Busytown by Jolisa Gracewood

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Busytown: All in the game

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  • Ian Dalziel,

    Because authors don't just conjure characters out of thin air, do they? Or order them from catalogues of clichés?

    well now, there's a gap in the market...
    perhaps my oft touted Idea Orphanage
    could solve this problem, or a dedicated
    bespokesperson people4parts service ...

    Strangers in a Drain
    "Le's swap characters"
    "Criss, cross""

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Fergus Barrowman,

    This is completely irrelevant, but has anyone else noticed that the PA ratio of responses to views is usually about 1:30? What does it mean when it gets wider? Wider public interest, or a few tragics compulsively checking back?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2009 • 28 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    What does it mean when it gets wider? Wider public interest, or a few tragics compulsively checking back?

    It can mean that more people are involved in the conversation. If 30 of them are checking whenever a new comments is posted, you can get to that ratio without a very high number of lurkers.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    (In saying that, I'd definitely count myself a "tragic", but hey, no offense taken.)

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Fergus Barrowman,

    None offered, he said tragically.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2009 • 28 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    the best defense is to preemptively grant your based-on-life character an enormous willy, on the grounds that they'll be too flattered to sue. Hard to think what the feminine equivalent would be; I don't think we're that flatterable.

    Loved by all?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    ratio of responses to views is usually about 1:30

    Corresponds roughly with expected proportions of lurkers to talkers in any online community, though I recall Giovanni reckons it's less here if page reloads are accounted for.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • stephen walker,

    "I don't believe it was a hoax. I base it on the fact that it appeared in a Harvard Law School text 70 years after the fact,"

    that's got to be the most credulous line i've read since the "hope and change" millennialist religious movement of 2008.

    nice work Matt Nippert.

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report Reply

  • Jolisa,

    GASP! Poison Pen Reviews Were Mine, confesses historian Orlando Figes

    According to a spokesman from Birkbeck College neither Figes nor his employer had anything further to say. "He's on sick leave and we're offering our support," he said.

    Oh dear.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report Reply

  • Jolisa,

    Loved by all?

    Curse you! Er, I mean, no, you'd never get away with that. Not a weak spot at all. No sir.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    I don't think we're that flatterable.

    Curse you! Er, I mean, no, you'd never get away with that. Not a weak spot at all. No sir.

    Is this the right time to mention BoobQuake?

    No, probably not. Carry on.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Jolisa,

    Heh. Every day is BoobQuake at my house.* But sure, in the interests of science, I'll crank it up a bit. And because it's spring.

    I only wish I'd had enough notice to pin down a sponsorship deal with Bravissimo.

    *Also, every day is Scientific Method day, what with a physicist at the other end of the table. My money is on the no-correlation hypothesis being correct. (We don't exactly have a control experiment running, but there have been exactly zero earthquakes in New England since I've been living here. Not even when my sister visits.)

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report Reply

  • Jolisa,

    Books, dammit, books! Next we'll be thread-drifting in the direction of, I don't know, boots or something, and that can only be...

    ...mmm, good.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Mmm, boots. I like boots. Suede ones in particular. Now, on books, Jasper fforde's Shades of grey. Any thoughts? Next Next in 2012 apparently.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    GASP! Poison Pen Reviews Were Mine, confesses historian Orlando Figes

    So nice of him to implicate the wife first... bless. And they say gallantry is dead.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Gregor Ronald,

    I think I agree with Bill Manhire. This fuss reminds me of Chief Broom, in the preface to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"; "It's all true, even if it never happened."

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 103 posts Report Reply

  • Jolisa,

    Nice line, Gregor.

    Meanwhile, over in the embarrassingly entertaining Daily Mail, Rachel Polonsky gives a blow-by-blow account of figuring out what Orlando Figes was up to: How I Rumbled Lying Professor. Undone by a wish-list; there's something sadly poetic about that.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report Reply

  • Cecelia,

    I'm always jumping back but ... referring to Stead's story and Nigel Cox's article about Stead ... I read them both last night and thought that Cox was really harsh. I admire Stead. Enjoyed his recent 'My Name is Judas'. He was a good lecturer and his New Poetic textbook was a jewel.

    But the winning short story was tragic. Heck, the country sounded like NZ. The style was boring and the revenge theme quite sick. Very surprised it won the competition.

    How does one psychoanalyse creative people?

    Hibiscus Coast • Since Apr 2008 • 559 posts Report Reply

  • Marie,

    The thing I found most revealing and nasty about the Stead story was that it held very closely to the actual course of Nigel's illness (the radiation, the chemotherapy, the spread to the liver, the public disclosure). The rapid compliance and disloyalty of the widow was an appalling piece of fantasy, and truly yucky. It is completely disingenuous of Stead to insist that only unsophisticated readers would make the connection to real people. It seemed to me like a really lazy piece of writing.

    Since Apr 2010 • 5 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Which is why I reckon that Keri H is entitled to sit on her laurels, like Harper Lee. The book is on bookshelves everywhere I go. I can't tell you how many people, on hearing where I'm from, have said "I read the most amazing novel..." (usually in tandem with the more common "I've always wanted to go there").

    One is rather reminded of the time when Heller lost his patience at being asked why he had never written another book as good as Catch 22 and responded: "Nobody else has either". Or words to that effect.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

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