it's almost september!

[insaneneko]

On the way home I saw a vanity license plate that said "Gaysha." At first I thought, "Is it a (bizarre) name?" Then I wondered if it was gay + geisha. I guess I'll never know...

Personally, I wouldn't read an e-book with a soundtrack. First of all, I don't like listening to any music when reading. Second, fiddling with the thing to adjust the music to match your reading speed sounds annoying. It'll be interesting to see if it takes off.

I've had fun going around reading reactions to Robert Lipstiche's article in the NYT, "Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope?" I first read bookshop's reaction piece so my take might have been colored by hers, but the guy rubbed me the wrong way. :P

Comments

[silverthunder]

Okay, I'm planning to read the reaction piece, but I just finished the article, and this guy rubbed me the wrong way too.

You know what this sounds like? Those discussion pieces about how to make video games that appeal to girls. Seriously, WTF? Make the same stuff you're making now, but put the girls in more positive, active roles instead of as side characters and damsels in distress.

It annoys me that the video game discussion comes down to "girls don't like to play the same things as boys, we need more games about makeup and hair" and the books discussion (because it relates to BOYS) comes down to "why are there so many female protagonists? Let's get more MEN in books, so boys will read them".

W.T.F? All my favorite fantasy novels have male protagonists! This isn't a freakin' problem! Men writing about men exist in abundance! Just because Twilight is in the spotlight and it's got a female protagonist and is written by a female author and is attracting a mainly female audience doesn't mean the WHOLE of the book world is dominated by females! Where are you looking, the Romance section?

There is a whole lot of nonsense and entitlement in this piece that really bugs the crap out of me.

[silverthunder]

Also: I read the response article, which was brilliant! It was all the stuff I felt while reading the original piece but didn't know how to express.

There were some real gems in the comments, too. I particularly liked JupiterPluvius's response to Jackie Snyder's comment. Pop culture can be so subversive, it's scary. I wish more people would take note of this.

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I totally get where you are coming from. I think a lot of female readers get where you're coming from. It's amazing how much privilege and entitlement grates, and I'm glad it's so easy to find other voices to counteract them. I just wish places like the NY-effing-Times wouldn't give space to this kind of stuff without a counter opinion. Or get real analysis about the phenomenon that includes things like questioning why we have a culture that makes it a no-no for boys to read books with girls in them. *sighs* I went back and reread the comment you pointed out in your other comment and have to agree. So awesome!