Petra missed the flight to Baku, back in Tashkent!’s review of Life, the Universe and Everything (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3) > Likes and Comments
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1948, it was. I guess some things never change.
matt wrote: "Years later, Mailer met Dorothy Parker at a party and she grandly announced "so this is the young man who can't spell the word fuck!" ..."
I read that but it was attributed to Talullah Bankhead!
matt wrote: "1948, it was. I guess some things never change."
Would have been funnier if it had been 19....42.
I just looked it up, 'twas Bankhead indeed. I stand corrected
Hahaha!!! I feel bad for Belgium!!! It is a nice little place - I would hate to be equated with fuck... unless it is a very satisfying one:-)
I have no words...
Well, I just turned on the TV and found out that there were explosions in Brussels... Now I feel bad for laughing at Belgium ... I hope all those people are going to be OK...
Wanted to comment on this, but words fail me... Must check my collected US edition and see if someone made the bold move to restore the original text before publishing that one. I'll check my Swedish translations as well - knowing the Swedish mind, I'm confident that a sufficiently offensive word was used!
Choko wrote: "Hahaha!!! I feel bad for Belgium!!! It is a nice little place - I would hate to be equated with fuck... unless it is a very satisfying one:-)..."
It's not a very sexy country. Very boring. But excellent fries and waffles. My first ex was half-Walloon (half-Welsh so that's all right). I think he preferred the fries to ....
Hahaha:-) You always have a cool story'-)
Choko wrote: "Hahaha:-) You always have a cool story'-)"
But the explosion you wrote about wasn't cool. I didn't read about it until just now. ISIS. Everyone is being so pc and pretending this isn't WW III and who are enemy is but saying ISIS are a rogue group and have no support outside of themselves.
That's really fucked up. But not surprising. The same party who cries "foul" on political correctness is also quite obsessed with scrubbing our books. In Texas, until recently, they were calling slaves "workers" in *history* books used in public schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/...
Ioana wrote: "In Texas, until recently, they were calling slaves "workers" in *history* books used in public schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/... "
That's far, far worse. It lies about the very nature of slavery and why it is wrong!
Cecily wrote: "That's far, far worse. It lies abou..." Agreed, Cecily! The situation is truly horrific, that's just one example. Others include of course the now famous "debate" over "creationism" (it's included in Texas science textbooks for kids!).
These are essentially the same people (or groups, or persuasions) who are also policing naughty words in silly books like this one. It's all part of that spectrum of creating an alternative acceptable-to-them scrubbed reality, though you're right, of course - one is much, much worse/extreme.
Even more worrying, to me, is that a decade ago, I'd have been shocked and sad, but thought it would never happen in the secular UK... We're still very secular, and yet creationism is sneaking into science lessons in a few schools.
Cecily wrote: "Ioana wrote: "In Texas, until recently, they were calling slaves "workers" in *history* books used in public schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/..."
Good cure: The Book of Night Women. Put that, with all the language, the violence and sex on the curriculum and maybe they would understand what slavery was and that those who won't admit to it collude after the fact.
It's like reading some people saying that they don't want to read Go Set a Watchman because they don't want their view of Atticus to be spoiled. In other words, they don't want to have to face he was an extremely calculating racist. (There are a lot of reasons for not wanting to read the book, that one is the worst one imaginable).
But they wouldn't read it, would they? :(
(Nor have I, but I try to be more accepting and open-minded than these people are.)
Mockingbird/Watchman is interesting. The former has no special place in my heart, but I can quite imagine loving a book and its characters, and not wanting that tainted. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general. It's the race angle than makes it so.
Cecily wrote: " I can quite imagine loving a book and its characters, and not wanting that tainted. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general. It's the race angle than makes it so. ..."
Exactly. Mockingbird is an American thing, I don't think it's even that widely known in the UK.
Petra X wrote: "Mockingbird is an American thing, I don't think it's even that widely known in the UK." It's definitely canonical over here, I think most children read it in school (that's how I came to read it).
The dilemma of Mockingbird/Watchman- I can't say I was shocked to learn that a book purporting to show a well meaning white guy "saving" the black man was, behind the scenes, something else entirely. The paternalistic benevolent racist meta-implications of the first paved the way predictably for the second. Of course that's not what we learn in school -we just learn to adore Atticus as the ultimate American hero. But the story imo is not *about* racism: it's about generous, selfless white people fighting against racism. Nothing wrong with that, but when that's MOST of what gets published and canonized, it's quite problematic.
Cecily wrote: "Even more worrying, to me, is that a decade ago, I'd have been shocked and sad, but thought it would never happen in the secular UK... " Oh goodness, this is awful. I had no idea.. We seem to be exporting the very worst - leading the way indeed... straight into the heart of ignorance.
