First among cool stuff is the fact that Justine has been boingled!
Click here to witness said boingling. (And here for Justine’s response.)
I really like Cory’s capsule reviews. They always elucidate plot and theme from an interesting angle (as seen here in his review of Midnighters). He’s an adult sf author, but it seems the new wave of cool YAs has started to draw him over to the dark side. Also, he knows the value of the pull-quote: “Magic or Madness . . . has everything it takes to be an instant classic for smart, curious kids who look to fantasy for more than escape—who look to fantasy literature to stretch their understanding of the real world.” Sweet.
And here’s few other newly learnt cool things that I forgot to mention in my post about Bologna:
1. The words “So Yesterday” translate perfectly into Finnish.
2. The phrase makes no sense in French, and the book’s publishers in France, Editions du Panama, don’t know what to call their edition yet.
3. “So Yesterday” also makes no sense in Swedish, so that edition will be called:
So what the heck does “Ute/Inne” mean? Pretty much what it sounds like if you say it in a mock Swedish accent: “out/in.” In other words, “what’s hot/what’s not,” except backwards.
Reading the tagline, “en roman av Scott Westerfeld,” I started wondering why roman means “novel” in so many Indo-European languages (including English, in loan-phrases like roman-a-clef). It was also bugging me in Bologna, where the word was all over the place; in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian, novels are called romans or some such word.
I decided to go poking around in the OED, and in retrospect the answer seems pretty obvious. The earliest uses of the term applied to “romances”—long romantic poems, that is—the precursors to the modern novel.
So if anyone ever disses you for reading a romance novel, you can always point out that all novels were romances originally. So chew on that.
April 4th, 2006 15:27
Ute/Inne: Makes it sound like a book about navels.
April 4th, 2006 15:30
Or whether you’re in or out of the closet . . .
April 4th, 2006 16:02
closets?? navels?? whats next? well we know our imaginations work, thats for sure….
April 4th, 2006 19:31
That should totally be your next book:
INNIES AND OUTIES:
Trendy Teen Torsos
April 4th, 2006 21:22
Actually, in Spanish they don’t use “Roman”… Novela, narativa, cuento, historÃa… But not roman.
April 4th, 2006 23:58
Oops, Lawrence. Thanks for that. (Went unnoticed by spanglophonic wife. Sheez.) Fixed!
April 5th, 2006 03:59
“So if anyone ever disses you for reading a romance novel, you can always point out that all novels were romances originally.”
Awe…
You made my day Mr. Westerfeld! I’m a newbie romace writer and avid reader of the genre. It’s a struggle sometimes to not reach out and smack the ignorant.
btw…
Your books are amazing! I have five kids so you have come in very handy in the great entertainment department, for them as well as the dh and me. We’re all chompin at the bit for “Specials”. I’m wrapping it up and giving it to myself for my birthday as soon as it hits the shelves. Oh, and I’ve told all my friends about the series cause it’s just too good to miss, but I told them to go buy their own copy. Hey, writers need all the sales they can get.
April 5th, 2006 06:39
hmm my mom will be happy to hear that, although she probably already knows being a total history junkie.
April 5th, 2006 08:02
haha
April 5th, 2006 10:49
how fun!
i’m totally reading so yesterday right now
(for like the millionth time)
and i shall now think of it as in/out
so when people ask
“whats that book about?”
i’ll say
“belly buttons”
and i will laugh
and they’ll run away.
it’ll be great
^-^
April 5th, 2006 11:45
lol yeah i would do that, but my friends alredy think im wierd……and i dont want to lose them.
April 5th, 2006 12:30
Yea amy, i know what you mean my friends think im nuts, only if i said that to my friends (them knowing i have impecable taste in books) they would probably go and buy the book themselves! lol, yea im totally crazy, so my friends expect me to read books about belly buttons or something(of course they think im weird cause i read so much, that just goes to show that i dont hang out with people who love to read, im way different from the diverse group of people i hang out with, lol)
April 5th, 2006 14:31
I think im going to get ” i love scott westerfeld” tattooed on my tongue. Tongue tattoos are the new thing now
April 5th, 2006 14:40
Dude, you can get a tattoo on your tongue!? That sounds really….painful. I don’t know. i think it’s just something with me and injecting ink into my skin with needles. I have a feeling I’ll get one eventually though…..just not anytime soon…and not on my tongue…at least not at first.
