fp ye all, I don’t care if it’s Christmas.
― scampish inquisition (gyac), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:22 (three years ago) link
Didnt you just divert it there
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:30 (three years ago) link
lol i had never seen any of that but i guess i did always assume there was a great seething mass of it out there just beyond the fringes of my vision
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:34 (three years ago) link
Have had a brief look at that, and yeah, once again her fans have spent 1000x more time thinking about this than she did.
― ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:34 (three years ago) link
― plax (ico), Wednesday, December 23, 2020 2:56 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― huge rant (sic), Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Eh, who cares? It was 20 years ago.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:40 (three years ago) link
We sold books, I felt morally cleansed, and the customer felt flattered by the attention. Win-win for everyone, as Trump might say.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 10:42 (three years ago) link
xp I mean, you did post that whole “and then everyone clapped” story without prompt, so you I guess?
― scampish inquisition (gyac), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:06 (three years ago) link
War stories are occasionally fun.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:08 (three years ago) link
tell us one
― plax (ico), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:22 (three years ago) link
Our call centre (200 employees) was sent one copy of the books so far to enjoy and to make us feel included
They sat beside other such client offerings in the staff room: fat-reducing belt, micro-gym 3000 chair, epil spray (the burns calls here were numerous), three plates with the queen, the queen mum and a world war ii bomber on em, and a box of sex toy returns
― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:29 (three years ago) link
returns
― scampish inquisition (gyac), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:37 (three years ago) link
That's a great New York mag piece; especially the bit about that fantastically stupid 'Wimpund..' tweet. What a silly arse.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:46 (three years ago) link
ffs theres totally a market for those returns ppl
shy market tbs
also george lucas is fine with names by comparison get a grip
― mark s, Wednesday, 23 December 2020 12:12 (three years ago) link
― plax (ico), Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Dip daily into the U.S. politics thread.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 12:51 (three years ago) link
Now that evil Trump is gone all will be peace
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 23 December 2020 12:53 (three years ago) link
https://media3.giphy.com/media/4fGVV61rsPT0s/200.gif
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 12:59 (three years ago) link
Vera Spinabifida
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Tuesday, December 22, 2020 6:44 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
Thanks for making me nearly choke to death on my breakfast, there.
― Wet Pretzels and Other Soggy Snacks (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 13:08 (three years ago) link
Incredible content, this
Later on, they explained to the author that Harry Potter’s scar looks like the “Z”, the symbol used by the Russian on their military vehicles, and ask her to change it to the Ukrainian trident. Rowling took notes and said “I will look at that. It might be good for me to do something with that myself on social media, because I think that will get into the newspapers.”
― Osama bin Chinese (gyac), Wednesday, 29 June 2022 19:27 (one year ago) link
ah, vanity plus stupidity, the magic combination
― bury my heart in wounded kieth (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 29 June 2022 19:45 (one year ago) link
I'm assuming her next book will lean heavily on a subplot about people on the internet being VERY mean to Cormoran Strike
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 15 September 2020 19:02 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink
― mark s, Thursday, 1 September 2022 13:15 (one year ago) link
stoked for characters named like Enby Snowflake and Trance U. Premissist
― You can't spell Fearless without Earle (President Keyes), Thursday, 1 September 2022 13:56 (one year ago) link
I realize JK Rowling's new novel might seem a little long at 1200 pages but a good portion of the space is taken up by fictitious mean tweets pic.twitter.com/6xaH27fUUT— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) August 31, 2022
― You can't spell Fearless without Earle (President Keyes), Thursday, 1 September 2022 15:45 (one year ago) link
Extraordinary, scarcely-believable stuff here. Would love to see her defend herself on these points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_xvXJJk7k
― piscesx, Friday, 14 October 2022 12:55 (one year ago) link
these english feminists are fucking weird
― akm, Saturday, 15 October 2022 00:53 (one year ago) link
these fascists get to dominate UK coverage of feminism because they offer a version that doesn't threaten power and punches down at all the same targets the state and media already wants to eliminate... most english feminists i know think this crowd is full of shit they just can't get a word in since this is the only feminism UK state/media gives a shit about
(relevant that these self-described radicals are uncritically supportive of empire, nation, police, prisons, borders, the nuclear family - and don't seem to care much about abortion access or reproductive labour or gendered poverty or basically anything except transphobia and the purity of white womanhood, conceived of as essential to the national project)
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Saturday, 15 October 2022 09:51 (one year ago) link
this crowd might represent an official english or british feminism but they're deliberately unrepresentative of feminisms that exist within britain - I wanted to draw that out because I think the specifically national and nationalist character (and utility) of the terf wave is fairly underexamined even as people make jokes about terf island and so on
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Saturday, 15 October 2022 10:00 (one year ago) link
yeah this is mainly an english thing afaict. for instance check out this booming answer:https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMF6cD2U5/
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 15 October 2022 10:23 (one year ago) link
I’ve never seen these terves talk about the lack of provision of abortion in Northern Ireland, or even very much about Roe v Wade.
― barry sito (gyac), Saturday, 15 October 2022 11:01 (one year ago) link
Let’s not forget you have the right to call Johnny Depp a wife beater in this country cos even a shitehawk like Dan Wootton could notice the incongruity of these beliefs.
― barry sito (gyac), Saturday, 15 October 2022 11:09 (one year ago) link
https://www.lawfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/danwoottonlibel_lawfuel.png
they don't want US evangelical funding to dry up and honestly they seem a step away from going full pro-life anyway given the rest of their politics and their general attitudes about reproduction and bodily autonomy
has JKR reacted at all to the recent depp bullshit? I know she loves using the law to silence people too - but people must have been asking her to comment
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Saturday, 15 October 2022 12:06 (one year ago) link
I am watching the trash truck take away my complete set of harry potter books - so long!
― | (Latham Green), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 14:32 (one year ago) link
feels good man!
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 1 November 2022 23:00 (one year ago) link
This makes me feel like one of the Old Ones sagely nodding as things come full circle, saying, "I saw Harry Potter arrive and I saw it go."
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 01:52 (one year ago) link
The Rise and Fall of The Writer Who Stole the Ideas From "The Worst Witch"
― | (Latham Green), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 16:04 (one year ago) link
first time seeing the term “terves,” excellent work
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Wednesday, 1 February 2023 12:08 (one year ago) link
she's approaching Glinner-level brainworms at this point, seems to tweet about nothing else.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Wednesday, 1 February 2023 12:11 (one year ago) link
you're constantly being told how brave and righteous and important you are while being initiated into this ideological bubble within which every question always comes back to this, you get to feel like an underground resistance fighter for inciting violence against a minority group, all this must be intoxicating and once you're in so deep entertaining any reservations would shatter your entire identity so any doubts others may share become deeply threatening attacks on you personally and by extension women in general (even if you're a man) - and if you ever change your mind about all this (generic "you" since she's not doing this) you'll end up on the receiving end of everything you and your friends have been dishing out which isn't an attractive prospect
I don't have any sympathy because you have to indulge some really shitty parts of yourself to start down this path in the first place but once you're on it it's like a runaway train which very few people seem to get off
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Wednesday, 1 February 2023 12:59 (one year ago) link
xp and yet, afaict she has yet to acknowledge his existence in any way
― here you go, muttonchops Yaz (gyac), Wednesday, 1 February 2023 13:23 (one year ago) link
Glinner says the quiet part out loud too much.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 1 February 2023 13:30 (one year ago) link