tingilinde

if there are book bans

The Bible is clearly pornographic.  So many places, but here's a dildo reference:  (tip of the hat to Chris)

Ezekiel 16:17

King James Bible

Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

New Revised Standard Version (for once following the KJV's lead)

You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and my silver that I had given you, and made for yourself male images, and with them played the whore;

New International Version (for once being more direct, and closer to the Hebrew)

You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.

International Standard Version (hitting the nail closer to the head)

You also took your fine jewelry—including my gold and my silver that I had given you. Then you made for yourself male images and had sex with them!

 

 

morality and school books

A challenge to the Bible..  

Compared with many of the books removed in places like Florida, it full of immorality by the standards of the right.  But, of course, much of the right are functionally diodes.

 

publishing and llms

Suw is not a fan.

snip

...

Grifters will crowd out genuine writers on Kindle. LLM content will swamp submissions to literary magazines and agents. Any system based on human review will collapse, but algorithmic systems won’t do much better. It doesn’t matter how good or bad this LLM content is, what matters is how quick it is to create and thus how much of it gets produced.

This disruption is already affecting short stories and, in concert with some other self-publishing and wider macroeconomic trends, it is very rapidly going to take over Amazon’s book marketplace. Traditional publishing, especially agents, are not going to be able to escape either, though they might believe that they are safe for now. They aren’t. And authors who are focusing now on the ethical use of LLM assistance in their writing are going to find themselves in competition with people who don’t care about ethics or even readable prose. We’re at only the beginning of a massive shitshow.

...

 

 

on libraries

The special places that they are.

snip

...

Yet somehow librarians still find time to match people with the books they need. These selections may be second-guessed by irate taxpayers who don’t know the difference between F. Scott Fitzgerald and L. Ron Hubbard or don’t understand that ideas and stories aren’t contagious; the only disease they’ll infect you with is empathy. Nevertheless, librarians persist. One could argue that they distribute more wings than an airline pilot. Put yours to good use and you can fly anywhere.

...

 

 

a note for kids on banned books

 

Hey, kids! It's your old buddy Steve King telling you that if they ban a book in your school, haul your ass to the nearest bookstore or library ASAP and find out what they don't want you to read.

Stephen King

 

potentially a good book

Pieces like this have been written and talks given, but they never seem to reach the right audiences.  

The first page looks promising..

 

just listen

The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast's segment on Robin Miles.  There's a transcript, but you *need* to hear her voice. (about 23 minutes)

snip

...

You’ve probably never heard of Robin Miles, but you may well have heard her—possibly at some length. Miles is an actor who’s cultivated a particular specialty in recording audiobooks, a booming segment of the publishing industry. She has lent her voice to more than 400 titles in all sorts of genres—from the classic “Charlotte’s Web” to Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste,” a deep analysis of race in America. “Telling a story, fully, all of it—from all the aspects of it—and creating the kind of intimacy between you and your listener is so satisfying,” she tells the New Yorker editor Daniel Gross. “Being in a great play means you have to have the money and the other actors and a script and a director. This is just me and my book, and I love that.”

...

 

 

 

a dickens reading

Neil Gaiman reads from a rare copy of A Christmas Carol which has edits and reading prompts Dickens used for public readings.

 

 

a great audiobook narrator

The path Robin Miles took with a bit on the promise/threat of computer voices.

snip

...

Miles is a specialist in accents. She has been the voice of the Antiguan American novelist Jamaica Kincaid, the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Russian journalist Yelena Khanga, and the Californian Vice-President Kamala Harris. On this day, she voiced both sides of a conversation between New York and London. On a printed script, Green had marked where sound effects would be added later. “We need tentacle squish sounds here,” she told me, pointing at one spot. When the book said that someone laughed, Miles offered the engineer a giggle, a chortle, and a cackle; when a character steepled their fingers, Miles did, too. “She sounds like Ursula,” Green said, when Miles voiced the novel’s villain. “I love her,” Figueroa replied. “So slimy.”

...

 

 

testing what if?

If you're an xkcd fan, THIS is so good!

 

Be sure and check out Greg's comment:-)