pabosher

It is on 360; comes out today on Steam and PS3.

Castorp, I feel like I should finally actually tell you It's myself, with actor/comedian/national treasure Stephen Fry. An absolutely delightful man.

Oh goodness, a whole host of things. We were both drinking (as was the other gentleman in the majority of the conversation, seen behind my right shoulder) and I can't remember exactly, but it sort of bounded all over the place. - Anthropology, and why I study it - general anthropological figures - linguistics and how he told his godson that if he wants to make his mark in the scientific world, he should take up linguistics, go somewhere remote, write down their language and then watch as it simply disappears - the twitter joke trial (I remarked that, despite his joking, what the guy said was a very silly thing to say, and the response was "Yes, but you shouldn't go to jail for silliness; silliness is not a crime.") - whether or not he would like to come to Durham to host a lecture in the series I'm hosting next academic year - probably other things too - there was talk of Mark Cawardine, Last Chance to See, Douglas Adams ("I miss him every day; the biggest problem is that whenever a new piece of technology is announced, I don't have Douglas to ring me up and tell me what to think.") - oh, I did actually bring up Fable and LittleBigPlanet, and how I want to do anthropological studies in the field. He then said something like "Something like Fable is do wonderful because the player controls the hero and they can do anything they choose." to which I berated him for sounding so PR. we laughed. It was good.

So, yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to chat to this man for over an hour. I took hold of that opportunity with both hands and didn't bloody let go, I tell you that much. Also, here's me with a huge grin about said opportunity.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/28/the-power-of-young-adult-fiction/adults-should-read-adult-books Last night on Twitter, Chris posted a link to this and spent the next few tweets debating and explaining his opinion with regards to this article (the overall message was that he agreed with it.) Twitter isn't a particularly strong medium for debate, so I figured a thread might be better. What do you guys think? Personally, I disagree. I do think that the majority of books read by adults should be books written for adults -- mostly due to the fact that the book in question is aimed at them and their disposition. However, when there is a cultural phenomenon such as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games or even Twilight (which I will admit to having not read), I think it's ignorant to disregard it out of hand. Literature connects with people for a reason. It allows us to expand our ways of thinking, and the books we enjoy usually connect with us on some emotional level. If a book becomes immensely popular (with any demographic), it tells you something about that group of people. In the early-mid 20th Century, Russia was a hugely romantic country; all believing in free love, care, communism etc -- literature on such topics were huge sellers. In 1920s Paris, life was carefree and artistic and wonderful and insane; from that we have such great works as Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises or Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. These books spoke to people because they came from a certain place in a certain society. You can argue that these are anomalies, and that their survival is because of their writer's genius, but you can't deny that they certainly connected with a certain audience. I'm not saying that The Hunger Games is on par with those -- perhaps in 80 years no-one will even know what it is -- but if you want to get an insight into what Young Adults are thinking, feeling, right now, it's utterly invaluable. No-one would buy it/read it if they thought it was terrible. I suppose it all depends on what you want to get out of literature; if you want to have your own viewpoint on a particular topic changed, or if you want to feel enlightened in some way, I guess that's only achievable by the truly great works of literature. But, if you want to understand the minds and thoughts of others, then reading books not for your own personal demographic is a good place to start.

But that leaves one idle thumb!

Well, that's said what I was thinking with far more conviction and self-assurance. I agree with all this. =)

That's certainly a fair enough belief -- I prefer my reading to impact me, however, and think your characterisation of amateurish vs pro is slightly unfair. I'd say it's just two different approaches; some prefer one, and others the other.

Also: come join the Idle Thumbs Steam chat!

The thing is, they showed a slightly different video in the Press Conference, wherein the ending kinda suggested it was an MMO with dynamic quest systems wtf??? It was mad cool.

Watch Dogs. On phone so can't get the link, but there's a 9 minute trailer / demo floating about on the Internet.

Just started listening to this episode this morning in an incredibly hungover state. I'm sure I'll have more to say when I've finished it, but this is a really great episode so far; possibly one of my favourite 3MAs ever!

No she doesn't.

A classic. [media=] [/media]

But weren't you EROTICALLY AROUSED and therefore MORE LIKELY to buy the eventual VIDEO GAME?

Well, I do have a boner now, so I guess that's a thing.

Well, I certainly think it's unfair to imply that I have an inflated opinion of myself, but I think the main part where we disagree is the quality of this particular author's work, so I won't take it personally. The reason why I mention a group of friends is this: with one author, you get his view of a particular topic - in this case, memory - and undoubtedly this is more in-depth than you would get in a pub w/ friends; but with a group of friends, you'd get multiple opinions, each helping to sculpt your own. And I'm also not saying that I come out of every pub session feeling like I've explored the deepest topics of life, the universe and everything (normally I come out a little bit tipsy) but whenever the topics become deeper and more meaningful, I feel far more fulfilled psychologically than I did while reading this book.

But surely that's just a result of the subject matter? This, being a book about the fallibility of human memory, and the complex natures of human relationships, has caused its readers to think about those topics. I'm not saying for a second that I could write a better book about such topics, nor do I know of any way that it could be done, but it still felt very aimless. I could have the same result by sitting in a pub with some friends, chatting about whatever, and the topics naturally occurring. Would've saved an awful lot of time, too. (My last sentence is rather trollish, but I do think that the overall point stands - I really don't think much of the writing itself, or that Barnes as a storyteller has made his piece particularly well-designed, but the subject material is interesting I guess.)

I do. And while what you say is true, different audiences can have different interpretations of the same piece of art, no? Does that not say something about the audience's traits?

(HE'S TROLLING YOU GUYS)

Here's me: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7547922-phillipe-bosher

I agree with everything you've just said - but the fact that a piece of media makes you think about a thing isn't really a reflection on the media, it's a reflection on you. I too thought "Oh man the stories that I tell myself in 60 years could be mostly self-pleasing bullshit", but I also wondered about the political and social ramifications of a Hunger Games-esque competition being brought into our modern society having reading that series.

Oh sweet man, thanks! I think it's also that I was a lot more nervous with Steve (and I may have had a pint before Dave's interview in order to relax a little) rather than we had better chemistry. But yeah, thanks! It means a lot and is super nice of you to say nice things =)

Sat an exam this morning that I knew all the answers to, because I'd guessed which questions would come up. Boom!