Buzz Worthy News 15th April 2013

15 April, 2013 Buzz Worthy News 8 comments

Format: select

BWNBuzz Worthy News

A Charlotte Bronte manuscript sold for buttloads of money, people love libraries, Occupy Wall Street got justice for the theft of their library by New York City Police, Young Adult Books are kicking butt in sales and author Hugh Howey stirs massive controversy in the book blogging world. All this and more in this week’s Buzz Worthy News.

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two.  For new releases and cover reveals of all the best Young Adult fiction, check out our Sunday post: How New Titles.


Books


 Charlotte BronteCharlotte Bronte’s Manuscript Sold for not NEARLY Enough

And by manuscript, I mean a poem which sold for $141,000.  But it’s Charlotte freaking Bronte, peeps!  That’s badass!

Signed C Brontë, and dated by her on 14 December 1829, “I’ve been wandering in the greenwoods” is written on a piece of paper measuring just three inches square, and is difficult to read without a magnifying glass. Charlotte and her siblings all wrote in a tiny hand, to make the most of a scarce and expensive paper supply, but they were also short-sighted, so would have been able to see what they were writing themselves, even it was illegible to others.

The fascinating find provides insight into the life and mind of Charlotte Bronte, one of the three famous literary sisters.

SOURCE


Library_by_Brute_uaPeeps Still Love Libraries, Y’all

Libraries are kind of like Batman – the lone defenders of our cities (against ignorance and its cultural devolution), working thanklessly, often tirelessly against evil (it’s what I call not-reading).  It’s easy to feel like they’re becoming abandoned monuments to an age long gone where people didn’t think watching condensation falling down their slowly warming beer bottles is the height of entertainment.

But public libraries aren’t as ignored and they aren’t as generally unappreciated as some seem to think.  Actually, they’re still a beloved and appreciated commodity in our community and I have the infographic to show for it.

Eighty-one percent of American adults use the Internet and almost as many people agree that free computer and internet access (including Wi-Fi) are very important services that libraries offer. In fact, 62 percent of libraries are the sole provider of computers and Wi-Fi for free in their community. Libraries also offer technology assistance, help with social services applications, tutoring and advice for job-seeking patrons. Over the past decade, public libraries have been increasing in number, but the growth hasn’t kept up with the population. Between 2000 and 2009, public libraries increased by 1.7 percent, but the national population increased by 11.7 percent.

Public-Libraries2

SOURCE|Image by Brute-ua


 OWSScore One for Occupy Wall Street

It never ceases to amaze me how the media reports on OWS movement. “What do they want?” “Who are these people?” “WHAT MAGIC IS THIS?!”

Then there’s the, obviously necessary police intervention, for these clearly dangerous citizens.  Like that girl in the photo who is obviously capable of doing so much damage with her 100 pound body.

It came to a serious boiling point when the New York City Police illegally seized and stole $47,000 of the OWS’s library like it was no big deal.  Now justice has been served!

The Occupy Wall Street movement and OWS librarians sued New York City in federal court over the destruction of the Occupy Wall Street Library during a late-night raid on Zuccotti Park. According to the lawsuit, the city confiscated 3,600 books on November 15, 2011, but the city only returned 1,003 of the books.

MobyLives wrote more about the court case. Here’s an excerpt from the original lawsuit:

We believe that the raid and its aftermath violated our First-Amendment rights to free expression, Fourth-Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure, and Fourteenth-Amendment rights to due process, as well as the laws of the City of New York regarding the vouchsafing of seized property. We are demanding compensatory damages for the lost/destroyed books and equipment, which we have estimated at at least $47,000. In addition, because we believe the seizure and destruction of the books went beyond negligence to constitute a reckless and callous indifference to our constitutional rights, we are demanding punitive damages of at least $1,000.

Good job, guys!

