Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: The new riot reporter

Kyle Matthews

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:14:50 +1200

It’d be a mint job though, wouldn’t it?

Payment only comes in kitchen appliances though, so you're constantly on trade me fobbing them off.

Stella Duffy

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:57:56 +1200

it would, and with all these years of practice, reckon I'd be well rich.

Russell Brown

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:22:28 +1200

what with no-one paying me for being gay

It'd be a mint job though, wouldn't it?

Craig Ranapia

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:19:13 +1200

Oh, and anyone who says "oh, menz can't write laydeze" needs to sod off and read Love and Rockets. Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez have been doing a pretty good job of writing complex magnificent women — and ones who aren't straight white & middle-class at that! — for nigh on thirty…

Islander

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:11:35 +1200

Mary Renault was, for me, another eye-opener. "The Charioteer" – yep. That empathetic insight into battle nature and participants. Followed by the 'Alexander'trilogy*.and his loves, especially "Fire From Heaven" and "The Persian Boy" – it all made a kind of sense about battle-worn people I knew (including a couple in…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:56:25 +1200

Just not only ‘lesbian writer’ and certainly not only ‘writer of things lesbian’.

Quite – and when I came Mary Renault at the age of thirteen (and firmly in the closet), I was convinced she was fronting for a gay man. How could a woman — and one I presumed…

Sacha

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:53:59 +1200

'Are you going to resign? Why not?'

I'm so looking forward to her or someone else asking that again.

Stella Duffy

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:37:36 +1200

*waves* thought my ears were burning ...
Just for the record, I tend not to say 'lesbian writer', what with no-one paying me for being gay, prefer not to use lesbian as a noun (far too reductive) but don't mind it as an adjective, and have written 12 novels only…

Rich Lock

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:10:05 +1200

public libraries are evil literary tinny houses for us weak-willed bibliophiles...:)

Innit. They'll find me one day sprawled on my bed, surrounded by half-read books face-down to keep the page, a folio dropping from my limp fingers as my sightless eyes stare at the ceiling.

"the purity of the metaphor…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:50:50 +1200

Greg was good value tonight

Meanwhile, just checked my library waitlist and Alix Bosco's oeuvre is IN TRANSIT. Thank you, Auckland Libraries. (Should be writing two reviews for The Listener that are due on Tuesday, but public libraries are evil literary tinny houses for us weak-willed bibliophiles...:) ]

Russell Brown

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 23:31:32 +1200

Which, without putting words in Duffy’s mouth (and looking forward to seeing the show) I hope she’d not put Greg McGee on the same level as that. I’m actually trying to make the transition from seething incoherence to seething coherence at this:

Aw, not even. She said she could understand…

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:57:23 +1200

and, more to the point, because she had some bloody choice words earlier this year for the men who were outed pretending to be lesbian bloggers.

Which, without putting words in Duffy's mouth (and looking forward to seeing the show) I hope she'd not put Greg McGee on the same…

uroskin

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:25:52 +1200

Mensch isn't a mensch.

Sofie Bribiesca

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:07:45 +1200

So, yeah, I think we can let Russell off with a warning. :)

I get the jist and I’m not telling RB off. Was interested why his headspace was there. I don’t see pulling someone up every time they express themselves other than what I would do is actually beneficial…

Russell Brown

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:42:09 +1200

Having just read this, late as usual, can I ask RB, what is the significance for her title? Wasn’t her name or profession good enough? It felt like a dish of fluff to describe her as such. Does it matter one iota if she is lesbian?

I usually say she's…

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:15:19 +1200

Does it matter one iota if she is lesbian?

Not really, but Duffy is out and her genre work prominently features lesbian-bi protagonists – it wasn't that long ago when authors of genre fiction with a Sapphic flavour published under pseudonyms and heavens forfend mainstream publishers would sully their hands…

Sacha

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:43:23 +1200

Does it matter one iota if she is lesbian?

Given the context, I suspect he was trying to reassure us she wasn't some middle aged bloke faking it.

Sofie Bribiesca

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:38:18 +1200

I’ve asked my friend Stella Duffy, lesbian writer of lesbian thrillers, for some comment,

Having just read this, late as usual, can I ask RB, what is the significance for her title? Wasn't her name or profession good enough? It felt like a dish of fluff to describe her as…

Danielle

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:07:52 +1200

"Underground, overground, rioting free..."

Kumara Republic

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:02:30 +1200

It's the only way I'd do it. Being able to choose a good pseudonym is like the first basic qualification for being able to bluff your way through that genre. Don't call yourself Busty Harlotte.

That reminds me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSHjTGgZ1mU

Sacha

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:31:37 +1200

Riot Wombles would have been heaps better if it was actually rioting Wombles

Gareth Ward

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:21:37 +1200

I'm looking forward to iOS 5 letting me mirror anything on my iPad screen.
iPad2 only though, yeah...

It just strikes me as so insanely obvious that organised disturbance/protesting/rioting/violence/whatever always manages to use whatever communcication channels are available that shutting down the newest spangliest one would just be massively pointless.…

Megan Wegan

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:14:44 +1200

t’s not exactly high art, but any writer (or publisher) who condescends to their audience is going to have that disrespect paid with interest.

