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Superman Returns To Major Metropolitan Newspapers
Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
Tuguska Explosion: 100 Years Later, Still Unsolved
USA Today Can't See The Sunshine

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Grey_Area
06/15/09

In reply to Superman Returns To Major Metropolitan Newspapers
O Holiest of Molies, I'm actually going to buy this fishwrap! Paul Pope, Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred, Kyle Baker, Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook too? Neato.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/15/09

@Grey_Area: But aren't they only running the Superman one?
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/15/09

In reply to Superman Returns To Major Metropolitan Newspapers
Ooo, they get McPaper at the office of Evil Tortie's Dad. I'll have to make sure he pinches it on Wed.
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TrueCrime
06/15/09

In reply to Superman Returns To Major Metropolitan Newspapers
Smart move on the newspaper's part.

If they're really smart, they'll keep the strips off the Web until a few days after they're printed, make people buy the paper to read it.
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grrl
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
slightly OT, but I have to ask this...

is anyone else disturbed by the setup Twighlight creates, that Edward can't be sexually intimate with Bella because he'll loose control and EAT her???!! I mean, the implications of that and what it's communicating to young adults really freaks me out:

-- that men are dangerous by nature and will hurt women

-- that men are some kind of barbarian slaves to their hormones who can't control themselves so it's inevitable for them to "lose control" and what... physically assault women? rape them? kill them?

-- that it's romantic to be involved with someone who is obsessive and stalker-like in their affections

-- that it's romantic to be someone's possession rather than equal, and by inference a controlling dangerous man is a good thing

-- that it's romantic to be so lost in someone that you totally lose yourself and become something else (in this case, a vampire)

-- that we're supposed to be cheering for a relationship that is essentially a destructive ticking timebomb

now, granted I haven't read the books, but from the snippets I've seen in print, video and merchandise I find it unsettling that people are eating this up.
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vulcanized
04/13/09

@grrl: No, I think you're right on the money. Women are describing the situation as "romantic" whereas I feel a little more "time to call the cops". But apparently, it's totally romatic when a guy you just met starts breaking into your house and watching you sleep.
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AvenueOfTheStrongest
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
Meanwhile in the Vampire Castle...

Batvar enters.

Lord Drakulok: What news my slave?

Batvar: The plan goes well lord. Sultrina's "Stephanie Meyer" persona is fooling everyone. They think she's a Mormon author, not a thousand year old vampire. Better still, the books we wrote account for 16% of all book sales! Humans are lapping them up as we do blood!

Lord Drakulok: Excellent! Soon the humans will be too enamored of vampires to oppose us once we enslave them all!
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/13/09

@AvenueOfTheStrongest:

Both: MWA HA HA HAHA!
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I_Like_Rabbits
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
I'm a 29 year old guy and I read the Twilight series. It's not great, but not terrible. It is cliche, and recycles a large amount of standard sci-fi tropes.

But the trick is the intended audience isn't into sci-fi and they think it's something wondrous and new.

Same thing with the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
04/13/09

@I_Like_Rabbits: if Meyers expands beyond her cache of 15 or so descriptive words and phrases then MAYBE I'll give the series a pass... the writing is seriously abysmal.

that said - I can appreciate the entertainment value.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/13/09

@I_Like_Rabbits: But the Sookie books have 1) sex 2) actual scary blood-drinking vampires.

Therefore they are automatically superior.
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I_Like_Rabbits
04/13/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: So you're saying they won the gold medal at the special olympics and the Twilight series took second?

You do know the problem with that, right?
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All_Thumbs
04/13/09

@I_Like_Rabbits: Actually more like they are second alternate for the normal Pan-Am games, but not Olympic caliber. They actually reasonably readable and fun, but totally fantasy and not at all sci-fi. So if you are a sci-fi bigot, or just don't like fantasy series fiction, don't read them.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/13/09

@All_Thumbs: Exactly. Plus, there's funny stuff that's funny on purpose -- laughing WITH rather than AT.

And a firm grasp of grammar and vocabulary. And mysteries. And not all about emo teens.
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kasviel
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
Twilight is poorly written and trite, but it's harmless. I don't think the passionate hatred is justified against it. I mean, how would a SFF fan like people to go "EWWW ANOTHER Star Wars book?" just based on sight? I've read Star Wars, Star Trek, and some classic SFF books, and I've read Twilight (at least, the first book), and the comparison in quality is glaring, but not enough to make me hate the latter. It kind of leaves me cold, actually, I don't think I could ever hate or love it. Unless I think of how cool Robert Pattinson looks in the movie, then I admit to being able to lose 10% of my mind in typical female romance mode and almost enjoy the damn series. Meh, it's no worse than the soap operas I watch. It also proves my longtime theory, that women are stupid and inferior in general. *nods* (and I am a woman)
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vulcanized
04/13/09

@kasviel: Hang on a sec while I put on my bonerkilling feminazi hat.