SOURCE


D.H._LawrenceDH Lawrence Gave an Exceedingly Modern Smack Down To Old School Hypocrisy

Lawrence’s reposit to some intensely sexist drivel has waited 89 years to be published.  It’s an interesting composition since DH Lawrence has a bit of a bad rep due some of his work that can and has been interpreted to depict him as a sexist pig.  I’m not going to argue over whether Lawrence actually was sexist or not since I don’t know enough about him to judge, but this recently found opinion piece of his certainly does put him in a better light!

Found among the papers of Lawrence’s friend John Middleton Murry, by Nottingham University English lecturer Dr Andrew Harrison, the piece is a response by Lawrence to a vicious short article by one “JHR” in the April 1924 issue of the journal Murry edited, the Adelphi. Entitled “The Ugliness of Women”, JHR argues in his column that “in every woman born there is a seed of terrible, unmentionable evil: evil such as man – a simple creature for all his passions and lusts – could never dream of in the most horrible of nightmares, could never conceive in imagination.”

Lawrence posits that “the hideousness he [JHR] sees is the reflection of himself, and of the automatic meat-lust with which he approaches another individual,” ending: “Even the most ‘beautiful’ woman is still a human creature. If he [JHR] approached her as such, as a being instead of as a piece of lurid meat, he would have no horrors afterwards.”

Score one for D.H. Lawrence!

SOURCE


Publishing


 Pulse_LogoLinkedIn Becomes Newest Publisher in the Playground

So LinkedIn, that social media site for professional people too busy to throw sheep at each other on Facebook, is looking to break into the publishing industry.  This week, the social media site purchased Pulse for 90 million dollars.  If anybody is counting, that’s exactly $8,999,924 more than what I currently have in my bank account.

Pulse is a news aggregator,  which always gives me the mental image that it aggregates alligators for news purposes.  That’s probably not what it means though because angry alligators isn’t really news worthy.  Basically, it’s an app that pulls news feeds from multiple sources for easy reading pleasure.

Stanford graduate students Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta founded Pulse in 2010. Here’s more about Pulse from the release:

Pulse currently has more than 30 million users who have activated its iOS and Android-based news reader apps in more than 190 countries. Pulse is available in nine languages, and approximately 40% of users are outside the United States. More than 750 of the world’s leading publishers distribute their content through Pulse.

I should probably mention that 90 million dollars is good pay for two-ish years work.  Nice work Akshay and Ankit!

This may not seem particularly Buzz Worthy but it shows a marked trend in publishing – both book and news.  Amazon buys Goodreads, LinkedIn buys Pulse – these purchases aren’t synonymous in meaning, benefit and results.  But they are similar in that what people read and how is, more than ever, becoming a social, consumer-controllable, electronic entity.  Instead of waiting for the evening news at 6:30 to tell you what is important and newsworthy, people are going out and finding it themselves.  Instead of reading books put out by publishers and finding new reads through bookstores, people are talking about it online, buying self-published fiction more tailored to their needs and wants.  This isn’t all benefits because an effect is being had in positive and negative directions on the news industry and publishing industries.  But change is still kind of, usually a good thing.

SOURCE


Beach_Kids_At_PlayYoung Adult and Children’s Books Still Kicking It

Publishing is dying, peeps be panicking, the end is nigh!  Unless you’re talking about Young Adult or Children’s lit which has continued a steady and reliable trend of being fucking amazing.  Also, it sells really well.

Adult Hardcovers are down by 6.7%, while Young Adult Hardcovers are up 11.2% from last year.  The biggest change, though, comes with ebooks were adult ebooks are up an impressive 33.2%.  However, this seems measly in comparison to the 120.9% increase of Young Adult ebooks.

SOURCE| Image by Liveasyouwill


nook-press1Barnes & Noble Revamps their Pubit! Platform

Congratulations, self-published and indie authors.  You are officially amazing and everyone wants you and your books.  After Amazon’s been raking in a small fortune from selling self-published ebooks, Barnes & Noble finally decided to get in on the game.  They have given their self-publishing platform a massive overhaul and relaunched it as Nookpress.