I need to go read”So Yesterday” I’ve been hearing all about it, I just need to go out and buy it. It’s aggravating ; not being able to just go get something. I need money, a car, and a driver’s licence. XD
April 5th, 2006 15:02
Check this out, i posted this here cause the post is called “cool stuff”, that and it has to do with time stuff which kinda has stuff to do with midnighters so check this out :
Very interesting information.
On Wednesday of next week, at two minutes and three
seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date
will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
That won’t happen again in this century.
April 5th, 2006 15:02
its actually this week sorry
April 5th, 2006 15:04
and the post is in auzzie time, so its already passed, sorry scott, u missed it! but for peeps in the western coast of the US, possibly other time zones too, we still have time to witness the wonder!
April 5th, 2006 16:55
forcher: I met a girl with “guilt” tattooed under her tongue. Like, you could only read it if she stuck her tongue out and up. (Ow!) She could only read it backwards in a mirror.
Of course, this same girl also wore a straightjacket key on a necklace around her neck. (I’m just saying.)
Korbe: Don’t worry! I didn’t miss it, because the event doesn’t happen here until next month. In Australia 04/05/06 = the 4th of May, 2006!
The day/month/year system has two advantages:
a) The dates are more easily ordered, because they advance consistently from smaller units to bigger units;
b) It’s the way the rest of the world does it. (As with metric, the US has gone its own way yet again. What’s up with that?)
When I sign books for people, I date them using the system of whatever country I’m in. I hope this will cause my biographers much joy. (Heh, heh.)
April 5th, 2006 18:39
Good news: the Dutch and the German call novels ‘romans’, too.
April 5th, 2006 20:16
Well, I have no idea what they call a novel in Latin. But ‘novel’ means new in Latin…
As you can tell, I’m currently doing Latin h/w while posting on this blog.
Kit, you haven’t read So Yesterday??? You must! That was the first one I read, and it got me hooked.
April 6th, 2006 06:15
I’m Swedish!! It’s was soo cool to see those swedish words among all the english ones. Or, maybe, the cool thing might have been that your books are being translated to swedish…=)…for those of my friends who don’t like reading books in english. =) Anyway, about the novels thing…to us in sweden, your meaning of “novel” can be quite confusing too, since “novell” is the swedish word for “short story”….just a fun fact…And, by the way, I love your books.
April 6th, 2006 09:34
Jess: No, I haven’t read So Yesterday yet =( I can’t find it… and I haven’t really gone out since I bought Pretties… and that was a few months ago, but I’m gathering together some money so I can go buy a bunch of Scott’s books and read them and tell everyone about them so the world wants to read it too=) Way back when , when I first read Uglies, People were like. that’s really weird, then I had Pretties and they were like, didn’t that JUST say Uglies on it? Now I see a bunch of people reading Uglies XD
April 6th, 2006 09:39
Yea Scott, i get so mad at the US way of doing things, they think that just because its more acurate that they should have their own way of doing things, I dont see the harm in going with the grain with numbers and calenders that stuff, it just makes things more dificult to fight them (now what scares me about the statement above is that this type of thinking leads to problems, like if everyone thought this way about everything then america would still be a part of the great brittain, and women would not be able to be as important in society today, and many other advances that the world has made as a whole. and dont get me wrong, im an american born and raised, i just think that their way of doing things is INSANE!)
April 6th, 2006 11:02
Korbe i totally have to agree, we americans are insane when it comes to measuring and dates*shrugs*, but hey what can you do.
And as you said if we didnt have different thinking then we would still be part of britain and women would have no rights. Im sure those things would change eventually but it would take a LOT longer.
o man i havent read So yesterday yet either, *talks to self* must go to book store, must go to bookstore.
April 6th, 2006 11:29
yes you must aly! it is one of the bestest books alongside midnighters and uglies!