There we go. My issue with Twilight is that young girls are eating it up as aspirational. They see Edward as what they want in a man and they find the relationship to be so super-duper romantic. However, if that were to happen in real life, you'd have a seriously unhealthy relationship. Edward is possessive, controlling, stalkerish, and outright tells Bella that he wants to kill her. But she runs back every time because its twue wuv. I find the fact that young women think this is romantic and something to aspire to to be alarming.
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Mount_Prion
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
So extending my logic-feelers a bit, this means that we need to stop making books if we ever want gay people to have the right of marriage.
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Fate'sBitch
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
From what I've read (from this site and the book's dust jacket) The Host sounds a whole lot like Animorphs.

Why does Stephenie Meyers have to ruin everything?
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OlavRokne
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
Problem with the "Best-selling novel" statistics is that most of those numbers weren't tracked until relatively recently, and even then it doesn't include library sign-outs.

As an example, it seems likely that Dune hasn't been read by as many people as War of the Worlds or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
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Alasdair Wilkins
04/13/09

@OlavRokne: Yeah, the whole thing's kind of meaningless. But those are the biggest two as far as Wikipedia is concerned, and on this topic Wikipedia is about as reliable as anything else. And I like to think a big part of my writing style is an insistence on shoehorning Isaac Asimov into everything I write.
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Forsakenchild
04/13/09

@OlavRokne: Why would library sign-outs be included in best "selling"? The original purchase by the library would probably be included in the best selling data, but seeing as a "sign-out" involves no exchange of money why would it be included in determining best selling?
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vulcanized
04/13/09

@Forsakenchild: It wouldn't be, but it would be interesting to see what change sign-outs would make to actual readership numbers.
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Paul_Is_Drunk
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
My girlfriend is reading those books now.

She is a bibliophile with 200+ books in her room alone, her favorite authors are Albert Camus & Siri Hustvedt... and she can't stop reading these damn books.

I read one. It was... not good.

Apparently being a super-desirable female who does nothing and irrationally hates her father is what every woman really desires.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
04/13/09

@Paul_Is_Drunk: its pervasive stench has permeated the ranks of those (us?) with otherwise sound taste. I'm not saying I KNOW.... I'm saying I'VE HEARD the tales.

:\
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vulcanized
04/13/09

@Paul_Is_Drunk: I tried. I've read about 1/3 of the first book, but it all ground to a halt. On the plus side, you can pretty much open up the book to any page and find hilarity via dialogue.
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Ghede
04/13/09

@Paul_Is_Drunk: I can beat that!

My dad is reading them. He picked it up after watching the movie with his girlfriend and loving it. He loves the books. He has the soundtrack from the movie. He is over sixty years old. He was given twilight buttons that look like they could have been sold at hot topic.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
"the books were not as much compelling as enslaving" - from my 15 year old cousin on reading the first Twilight book and having to finish the rest of the series thanks to peer pressure and not wanting to be left out.

I cry for our youth.
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♠ Final ♠
04/13/09

@BeccaSaurus Rex: Yeah peer pressure today... first their reading Twilight for the homies, then next thing you know they're knocking over liquor stores and going on 72 hour Meth binges.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
04/13/09

@♠ Final ♠: sure there are worse things to be pressured into... but not much. not much.
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Rasselas
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
Where is your god now, SFF readers?
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DumbledoreCalrissian
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
This hurts my soul.
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grrl
04/13/09

@DumbledoreCalrissian: I'm right there with you. On the upside it means tweens and teens are reading more.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
04/13/09

@daveNYC: just wait until the numbers come out for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies...

@DumbledoreCalrissian: your soul will be up to its ears in PAIN.

sub-question: (do souls have ears?)
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Belabras: now with Kung Fu grip!
04/13/09

In reply to Stephenie Meyer Was The Book Industry In The First Quarter
I just hope that reading this dreck will eventually lead those brave explorers in the world of literacy to eventually seek out quality material. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, and for the rest of their lives.
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Charlie Jane Anders
04/13/09

@Belabras Ate My Baby!: I really did think the Host was not a bad science fiction book. In an alternate universe, Meyer never got the Twilight books published, and the Host is what she's known for. Lots of decent science fiction writers probably have unpublished early drek in their desk drawers.
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tetracycloide
04/13/09

@Charlie Jane Anders: perhaps some good will come of this then. if we are to belive that she's capable of good writting then being able to work for something other than money might be a good thing.
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bookfoldbrewcineaste
04/13/09

@Belabras Ate My Baby!: Belabras rocks the Casablanca reference for 50 bonus geezer points. Well played, my friend.
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Belabras: now with Kung Fu grip!
04/13/09

@bookfoldbrewcineaste:

Thank you. Now get off my lawn.
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myrlin
04/13/09

@Belabras Ate My Baby!:

We hoped the same thing about halo and FPS... so far nope.
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vulcanized
04/13/09

@Belabras Ate My Baby!: Bad news - your Social Security check is late. Stuff costs more than it used to. Young people use curse words.
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tetracycloide
04/13/09

@myrlin: bad example, their are no FPS that aren't also kitch.
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