“NOOK Press authors can price their titles between $0.99 and $199.99 and receive a competitive royalty based on the given price.  For NOOK Press NOOK Books priced at or between $2.99 and $9.99, authors receive 65 percent of the list price for sold content. For those priced at $2.98 or less, or $10.00 or more, authors receive 40 percent of the list price.  NOOK Press authors will be compensated from the list price they set with no additional charges, regardless of file size.”

SOURCE


Entertainment


 The Catching Fire Trailer is Out, People.  Brace Yourselves.

I’m not even going to say anything.  Imma just leave this here.

SOURCE


Controversy


Hugh Howey

“And then I saw this person had breasts or, as I like to call them, ‘Bitch Sacks’…”

Hugh Howey Gets Down With The Sexism

So this week, author Hugh Howey posted an amusing anecdote about how a person at an event was totally rude and horrible.  I agree that horrible people are horrible.  I would probably talk about how horrible they were too.  But Howey’s description of the event soured for some people when his comments went from general talk about a rude person to derogatory genderalizing.  You can read the entire post here.

Some choice quotes:

“We had a nice chat, right up until the batshit craziest broad at all of WorldCon joins the conversation.”

“And this bitch was downright mean.”

“Now, picture Sheldon’s girlfriend from BIG BANG THEORY.  Really.  That was her if such a person really existed.  Big-toothed and nodding and telling people how great they were.”

(While talking about a fantasy of his in which he won awards and she was there to see how well he did) “I may even have grabbed my crotch or something like that – the fantasy gets hazy.  I told this story, and I called that poor girl who just doesn’t know how to interact with other humans, a bad word.”

“Suck it, bitch.”

In the comments, when people began complaining about his use of language in the blog post, Howey goes on to call them bitchy:

“Thanks, Nicole!  Some people are just bitchy.”

Because that will make it all better!  After further complaints about his language, Howey writes:

“I’m attacking someone for being a mean-spirited, rude, obnoxious, horrible, bad person.

Not even attacking, really.  Just making fun of them.”

But, here’s the problem.  Howey wasn’t attacking or making fun of her as a person.  He specifically attacked her in a gendered way.  She wasn’t just a bad person, she was a “bitch” and a “broad” and apparently an ugly one at that – as if an unattractive and rude woman was somehow even more offensive to his sensibilities.  Though I find that one of the most aggravating parts of his rant since Amy Farrah Fowler played by Mayim Bialik (Her character has a name and identity outside of her relationship status, I just thought you should know) is a great character and the actress who plays her is beautiful – even dressed up as Amy.

Mayim Bialik

By the way, Mayim Bialik (once again, that is her name) was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. And she has a goddamn Ph.D in neuroscience, asshole.

BUT PC Police, you were mean to Howey and this hurt his feelings.  Bad on you, guys, for speaking up against misogynistic ranting when it was obviously just tongue-in-cheek.

“I feel the PR Police are being more rude to me than I was to this girl, whom I showed respect to by biting my tongue while being insulted by her.”

I’m sure, if she ever read that post, she’d feel very respected by the fact that in your mind she’s degraded as a bitch and a broad and that you had fantasies about grabbing your junk at her and telling her to suck it.  I always know I feel like I’m being treated as a person first and my gender second when someone takes a moment to talk about degrading me through unwelcome sexual innuendo.

I think the real low point comes when a commenter contributes this:

“As a former kennel owner, I’m here to tell you that female dogs all over the planet take umbridge [sic] to the use of the word “bitch” when applied to an obnoxious human female.”

To which Howey replied an emphatic “LOL!!” I know!  Hilarious!  Get it?  Obnoxious human females!  They’re just the worst!  Even animals would be offended at being associated with them.

Under intense public pressure, Howey went on to apologize.

