Category: words

“I knew some prices were going to go up, but hell, the whole world knew it, because that’s what the publishers were saying: ‘We want to get retailers to raise prices, and if we’re not able to, we’re not going to make the books available digitally.’ You have to fight for your principles no matter what. Because it’s just not right.”

The State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television “has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public – especially children.” Problem is, puns have been enmeshed in every single aspect of Chinese culture, from the New Year’s menu to wedding gifts to people’s own names – for a few thousand years now.

Oh, the Party has its reasons – alpacas, for instance, and marijuana. Nikhil Sonnad explains.

“Of 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, only 67 were written by African-American writers, and only 93 centered on black characters. That’s actually the lowest tally recorded since 1994, when the Cooperative Children’s Book Centre began collecting data. Children’s books didn’t do much better with American Indian, Asian, or Latino kids.”

“While some aspiring writers from less privileged backgrounds do find their way to graduate school, they remain substantially outnumbered. Because socioeconomic disparities in the United States have long coincided with gender and race, that factor of class goes a long way in determining the demographic makeup of grad programs. This has far-reaching consequences for who gets represented in the American literary canon that graduate-educated writers are increasingly coming to dominate.”

“A number of companies are latching on to a broader advertising notion of ‘the writer,’ either as a conceptual, disembodied mascot or, in the case of Chipotle, by gathering literary luminaries to form a collective ‘spokescribe.’ As serious literature becomes further marginalized, cloistered from the cultural Kardashians at the gate, brands may be tapping into a quality associated with it that historically seduces aspirational consumers: elitism.”

“‘We are heading towards break-even in the current financial year,’ said managing director James Daunt. ‘If we have a decent Christmas, that is where we will get to.’ Break-even would be an important milestone for the retailer, which narrowed its losses to £23m last year.”

“Slowly, the hideousness of the stereotype began to sink in. In the eyes of those who told and repeated the jokes, we were shuffling, googly-eyed and lesser than.”

“We have a duty surely as a society to make sure that no child is denied access to literacy and literature because of social and financial deprivation. Every one of them has a right to be literate.”

“If you want to get paid as a writer, finding your own voice can be a distraction — even a hindrance. The bulk of writing opportunities that will actually provide you with a living wage are work-for-hire. … And when you’re doing work-for-hire, no one cares about your voice.”