My new clerk, daughter of a university-educated professional mother and IT father who is on her way to do psychology in a Canadian university said she didn't really know anything much about evolution. She didn't know what it meant. She has an assoc. degree in humanities. That's the kind of education you get in the extremely-Christian Caribbean.
That is terrible!!! At least teach it as an alternative, so once the kids go into the outside world they can be in step with everyone else... I am just so upset how school systems can cripple their students...
Choko wrote: "That is terrible!!! At least teach it as an alternative, so once the kids go into the outside world they can be in step with everyone else... I am just so upset how school systems can cripple their..."
I feel the same, Choko.
Great review, Petra :)
Choko wrote: " am just so upset how school systems can cripple their..."
It's not the schools. It's the churches. They don't allow sex education until the kids are 16, before that it is about reproduction but not sex. So no sex, no evolution but plenty of pastors building big houses.
I got a wonderful letherbound US edition of the collected books that i picked up in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Always been ambivalent about it, because of the title page, which features that horrible planet-smiley-blob thing. Learning about this made me realize I'm missing a decent English language edition and immediately went to find and order one. Since I already have the 2 full Swedish pb editions of the series, the audio books, the original radio series and TV series and the hardback of the collected four books, as well as the one with the collected five, my wife will want to talk to you about bringing this to my attention.
Thomas wrote: "I got a wonderful letherbound US edition of the collected books that i picked up in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Always been ambivalent about it, because of the title page, which features th..."
What word do they use in Swedish for 'fuck'? Do they also use Belgium? Or are Swedes made of sterner (or dirtier) stuff?
Petra X wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I got a wonderful letherbound US edition of the collected books that i picked up in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Always been ambivalent about it, because of the title page, wh..."
Yes, well, we had that debate in the 50's and 60's and since, nobody gets too worked up about it :-)
The particular word used in this translation (which was done by esteemed poet, play writer, musician and more Thomas Tidholm) was "knulla", which really is one shade raunchier than the original, since it's totally non-ambigous.
I've been listening to the version of the audiobook read by Adams (you have to track down cassettes) and this was my first time listening to LtUaE rather than reading, and when it got to the playwright, it shocked me, because I distinctly remember how beautifully we get the first instance stateside with a two page lead-up in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.
Also, I can confirm the hardcover collected edition from Barnes and Noble uses "Belgium".
Nate wrote: "Also, I can confirm the hardcover collected edition from Barnes and Noble uses "Belgium"."
LOL. I think it's funny how the US publisher doesn't think the word 'Fuck' is appropriate but Belgium is. What a slur!
Your review has me laughing so hard! I'm picturing the woman with her black marker!
Negin wrote: "Your review has me laughing so hard! I'm picturing the woman with her black marker!"
If you search GR Groups for 'clean' you will turn up those sort of people. You get remarks like, 'there was some kissing and groping and it made me feel icky so I put down the book' and 'inappropriat references to the Deity' (presumably OMG). All of them put books down as soon they hear the F-Bomb word, can't write Fuck, it would melt their little snowflake hearts.
Holy swut! Another Belgiuming good review Petra.
Blamp wrote: "Holy swut! Another Belgiuming good review Petra."
That's an idea. Maybe with ebooks all words like Fuck, Kiss, Grope, Breasts, OMG, Shit, Jesus etc could be replaced with country names when you hit the Make it Christian button.
Unpopular opinion, but I think the American versions are better for using the alternates. Not because I care about swearing, but because the absurd language feels somehow more exotic and ridiculous. "You're a jerk, Dent, a complete kneebiter." As a kid, reading the American version, this made me laugh and laugh and laugh in a way that asshole wouldn't have.
Steven wrote: "Unpopular opinion, but I think the American versions are better for using the alternates. Not because I care about swearing, but because the absurd language feels somehow more exotic and ridiculous..."
Doesn't matter if it's popuar or not, if you enjoy reading it, that's what matters. I do rather like 'Belgium' though.
Steven wrote: "Belgium is great!"
It is. And they make great fries there.
And then (shudder) dip them in mayonnaise. Barbaric.
Left Coast Justin wrote: "And then (shudder) dip them in mayonnaise. Barbaric."
That's the best thing to have with fries. I always ask for mayo, ketchup is ok but a bit too strong. What do you consider a 'refined' dip if mayo is barbarid? lol
Left Coast Justin wrote: "10W40."
ROFLMAO
> American publishers are pussies.
they are corporations.
Ietrio wrote: "> American publishers are pussies.
they are corporations."
