I’m reading Vanguard by NYTimes best-selling Jack Campbell, whose real name is John Hemry. He’s a prolific writer of military sf/space opera with an emphasis on leftist (IMO) morals and ethics. This is a series about the beginning of the Alliance of worlds (I may have the name wrong here). It’s really holding my interest and the main characters are really interesting.
My wife noticed this, though, on the cover–about three separate typefaces.
I think it’s all the same typeface: The ‘S’ in “GENESIS” matches the one in “SERIES,” and the ‘G’ matches the one in “VANGUARD;” the ‘B’ in “BESTSELLING” and in “CAMPBELL” are the same, and the ‘R’ in “VANGUARD” would, if you added the missing piece, match the ones in “AUTHOR” and “SERIES.”
It all appears to be the same typeface; they just, for some reason, cut some pieces out of a couple of the letters, and replaced the ‘A’ characters in the title with triangles.
Edit to add: And they replaced the ‘E’ characters in the series name with hamburger icons (they didn’t just cut out the vertical lines, as the horizontal lines are all the same length at the top, but they aren’t in “CAMPBELL.”
I just ran the image through What the Font?, and it thinks all the text is in Meshitara Sans. I concur.
The ‘G’ is very close to Meshitara Sans, but the ‘S’ and ‘R’ don’t fit very well.
Well, I didn’t notice particularly but my wife who does copy-editing for our writers’ group friends did (she also claims to be a bit dyslexic).
The fonts within the book also have slight differences. On the other hand, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, to coin a phrase.
they should really drag that fucking bus to a proper landfill before anybody else gets hurt
Why do people keep seeing that book/movie as a handbook instead of a cautionary tale? I haven’t read the book, but the movie sure made me never want to go into the wilderness alone without letting people know where I am…
Right? I was a lot more sympathetic until I read the book and heard about all his previous misadventures and near misses. Fate was working overtime to drop him a hint, and he never took it.
It’s still awful he died, but I think it’s fair to say he’s not a role model.
And also: my estimation of Thoreau has gone down a lot ever since I learned his family used to visit him once a week and bring fresh doughnuts for him. Not exactly the solitude he claimed in his book.
Well, I got done reading “Uppity Women Speak Their Minds”, by Vicki Leon, copyright 2015…and found out that SOMEONE doesn’t know their history or else how to actually proofread, or somethin’! My notes explain:
Who can keep track of the Edwards anyway? Kee-rist there were a lot of them, tall chinless wonders always, tending to bug eyes in the middle dynasties.
Yeah, but twenty-six years? WTF, there was no Viagra back then! I mean, I know they fooled around, but Bertie was definitely hetero, while Edward-Who-Abdicated was not. The whole Wallis Simpson thing was a dodge so he could be gay and not rule, so I’ve read.
So… that makes sense. Also… wut? I didn’t watch the King’s Speech nor have I paid much attention to that affair except as a C-plot in documentaries about the thirties. And the Upstairs-Downstairs thing they did a few years back.
The book is fascinating; I’ve not seen the documentary yet.
It’s like the purported Hepburn-Tracy romance: A bunch of bunk to misdirect people AND to sell papers…“romance” of those types sell papers.
The Orange Girl
She became so intoxicated by the sun’s juice
That she bowed her head and consented
Slowly slowly to become: the small Orange Girl!
And so while the seven skies glittered with blue
And so while the crystals touched a fire
And so while swallow tails flashed
Angels above were bewildered and girls below
Storks above were bewildered and peacocks below
And all gathered together and all saw her together
And all together called her: the Orange Girl!
Vineshoots and scorpions reel drunkenly the whole world is drunk
But the sting of day will not leave pain alone
What is the dwarf heron saying amid the worms
What does the plop of water say amid golden moments
And what does the dew say to the lips of the good North Wind:
Get up O small small small Orange Girl!
No one knows you as the kiss knows you
Nor does the laughing god know you
Who with his hand open to the flaming glare of the sun
Exposes you naked before his thirty-two winds!
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher. I think this one is way funnier than Dear Committee Members, and it doesn’t use the epistolatory form.
This time, mediocre novelist Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the perpetually impoverished English Department, must somehow achieve consensus and unanimity in order to save his piece of academia from the clutches of the greedy Economics Department.
Never has a “Statement of Vision” meant so much to so many people.
I picked up a dead tree edition of the new translation of The Snail On The Slope from Boris and Arkady Strugatsky.
This one is Sci-Fi story that will leave you feeling ‘what the hell did I just read?’ in the best way.
It takes place in two locations. In The Administration on the outskirts of civilization were one hero wants to go into The Forest but is thwarted by rules, regulations and society that would make Kafka confused. Meanwhile in The Forest a researcher who crashed his helicopter there years ago is trying to find his way back hampered by the natives and the strangeness of The Forest itself.
If you have not read anything by the Strugatsky brothers you are missing out and this one is a good start.
Sounds like something I could use.
And speaking of Format Pricing Disparity
That may be an older translation which from what I gather on goodreads isn’t the best.
The new one is translated by Olena Bormashenko who also did a new translation of Roadside Picnic.
ETA and if you haven’t read Roadside Picnic that one is a mindfuck too.
I’m most of the way through Sally Rooney’s Normal People. It’s quite good.
The early monologues. Despite the not infrequent mentions of sex (post age 14), I get the impression he’s not going to touch on his brief foray(s) into porn. A shame, there must be some good stories in that.
ETA: Now that I have a little more time I will expand a little. One, while the book isn’t that steamy, the sexual content strikes me as notable for Spalding Gray. I’ve seen all of his filmed/videoed monologues except the first, Sex and Death to the Age 14, and he scarcely mentions the subject at all. (One can hear him talk about sex in the 1989 documentary Heavy Petting which uses some of his material from Sex and Death)
Two, I first found out about Gray’s former porn work thanks to his former porn co-star, Gloria Leonard. He was on some sort of call-in program and she called in (anonymously?) to ask about his porn work. He muttered something about just being an extra who they quickly let go and hung up on her. Since she was in both of his XXX IMDb credits, there may be more to this story.
Thank you for allowing me the time and space to lower the tone.