Howey Apology

I think I should qualify that sometimes, we all say something bad.  I genuinely don’t think that this author spends his life and days as a raving misogynist bent on cowing the world with his junk.  We live in a sexist, racist, homophobic world that is geared toward making it easy to, without even realizing it, add to that inequity with our words and actions.  I think what Howey wrote in his original post was appalling.  I think his initial reaction when many people tried to politely address his word choice was worse.  I sure as fuck hope he means his apology and takes this opportunity to learn and grow. Until then:

Peeps, I am dissapoint.

 

Kat Kennedy

Kat Kennedy

Co-blogger at Cuddlebuggery
Kat Kennedy is a book reviewer and aspiring author in the Young Adult genre. She reviews critically but humorously and get super excited about great books. Find her on GoodReads.
Kat Kennedy

8 Responses to “Buzz Worthy News 15th April 2013”

  1. cynicalsapphire

    Libraries: I love your description of them. Perfection.
    D.H. Lawrence: *strokes beard*
    Pulse: Fuck LinkedIn. I get so many requests to be business friends with people I don’t fucking know. I’m not even on LinkedIn. Basically, every time I see them mentioned I want to punch them in the face.

    Hugh Howey: Yay! The screencap worked. Go me. Howey actually posted another apology after that one. It’s short and he decided to take down the post after all.

  2. Fangs4Fantasy

    Libraries are vital – people keep thinking they’re things of the past but they forget what they offer people, books, internet, knowledge, research – so much that many people just can’t get elsewhere. Libraries are more than a big room full of books. And glad the OWS librarians got some payback for their books – not just for libraries but also because police marauding in and stealing shit needs to be slapped down with an axe
    I want to both praise DH Lawrence’s speech and cry out “whyyy are do we still have to make the same arguments, literally unchanged for decades!?”
    “After Amazon’s been raking in a small fortune from selling
    self-published ebooks, Barnes & Noble finally decided to get in on
    the game.”
    Argh, y’know this annoys me. I hate that the Zon is taking over everything remotely bookish like a relentlessly literate borg but why are so many other publishers et al SO BEHIND THE CURVE?!
    On Howey:
    The minute you use slurs – insults that specifically address someone’s marginalised status, be it gender, race, sexuality et al – then you are not attacking them for what they did. You are attacking them for what they are. And not just them-  your attack hits everyone within that marginalised group, says everyone within that group is due special contempt and is worthy of attack and derision. This is why slurs have power – and are never just personal

  3. Fangs4Fantasy

    Libraries are vital – people keep thinking they’re things of the past but they forget what they offer people, books, internet, knowledge, research – so much that many people just can’t get elsewhere. Libraries are more than a big room full of books. And glad the OWS librarians got some payback for their books – not just for libraries but also because police marauding in and stealing shit needs to be slapped down with an axe
    I want to both praise DH Lawrence’s speech and cry out “whyyy are do we still have to make the same arguments, literally unchanged for decades!?”
    “After Amazon’s been raking in a small fortune from selling
    self-published ebooks, Barnes & Noble finally decided to get in on
    the game.”
    Argh, y’know this annoys me. I hate that the Zon is taking over everything remotely bookish like a relentlessly literate borg but why are so many other publishers et al SO BEHIND THE CURVE?!
    On Howey:
    The minute you use slurs – insults that specifically address someone’s marginalised status, be it gender, race, sexuality et al – then you are not attacking them for what they did. You are attacking them for what they are. And not just them-  your attack hits everyone within that marginalised group, says everyone within that group is due special contempt and is worthy of attack and derision. This is why slurs have power – and are never just personal

  4. Asti C

    Now wait a second, I was counting when you said that LinkedIn bought Pulse for 90 million dollars… and if that’s $8,999,924 more than what you have in your bank account… you have 81 million dollars!  Wow you’re rich!  Want to share?  😉

