Litopia After Dark : I Hate You!
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Confrontation is in the air on Litopia After Dark. Yes, there’s an exceptional amount of aggro in the news this week and, as you’ve come to expect, our fearless panel tackles everything head-on as we discuss things we hate, things they hate and things things hate: it’s really one great big hate-fest.
To balance out all the negativity we have a very special guest who we love. Prize winning teen author Susie Day’s hilarious and touching novel, BIG WOO!, is published by Scholastic (Marion Lloyd Books) in the UK in April and by Scholastic Inc in the US in the summer. In the US it goes by the title of SERAFINA67 *URGENTLY REQUIRES A LIFE*
Susie’s first book, WHUMP!… IN WHICH BILL FALLS 632 MILES DOWN A MANHOLE, won the BBC Children’s Fiction Prize and was serialized on Radio 4 in 2004. Susie likes Arthur Ransome, Scotland, Time Lords, and cheese. She lives in Oxford, and hopes one day to find the ‘off’ switch on the television.
Also on the show this week:
- BBC to Knitters - We Hate You!
- Men Hate Sex and the City
- We all Hate Adverts
- We Hate To say It –Is This The Final Chapter for Book Clubs?
- Publishers Hate Amazon
- First Person Narrative - Love It Or Hate It?
Joining Susie on the panel this week is Donna Ballman, John Quirke and Dave Bartram. There was no sign of hate in the Ustream chatroom at 8pm GMT, it was the usual love-in. Join us next week for a group hug.
Links from the show :-
BBC to Knitters - We Hate You!
A Doctor Who fan who created knitting patterns for the programme’s monsters and gave them away online has been told by the BBC to stop or face the threat of court action.
The action against the licence fee-payer who had produced patterns of the squid-faced Ood and the short, fat, white Adipose for members of her knitting circle has rapidly become a cause célèbre on the internet.
The 26-year-old woman, who uses the name Mazzmatazz because she does not want to be identified, said that she was “just an ordinary person who likes knitting” who had been caught up in “a bit of whirlwind”. Lawyers argue that her case shows that trademark and copyright law should be changed.
“We note that you are supplying DR WHO items, and using trade marks and copyright owned by BBC. You have not been given permission to use the DR WHO brand and we ask that you remove from your site any designs connected with DR WHO. Please reply acknowledging receipt of this email, and confirm that you will remove the DR WHO items as requested.”
Interesting choice of words to say the least. Further communication continues to stress the point that Mazz’s designs constitute unlicensed merchandise, and that BBC Worldwide has every right to stop others from distributing their property. However, Mazz is not selling merchandise, he/she is providing a knitting design to tell others how to make their own versions of the Adipose. While commercial exploitation has no bearing on whether there is copyright infringement, I think that it should be a huge consideration for BBC Worldwide when deciding to prosecute a fan who clearly loves the show.
Men Hate Sex and the City
In the Chicago Tribune, John Kass…
One of the first shrieks of woe came from a regular guy named Phil. His warning was posted in the Times Online, as a comment on the review of the film that premiered the other day in London.
“I don’t think SATC is just for girls. I am a reasonably well-adjusted bloke and I am looking forward to seeing the film with my girlfriend. I am then looking forward to poking my eyes out with red-hot pokers, burning my skin off, and rolling around in salt for a while.”-Phil Mann, Newcastle upon Tyne.
He’s not alone. Millions of men are sick about this movie based on a TV show about four terrifying, rich, aging, elitist women who whine about sex and men and purchase $700 pairs of shoes to feel better about themselves. What guy wouldn’t love such a movie?
Sophie Radice in the Guardian…
Imagine, they tell us, how insulted women would feel if there was a glossy show in which a group of men spent their time discussing the size of their girlfriend’s breasts and what they were like at giving blow-jobs in a rather slick and light-hearted way. They may have a point.
We all hate Adverts
In the New York Times, Stuart Elliot…
Ever smile while watching a movie on TV because, say, you just saw the scene from “The Godfather” when Vito Corleone leaves his office at the Genco Olive Oil factory and a commercial comes on for Bertolli olive oil? Turner Entertainment Networks wants to turn those coincidences into sales opportunities.
At the Turner Entertainment upfront presentation on Wednesday, Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president and general manager for advertising sales and marketing, described a new system intended to pair commercials with relevant moments in the shows they interrupt. The system, called TV in Context, was more than a year in development, she said.
The Final Chapter for Book Clubs?
EVERY year, across Spain, book-club salesmen knock on the doors of thousands of households. Those who fall for the pitch are then visited 21 times a year by agents from Circulo de Lectores, who bring catalogues of titles, take orders and deliver books. The club is owned by Bertelsmann, a German media firm, which dominates the market and earns revenues of more than €2 billion ($3.1 billion) from clubs in 21 countries. Many are largely unaltered since the 1970s, but that is about to change. Bertelsmann is selling its American clubs and has put the rest under strategic review. Book clubs are in for a radical overhaul at the very least-and some people think they are headed for extinction.
Publishers Hate Amazon
Roger Tagholm in Publishing News…
PUBLISHERS ARE REACTING angrily to what one senior executive described as a “crude” attempt by Amazon to increase its discount. “It is going from publisher to publisher with extortionate demands, and if it does manage to get a figure from one publisher it is then going back to the first house and saying x has agreed to such-and-such.”
Publishers say it isn’t the first time it has happened and they are clearly angered by it. One said: “It’s been going on for a while and publishers are fed up with it. UK publishers already give the biggest terms in the world, far larger than the US and Australia. What we see is Amazon attempting a strategy of world domination. In the US, we’ve already seen them demanding that publishers use their facility for print-on-demand. It seems that the only people who benefit in the value chain are Amazon. They already have 15% of the market in the UK.”
It is estimated that if Amazon carries on growing at this rate, it will have 30% in three years, and publishers believe there is a real danger that bookshops will start closing as a result. “Amazon will be in a position of such dominance that they will be able to dictate terms and destabilise the market.”
Love or hate first person narrative?
Stuart Evers on the Guardian Blog…
A third of the way through Siri Hustvedt’s new novel, The Sorrows of an American, I began to lose heart. Despite its winning mixture of shady secrets, compulsive behaviours and mazy Brooklyn brownstones, something just didn’t feel right about it. In a scene on page 97, it became clear why. The narrator, Erik Davidsen, has asked Miranda out on a date. When she turns up his reaction is jarring: “I felt choked with admiration”. Not desire, not nerves, but admiration. It’s a comment no man - in life or literature - would ever make about a woman he sexually desires.
This is only one example of a series of false notes Hustvedt strikes in the portrayal of her male narrator. Collectively it undermines Erik’s voice. No longer believable, neither as man or a character, his lack of credibility ultimately fails the story he’s been employed to tell. But the issue here, at least as far as I’m concerned, is not about the problems of writing from the perspective of a member of the opposite sex - though they are legion - but the difficulties of writing well in the first person at all.
Listen to the Podcast for hints and tips on choosing which narrative method to use and the pitfalls you can encounter. First person, close third, omniscient… love them or hate them?
And the panel finish off by discussing the big question of the evening: Love or Hate, which makes the best book?
You can find Susie Day on her Website and Big Woo/ Seraphina 67 is available from The Book Depository (Worldwide delivery free!)