Actually, I tried to write a Mills & Boonesque novel a few years ago (as a challenge with a friend), and it was astoundingly hard. Everything I…

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:10:51 +1200

It’s the only way I’d do it. Being able to choose a good pseudonym is like the first basic qualification for being able to bluff your way through that genre.

I wouldn't be so dismissive of romance fiction — which has always been the red-haired bastard of genre fiction. It's…

Megan Wegan

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:45:23 +1200

Don’t call yourself Busty Harlotte.

If Craig hadn't already gifted me a drag queen name, I'd be taking that.

Russell Brown

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:01:17 +1200

On another note entirely, I notice that Paul Lewis has tweeted this discussion, so hopefully it’s getting a few more sets of northern-hemisphere eyes today.

He seemed quite flattered by the attention, but it was warranted. This is fascinating territory.

The interview was excellent. We'll use about five minutes in…

BenWilson

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:00:49 +1200

It's the only way I'd do it. Being able to choose a good pseudonym is like the first basic qualification for being able to bluff your way through that genre. Don't call yourself Busty Harlotte.

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:32:19 +1200

Or the opposite, which is the long tradition of men (for whatever reason) writing books as women, which has been going on since at least the eighteenth century.

And you might be surprised how many men write romance novels under female pseudonyms – including a former President of the [[http://www.rwa.org/|Romance…

Caleb D'Anvers

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:18:48 +1200

Might help if genre fiction wasn't so damn full of pseudonyms and a long history of women "dragging up" to get published, or taken seriously
Or the opposite, which is the long tradition of men (for whatever reason) writing books as women, which has been going on since [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3670679/Whats-in-an-authors-name.html|at least…

Kumara Republic

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:24:32 +1200

Moves to force blackouts on social networking aren't a show of strength. If anything, they're more a sign of desperation in the face of the barbarians pulling down the gates, as Mubarak found out the hard way.

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:35:14 +1200

I’ve asked my friend Stella Duffy, lesbian writer of lesbian thrillers, for some comment, and it would seem that McGee isn’t the only writer working under gender disguise.

Oh, for fuck's sake – I've been working on a post about this and been severely hampered by my inability to beat…

Sacha

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:13:59 +1200

More grist for Mensch and her select committee colleagues – damning evidence emerges in the News of the World scandal.

Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and their former editor Andy Coulson all face embarrassing new allegations of dishonesty and cover-up after the publication of an explosive letter written by the News…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:28:42 +1200

Citizen reporting has its dangers...
Criminal charges filed against woman for filming and exposing a brutal police beating cover up that left a man partially blind and with skull and face fractures

Russell Brown

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:37:42 +1200

These have been the words of every suppressor of free communications for centuries.

Quite. She seemed unaware of how counterproductive her repeated assurances were. I was shouting at my new Rugby World Cup television when I re-watched it last night.

(Tip: the $170 Apple TV device is a brilliant solution…

Gregor Ronald

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:26:52 +1200

History repeats – "Don't worry about it, it's only a little bit, it's for the best, it will only affect the bad guys, if you have done nothing wrong you'll be OK". These have been the words of every suppressor of free communications for centuries.

Sacha

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:43:53 +1200

some good questioning around the News Intl scandal

She was pretty good in the bits of the hearing that I watched, not that I had any idea who she was.

Greg Dawson

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:03:27 +1200

Down with words and media! I expect sales of stripy jerseys and white gloves to sky rocket.

Toby

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:49:37 +1200

Louise Mensch is foolish on social media shutdown, but that shouldn't overshadow some good questioning around the News Intl scandal. Chutzpah, too. after a Twitter row with Piers Morgan (fmr Mirror ed, now CNN smarm expert; to be fair, she had misquoted him), she received an email from an "investigative…

James Littlewood*

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:25:46 +1200

Next thing she'll be calling for the printing presses, the TV stations, and the radio broadcasters all to be closed down. All phone lines (besides those belonging to gummint), of course, should be suspended. The Internet itself should be turned off for a while. A curfew would help too. The…

Russell Brown

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:20:32 +1200

Suck on that, you bleating panty-waisted liberals.

I really want to believe that's satire ...

Rich Lock

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:17:07 +1200

Monitoring of social media has already led to the thwarting of a possibly devastating terrorist atrocity in the UK.

Suck on that, you bleating panty-waisted liberals.

David Cormack

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:07:39 +1200

Umm re that unbelievable video from Sky...that's just out and out suppression of speech...horrifying.
It shows a real misunderstanding of social media; Twitter/Blackberry Messenger didn't cause the riots, it was merely a mode of communication. If you suppress one, another will just shoot up....christ it's given me the heebie jeebies.…

Tom Semmens

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:46:38 +1200

Is arguing about social media really that important when your spy agencies are now going to be engaged in using their huge powers on domestic criminal acts, with seemingly nary a batting of an eyelid by anyone?

Public Address

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:46:38 +1200

Discussion from blog post.