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San Francisco, 11:19 PM
Sat Nov 7
12 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/05/09
I'm in favor of books where girls do magic and have powers. I will read anything where girls do magic or have powers.
Also, seriously, why all the hate on YA? There are so many great classic works of literature that are YA (Robert Cormier and Judy Blume come straight to mind as well as Robin McKinley's stuff).
It's historical fiction not sci-fi/fant but I would also heartily recommend the last National Book Award Winner "What I Saw and Why I Lied" by Blundell (who's- fun fact- only other titles she's written were Star Wars books targeted for 9 year olds). It's flipping amazing.
Another great war/historical one is Peet's "Tamar" which is a fantastic WW2 intrigue/spy novel. There's loads more but I'm prattling on...
I'm just saying it's not all Twilight and Gossip Girl people.
11/05/09
Surely the best way to deliver the 'Machine Man' experience to the audience would be in the form of 43 one minute, 'blipverts/pages', delivered online and on broadcast TV, over 43 consecutive days.
That would add up to exactly one 'TV hour'.
For the one-off, TV 'event', reprise.
Then the theatrical, DVD and online release of the whole 120 minute film the next day.
For $6.95.
Just like the book. [io9.com]
But why would a film studio use an innovative and hugely profitable new business model? #maxbarry
11/05/09
My daughter was reading a lot of YA but then she read some Margaret Atwood books and now she finds that much of the YA doesn't satisfy her anymore. I have begun to lend her my books that I think that she will enjoy and hopefully save myself a few dollars as well. #books
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11/05/09
Stephen Soderbergh I have a big hate for you as you hate the Internet we give a little hate back to you.
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The main problem I have, however, with most YA fiction is that it is written in a way that treats its audience like idoiots. Young people are not stupid. They may lack worldly experience, but they still love reading things that challenge the mind.
In that sense, I find that literature aimed at that audience is much better when written by people who also write adult works. For example, Heinlan, Andre Norton, Orson Scott Card, Robert Jordan, Neil Gaiman (I know, I know this is looking a little too fantasy), Edith Nesbitt, C.S. Lewis, etcetera!
When the author is an adult who only writes fiction for YA then we get filtered, usually publisher dictated, stories that are not didatic enough and they end up straying into the trashier, non challenging end of the spectrum. ESPECIALLY when it comes to sci fi. I am not refering to all published YA fiction here, but there seems to be a trend.
YA sci fi readers, like myself when I was younger, will tend to go straight to the main stuff, because it doesn't pander to teenage cliches which I would posit most YA readers who like sci fi would find uniteresting and turn them off the story.
So if we have more Adult Sci Fi writers writing for teenagers, then perhaps we might have more good YA sci fi, and less YA sci fi hate. #books
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I think kids who like sci fi tend to read up. That is, get straight into the meatier adult stuff, rather than the YA which they see as juvenile. Its not always true, as you mention a prime example of Enders Game, which I do look at as a YA novel, no matter its themes. It is exactly what YA sci fi should be! Decent and didactic! #books
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11/05/09
It's an interesting read and I recommend it for those that get AP. Unfortunately I think you have to be a subscriber to access the online version of the article. #books
11/05/09
I also read James Bond at the time because it was titillating, although now I can see that they are not the best for a young man whose images of women are being formed. I'm never sure what to recommend to teen boys. #books
11/05/09
"Oh woe is me. I am a beautiful young girl with a multitude of options for my future and all the hot boys want me. Life is just so hard. Excuse me while I pout is such a way that all the boys will come running."
I have read several of these popular new YA books and none of them deal with war, self-harm, gender, existentialism and what little sex and drugs they deal with are so absurd at best that they make you want to burn the book. #books
11/05/09
There are many exceptions to my disguised, which is aimed a books like Daniel X and Twilight. #books
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11/06/09
So...lamepires it is? #books
11/05/09
Also... YA novels are easier to hold while "taking a meeting" than say a 1k+ page tome.
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But thanks for the motivation! I can do it! #books
11/05/09
All quite easy to read as well.
If I can recommend one YA sci/fi series - The Deepwater Trilogy by Ken Catran.
[en.wikipedia.org] #books
11/05/09
Dan Brown isn't exactly the most dense writer in the world nor is James Patterson and all his "co-writers." I can't imagine anyone with a HS level education having difficulty getting through any of those. #books
11/04/09
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11/04/09
George V. Higgins - The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Carl Hiaasen - Tourist Season
Thomas Perry - The Butcher's Boy, Metzger's Dog
and particularly in 'lowlife', 'outsider', crime capers:
James Grady - Six Days of the Condor
Donald E. Westlake - The Hot Rock
Jay Cronley - Quick Change, Good Vibes
I don't think it's a coincidence that nearly all of those were made into very good films (particularly in the early Seventies).
120 minutes is just right to learn to love a 'voice' for what it is and not long enough to learn to loath it for what it isn't. #writing
11/04/09
Does it destroy the flow of the dialogue when the reader has to figure out written pronunciations of a particular accent? and are you better off just using word choice and sentence length and all the other tricks you describe above? #writing
11/04/09
On the other hand, I am reading a novel where the protagonist is from Liverpool, and he's back in his hometown after escaping to Oxford many years before. The author stresses some of the Liverpool-specific pronunciation because it grates on the protagonist. He's lost the ear for the accent that used to be his own, and it sounds strange to him. It works. But it's small and almost an aside as the character rides the bus, so it's a very light touch.
Everything in moderation, I guess. #writing
11/04/09
The question is: how much is just enough? I guess another way to handle it is to simply tell the reader there is an accent at the beginning of the story and then not to worry about it. #writing
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What enrages me is author who use the same accent for every character that speak a language, even if they come from different places (a French-speaker from Quebec, one from Paris and one from Lyon is not going to speak the same way at all. Just like a New-Yorker, a Londonian and a Texan doesn't speak the same way) #writing
11/05/09
11/05/09
But artificial languages are like accents in that regard--you can't use too many strange words, or the reader gets overwhelmed, and perhaps annoyed. #writing