Belgium being more acceptable to corporate America than the f-word!
'
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1948, it was. I guess some things never change.
matt wrote: "Years later, Mailer met Dorothy Parker at a party and she grandly announced "so this is the young man who can't spell the word fuck!" ..."I read that but it was attributed to Talullah Bankhead!
matt wrote: "1948, it was. I guess some things never change."Would have been funnier if it had been 19....42.
I just looked it up, 'twas Bankhead indeed. I stand corrected
Hahaha!!! I feel bad for Belgium!!! It is a nice little place - I would hate to be equated with fuck... unless it is a very satisfying one:-)I have no words...
Well, I just turned on the TV and found out that there were explosions in Brussels... Now I feel bad for laughing at Belgium ... I hope all those people are going to be OK...
Wanted to comment on this, but words fail me... Must check my collected US edition and see if someone made the bold move to restore the original text before publishing that one. I'll check my Swedish translations as well - knowing the Swedish mind, I'm confident that a sufficiently offensive word was used!
Choko wrote: "Hahaha!!! I feel bad for Belgium!!! It is a nice little place - I would hate to be equated with fuck... unless it is a very satisfying one:-)..."It's not a very sexy country. Very boring. But excellent fries and waffles. My first ex was half-Walloon (half-Welsh so that's all right). I think he preferred the fries to ....
Hahaha:-) You always have a cool story'-)
Choko wrote: "Hahaha:-) You always have a cool story'-)"But the explosion you wrote about wasn't cool. I didn't read about it until just now. ISIS. Everyone is being so pc and pretending this isn't WW III and who are enemy is but saying ISIS are a rogue group and have no support outside of themselves.
That's really fucked up. But not surprising. The same party who cries "foul" on political correctness is also quite obsessed with scrubbing our books. In Texas, until recently, they were calling slaves "workers" in *history* books used in public schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/...
Ioana wrote: "In Texas, until recently, they were calling slaves "workers" in *history* books used in public schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/... "That's far, far worse. It lies about the very nature of slavery and why it is wrong!
Cecily wrote: "That's far, far worse. It lies abou..." Agreed, Cecily! The situation is truly horrific, that's just one example. Others include of course the now famous "debate" over "creationism" (it's included in Texas science textbooks for kids!). These are essentially the same people (or groups, or persuasions) who are also policing naughty words in silly books like this one. It's all part of that spectrum of creating an alternative acceptable-to-them scrubbed reality, though you're right, of course - one is much, much worse/extreme.
Even more worrying, to me, is that a decade ago, I'd have been shocked and sad, but thought it would never happen in the secular UK... We're still very secular, and yet creationism is sneaking into science lessons in a few schools.
Cecily wrote: "Ioana wrote: "In Texas, until recently, they were calling slaves "workers" in *history* books used in public schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/..."Good cure: The Book of Night Women. Put that, with all the language, the violence and sex on the curriculum and maybe they would understand what slavery was and that those who won't admit to it collude after the fact.
It's like reading some people saying that they don't want to read Go Set a Watchman because they don't want their view of Atticus to be spoiled. In other words, they don't want to have to face he was an extremely calculating racist. (There are a lot of reasons for not wanting to read the book, that one is the worst one imaginable).
But they wouldn't read it, would they? :((Nor have I, but I try to be more accepting and open-minded than these people are.)
Mockingbird/Watchman is interesting. The former has no special place in my heart, but I can quite imagine loving a book and its characters, and not wanting that tainted. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general. It's the race angle than makes it so.
Cecily wrote: " I can quite imagine loving a book and its characters, and not wanting that tainted. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general. It's the race angle than makes it so. ..."Exactly. Mockingbird is an American thing, I don't think it's even that widely known in the UK.
Petra X wrote: "Mockingbird is an American thing, I don't think it's even that widely known in the UK." It's definitely canonical over here, I think most children read it in school (that's how I came to read it).The dilemma of Mockingbird/Watchman- I can't say I was shocked to learn that a book purporting to show a well meaning white guy "saving" the black man was, behind the scenes, something else entirely. The paternalistic benevolent racist meta-implications of the first paved the way predictably for the second. Of course that's not what we learn in school -we just learn to adore Atticus as the ultimate American hero. But the story imo is not *about* racism: it's about generous, selfless white people fighting against racism. Nothing wrong with that, but when that's MOST of what gets published and canonized, it's quite problematic.
Cecily wrote: "Even more worrying, to me, is that a decade ago, I'd have been shocked and sad, but thought it would never happen in the secular UK... " Oh goodness, this is awful. I had no idea.. We seem to be exporting the very worst - leading the way indeed... straight into the heart of ignorance.