  5. Kate C.

    I feel like I’m swallowing a hugely bitter pill right now with a TEENSY bit of honey in the form of that hunger games trailer.
    OMG CATCHING FIRE!!!!  I’m going to post that on my sister’s timeline and make her day.  🙂
    I don’t know why people keep acting like libraries are a thing of the past.  Dude, our library is amazing!  We are very very lucky, though, because some cities in California (where I live) have a library that’s open like once a week.  Not even joking.  I once lived in a town here that still had a card catalog.  It was weird.  It makes me sad that a place as valuable as a library can just get cut out of our budget, while other programs that no one really needs or will use *cough* Bullet train *cough* stay around and take up literally BILLIONS of my tax dollars.  Not the first time I wish I could vote on where my money goes.  Education, y’all!
    I’ve read that post by Hugh Howey about 7 times and each time I do, I feel more confused.  The first time I read it, I laughed at the very last part, where it shows the award(I mean it’s a review blog award for indies, for heaven’s sakes).  The comparison of the Hugo Awards with that piddly award is funny because of the self-deprecating humor, which I always appreciate.  Normally, Hugh is all about the self-deprecating humor and that makes him look something other than an asshat.
    But that whole scene where he imagines himself up on stage grabbing his crotch.  Ew.  I mean, I’m the type of person who hates the word “shorty” that gets thrown around in all those rap songs.  It just IRKS me with it’s derogatory manner.    So that took me through my second and third readings where I started to wonder… WHO?  was his audience?  He says that it’s people who get his sense of humor, but uh… I don’t know who that might be that’s a reasonable person.  
    I mean, the only place guys talk about this crap is in the locker room.  With other guys.  When they know girls aren’t listening.  The world is not your locker room, Hugh.  
    He must have the coolest freaking wife in the WORLD, because if my husband had said anything remotely like that, I would have smacked him.  And let me assure you, my husband is the work out in the yard with your shirt off kind of guy.  (YUM!)  He’s the kind of guy that women read about in fluffy romance novels, right down to his steel toed boot clad toes.  He’s ALL male and doesn’t apologize for it, and yet even HE would never say something like that.  No matter how pissed he might be at the person involved.
    Look, I get it, too.  We’ve all met people like that and we may fantasize in our hearts about the things we’d do to show them we’re just as worthy.  But for goodness sakes, we CENSOR ourselves.  Because we’re freaking adults.  
    And that was just the 2nd and third pass.  On the last few passes, I started to wonder what he would have said if it was a MAN who’d acted that way?  He sure as hell wouldn’t have grabbed his crotch for another guy.  I really wonder about that.
    It kills me that this happened because I love his writing.  I always will.  His women characters are bad asses who think for themselves and act like real people.  This is just so disappointing and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get over it.  And it makes me so pissed that the first story he gets on CB is this one and it’s his own dang fault.  *sigh*

  6. Kate C.

    Oh, forgot to say… Are their any other project runway fans out there?  Because that dress that Effie is wearing looks like one of Christian Siriano’s creations.  Almost exactly.

  7. Mona6014

    YEESS!! Catching Fire trailer!! And of coursed Librarians and Libraries are appreciated, they’re like the one of the best things in life. 🙂

  8. Rant on Men Who Bring Up the Subject of Rape to Strange Women When They Are Angry | A Witch Rants

    […] This author is supposedly known for writing strong, fictional, female characters (although a couple of his books are on a “Misogyny Books” list at Goodreads.com), so his misogynistic tirade was a disappointment, especially to some women.  And, this is why authors – at least, some authors – really need professional help (for example, an agent or a traditional publisher). Ironically, as it turns out the woman, whom he referred to repeatedly as a “bitch,” a “she-devil” and a “demon” and whose appearance he hatefully ridiculed while he talks about slapping her and fantasizes about grabbing his crotch while calling her a bad name and to whom he finally makes the demand that she perform fellatio on him – all  because she expressed a differing opinion about something – was correct, after all.  Lest you think any of this is hyperbole, see this article with screen captures of the original post before it was deleted at this link right here. And, there’s more, including the original comments before those were deleted here: http://cuddlebuggery.com/blog/2013/04/15/buzz-worthy-news-15th-april-2013/ […]

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge