Critical Linking: February 24th, 2012

“For me, quite simply, it is a personal and professional dream come true to be working with J.K. Rowling. She is one of the best storytellers in the world, and I am looking forward enormously to helping bring her new novel for adults to her fans and admirers, and to introducing her writing to new readers the world over.”

Translation: Cah. Ching.

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“Who can say which of these genres will, like the police procedural or the regency romance, stick around for decades and which, like chick lit, will float away Mary Poppins-style with the next change in the wind? “

My guesses. Sticker-rounder: graphic novels. Floater-awayer: steampunk.

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“Perhaps magic is another kind of game, where the symbols and theatricality of the occult mask metaphors for power to help us understand the “science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will”. No wonder we English, living with the lingering ghosts of Empire, an unreformed class system, and the complexities of a post-industrial economy, find such fascination in it.”

Hmmm. I wonder what the American obsession with “superpowers” represents then? Oh wait. I see it.

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“…”in some sense Pinterest is just like Xerox and the VCR,” two products that were found to be legal regardless of their potential for copyright infringement. But the nature of copyright law has changed dramatically since Sony went to the Supreme Court over Betamax, and Pinterest may find the market imposes many more limitations than the law itself.”

Alright, so this one’s not about books, but we’re all pretty interested in Pinterest.