April 6th, 2006 11:44
Argh, I’ve finally read every last YA book Scott ever wrote (that’s currently available), and now I’m bored. Maybe I’ll dig through the other stuff he’s written to pass the time between now and May 9.
Only 34 more days!
April 6th, 2006 21:20
Lol, Korbe. It doesn’t matter that much.
You know what’s really annoying, bec? Blue Noon hasn’t even COME OUT in Aus yet! Or that I can find anyway… it’s killing me not to read any spoilers!
Sigh. I can only hope to order Specials by way of Amazon.
April 7th, 2006 10:12
Hey rebecca, I know that these books arent as good as Scott’s but The Pendragon series by D J Mchale is pretty good reading for between book waiting.
April 7th, 2006 10:51
I just read this really, really cool book, and finished it today. It’s this thing called “Specials”.
All tremble in envy at the man with the advance readers copy… mwah-hah-hah…
Spoilers? Notachance! But I do think that Scott built the entire trilogy up just for an excuse to use that last line in the book.
April 7th, 2006 11:16
I dunno, but I clicked the boing boing link and what automatically caught my eye was the ad to the right that said “Are you naked? Click here.”
Roman also sounds very close to a certain noodle I happen to love. So I love romans and ramens!
April 7th, 2006 12:03
YOU GOT AN ADVANCE COPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
O MAN I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*grumbles to self and looks at calendar trying to determine when Specials is available for the not so lucky people*
April 7th, 2006 14:26
That is so not fair Mr./Ms. Carter (sorry, that page didnt tell me wether u were male or female, lol), i want an advanced copie! Scott, i demand an advanced copy! I will write up a review and everything, just PLEASE give me one!
April 7th, 2006 14:29
jk on the demand part, but i pray thee! giveth me but a taste of that sweet sweet literature of which i crave! (i have been reading Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare to help me get over the ending of midnightersm incase u were wondering about my choice of dialect)
April 7th, 2006 15:13
Jess: order it off amazon!!! I bet you could find cheap used copies.
Haha, but seriously, I’ve got to get into this loop of yours. Advanced copy!! AARRRGGHHH!!!!
Aly: thanks, I’ll definitely check it out.
R.J. Carter: You suck.
33 days till Specials.
April 8th, 2006 10:41
I have yet another random Westerfeld related fact! i hope you dont mind me posting it here.
Oreos:the darklings cookie. If you are wondering what im talking about, and if i have gone crazy, look at an Oreo cookie (the black ones with the white creamy filling, just for you out of touch people, lol jk) see if there are any patterns, and count how many. *cough*FLOWERS*cough*
April 8th, 2006 12:10
Omygosh! I studied Midsummer last yr in English! I really loved it; it’s so funny!!! Have you seen the movie? Puck is awesome in it!
Why can’t I have an advanced copy??? Or even a copy!!! Dammit… *shakes fist*
April 8th, 2006 14:07
Yea i saw the movie, that black and white one, puck scares me. Sorry scott, this does not relate to ur books, but i had to say something, so yea. Sorry!
April 9th, 2006 11:08
Well, I can’t get you in on the advance readers copy — I don’t have the pull. But I *can* get you in on the advance REVIEW of the book, which just went up at The Trades:
http://www.the-trades.com/article.php?id=4225
There are some spoilers, but just enough to explain the plot in the gentlest of ways — trust me, there’s a LOT of stuff that will blow your mind that I left out.
R.J.
April 10th, 2006 05:16
I remember way back when I was in the loop. I belonged to an online book club, and we all recieved pre-released copies of Midnighters: The Secret Hour. Sigh. I want back in!!! Curse you hackers who destroyed the website!!! Curse you!! Okay, rant over. I am currently using all of my powers to avoid clicking on that link, I will not give in to spoiling temptation!!
April 10th, 2006 16:15
amanda, its not THAT bad, it doesnt spoil TOO much, but it does kinda say some stuff about the plot, but i couldnt resist, it was too tempting. But thank you sooooooooo much R.J. for posting the review, it was great, and i needed something to sustain me until the book comes out. So yes, i thank you so very very much, even though u cant give me an advanced copy. ^.^