- Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipul says no woman is his literary “equal” – “The author, who was born in Trinidad, said this was because of women’s “sentimentality, the narrow view of the world”. “And inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too,” he said.” From Brian.
- In France, a Muslim offensive against evolution – The movement is, “the most recent installment of a new attack aimed at the science of evolution led by Harun Yahya, an outspoken Turkish-born Muslim advocate of creationism who is considered widely controversial within the Islamic world.”
- Hedgehog discovery holds clues for cancer treatment – Hedgehog refers to a type of molecule, not the cute spikey guy named Sonic. From Jack99.
- German Catholic doctors offer homeopathic “gay treatment” – From Agranulocytosis.
- Cute Animal Friday! Behold the intense cuteness of sleeping kitties hugging, from Adam. And how about a tiny turtle saved from smugglers by customs, from Paul.
Okay, so just to show how screwed up my mind is, when I read the “Hedgehog discovery holds clues for cancer treatment”. I thought, what does Ron Jeremy have to do with cancer research, D’oh!
So what is the “like-cures-like” substance that homeopaths are using to cure teh gay? Doesn’t that “like-cures-like” substance need to be different for gay men and lesbians?
On second thought, maybe I don’t want to know.
Dan Savage calls it Santorum.
Well, of course no woman is the literary “equal” of V.S. Naipul… none of the women writers I’ve read (or read interviews by/with) have his ego, not even Stephenie “I’ll revise it in interviews after the fact” Meyer. Also, the one truthful thing he said about women’s mastery of their house; it’s hard to craft a literary masterpiece when first one has to complete one’s day job, scrub the bathrooms, vacuum the floor, prepare meals, take care of children if any are under one’s charge, etc.
Then again, we don’t make schoolchildren read V.S. Naipul, but we often make them read Lois Lowry and Jane Austen, and they read J.K. Rowling on their own.
Just saying.
COTW! All I could think was, Margaret Atwood could kick his ass.
Let’s not forget Toni Morrison…a black woman (2 Naipaul strikes against her!) and a Nobel winner herself who I’ve read in class from high school through college. That must really not sit well with him.
Fair point. For whatever reason, I never had to read Morrison; it’s possible she was one of the options on a “choose two off this list” requirement, but now I wonder if it was an accident on my teacher’s part… a sort of benign neglect, if you will.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2011/jun/02/naipaul-test-author-s-sex-quiz
I liked this — I’d like to see how well he actually would do. Me? I can’t tell any difference, I just guessed randomly and got 6/10.
That was great! I got 5/10, and only because I recognized one of the quotes.
I guessed on every one and didn’t recognize any of the quotes and got 9 out of 10.
When I say I guessed, I don’t mean I read the quote and thought ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ I didn’t even read the quotes, I just guessed.
Naipaul can kiss my ass.
HAHA when I showed up here I was going to be all excited that this is a testable claim, but I see some brilliant people have already set up the test! Win.
I tried to make guesses based on perceived stereotypes of male/female genders, and got 6/10. Also: apparently, I need to read more books by men. *snerk*
More creationist BS from the another fundamentalist? The old “show me a transitional fossil” argument is getting old. One might as well show them a dead parrot nailed to its perch for all the good it will do.
I got a 3/10 and the comment “Awful! What are you, a girl or something?”
LOL!
I got 7 out of 10. They were a little short. Sometimes I can tell (or I think I can) the gender of someone from what they write. Sometimes my idea is wrong. Usually I can tell someone’s gender by looking at them (or I think I can).
Being able to tell someone’s gender by how that person writes is not a reflection on the inherent value of the writing.
Usually I can tell if someone is a douche by their writing easier than by what they look like. If someone is a douche, it does lessen the value of their writing for me. I won’t be reading any of Naipul’s writing, life it too short to read work by douches and have to be especially careful that any of his doucheyness doesn’t make it through my cognitive firewall.
“In France, a Muslim offensive against evolution”
Merde
Homeopathic “gay cure”… I think that is beautiful. It is so backward and insane, it is a work of art. I have a hard time seeing this as anything other than a work of modern art.