My new clerk, daughter of a university-educated professional mother and IT father who is on her way to do psychology in a Canadian university said she didn't really know anything much about evolution. She didn't know what it meant. She has an assoc. degree in humanities. That's the kind of education you get in the extremely-Christian Caribbean.
That is terrible!!! At least teach it as an alternative, so once the kids go into the outside world they can be in step with everyone else... I am just so upset how school systems can cripple their students...
Choko wrote: "That is terrible!!! At least teach it as an alternative, so once the kids go into the outside world they can be in step with everyone else... I am just so upset how school systems can cripple their..."I feel the same, Choko.
Great review, Petra :)
Choko wrote: " am just so upset how school systems can cripple their..."It's not the schools. It's the churches. They don't allow sex education until the kids are 16, before that it is about reproduction but not sex. So no sex, no evolution but plenty of pastors building big houses.
I got a wonderful letherbound US edition of the collected books that i picked up in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Always been ambivalent about it, because of the title page, which features that horrible planet-smiley-blob thing. Learning about this made me realize I'm missing a decent English language edition and immediately went to find and order one. Since I already have the 2 full Swedish pb editions of the series, the audio books, the original radio series and TV series and the hardback of the collected four books, as well as the one with the collected five, my wife will want to talk to you about bringing this to my attention.
Thomas wrote: "I got a wonderful letherbound US edition of the collected books that i picked up in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Always been ambivalent about it, because of the title page, which features th..."What word do they use in Swedish for 'fuck'? Do they also use Belgium? Or are Swedes made of sterner (or dirtier) stuff?
Petra X wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I got a wonderful letherbound US edition of the collected books that i picked up in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Always been ambivalent about it, because of the title page, wh..."Yes, well, we had that debate in the 50's and 60's and since, nobody gets too worked up about it :-)
The particular word used in this translation (which was done by esteemed poet, play writer, musician and more Thomas Tidholm) was "knulla", which really is one shade raunchier than the original, since it's totally non-ambigous.
I've been listening to the version of the audiobook read by Adams (you have to track down cassettes) and this was my first time listening to LtUaE rather than reading, and when it got to the playwright, it shocked me, because I distinctly remember how beautifully we get the first instance stateside with a two page lead-up in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.
Also, I can confirm the hardcover collected edition from Barnes and Noble uses "Belgium".
Nate wrote: "Also, I can confirm the hardcover collected edition from Barnes and Noble uses "Belgium"."LOL. I think it's funny how the US publisher doesn't think the word 'Fuck' is appropriate but Belgium is. What a slur!
Your review has me laughing so hard! I'm picturing the woman with her black marker!
Negin wrote: "Your review has me laughing so hard! I'm picturing the woman with her black marker!"If you search GR Groups for 'clean' you will turn up those sort of people. You get remarks like, 'there was some kissing and groping and it made me feel icky so I put down the book' and 'inappropriat references to the Deity' (presumably OMG). All of them put books down as soon they hear the F-Bomb word, can't write Fuck, it would melt their little snowflake hearts.
Holy swut! Another Belgiuming good review Petra.
Blamp wrote: "Holy swut! Another Belgiuming good review Petra."That's an idea. Maybe with ebooks all words like Fuck, Kiss, Grope, Breasts, OMG, Shit, Jesus etc could be replaced with country names when you hit the Make it Christian button.
Unpopular opinion, but I think the American versions are better for using the alternates. Not because I care about swearing, but because the absurd language feels somehow more exotic and ridiculous. "You're a jerk, Dent, a complete kneebiter." As a kid, reading the American version, this made me laugh and laugh and laugh in a way that asshole wouldn't have.
Steven wrote: "Unpopular opinion, but I think the American versions are better for using the alternates. Not because I care about swearing, but because the absurd language feels somehow more exotic and ridiculous..."Doesn't matter if it's popuar or not, if you enjoy reading it, that's what matters. I do rather like 'Belgium' though.
Steven wrote: "Belgium is great!"It is. And they make great fries there.
And then (shudder) dip them in mayonnaise. Barbaric.
Left Coast Justin wrote: "And then (shudder) dip them in mayonnaise. Barbaric."That's the best thing to have with fries. I always ask for mayo, ketchup is ok but a bit too strong. What do you consider a 'refined' dip if mayo is barbarid? lol
Left Coast Justin wrote: "10W40."ROFLMAO
> American publishers are pussies.they are corporations.
Ietrio wrote: "> American publishers are pussies.they are corporations."
Belgium being more acceptable to corporate America than the f-word!
'
Years later, Mailer met Dorothy Parker at a party and she grandly announced "so this is the young man who can't spell the word fuck!"