How Books Work

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by avantman42

It appears that the original was by Anastasia Gorbunov, and the original text was "Reading isn’t dangerous. Not reading is.":
http://madartlab.com/2011/05/18/ai-w...in-it-for-you/

It was a competition by a Russian publisher's web site. Here's the google translate.

The caption was the topic of the competiton, and is nicely compact in Russian: Читать не вредно. Вредно не читать. Google gives it (word by word) as Read not harmful. Harmful not reading.

I tried to come up with a colloquial English translation, but the best I could come up with (keeping the neat reversal, but being rather longer) was "Reading is not the problem. The problem is not reading."

There's a high-resolution of the original here which contains a copyright notice from the publisher, ООО Издательство Эксмо (Eksmo Publishing Ltd.), so I suspect that the competition included assigning copyright of the entries to the publisher, as is common in such competitions.

[K. Molen]

Thanks avantman42 and pdurrant! Apparently your Google-fu is stronger than mine. Or maybe you were already familiar with it?

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by Billi

Yes. Life.

I agree, it emphasizes the bleakness from which this person is escaping.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by K. Molen

Thanks avantman42 and pdurrant! Apparently your Google-fu is stronger than mine. Or maybe you were already familiar with it?

I'd seen it some time ago, and vaguely remembered that the English caption wasn't the original. I couldn't remember details, though.

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by Billi

Yes. Life.

Yes. Reality intrudes on all.

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I suspect that the competition included assigning copyright of the entries to the publisher, as is common in such competitions.

for Prize Money?

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I just wish the image had avoided the profanity. Yeah, I know, it's there for realism--but it makes the image unacceptable to many people, including me.

I did not even notice what was said until you mentioned it.

Of course traveling around inner cities I have seen far worse. It's life. Unfortunately perhaps, but still life.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by K. Molen

Thanks avantman42 and pdurrant! Apparently your Google-fu is stronger than mine. Or maybe you were already familiar with it?

No, I've not come across it before. Working from avantman42's link, finding the original website wasn't too hard, although it took a google images "more sizes" search to find the hi-res version.

[jmilica]

I guess it comes from the Russian proverb

Хотеть не вредно, вредно не хотеть.
Не begins to die that quits his desires.
(literal meaning - To want is not harmful, it's harmful to not want)

Some more pics, but since they are all in Russian, I think the one in the first post of the thread wins without doubt.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by jersysman

I did not even notice what was said until you mentioned it.

Of course traveling around inner cities I have seen far worse. It's life. Unfortunately perhaps, but still life.

So why stop with a bit of graffiti? Shouldn't the artist have added some rats, moldering garbage, used condoms, and drug paraphernalia to the scene? Maybe the kid should have some bruises, maybe there ought to be some hookers and child predators lurking in the shadows. For "realism."

The point of the illustration is clear without any of this "realism." It is also clear without the offensive word, so why include it?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Catlady

So why stop with a bit of graffiti? Shouldn't the artist have added some rats, moldering garbage, used condoms, and drug paraphernalia to the scene? Maybe the kid should have some bruises, maybe there ought to be some hookers and child predators lurking in the shadows. For "realism."

The point of the illustration is clear without any of this "realism." It is also clear without the offensive word, so why include it?

The original does indeed include drug paraphernalia (a syringe) next to an empty bottle and can, and a bin of rubbish bags.

[WT Sharpe]

FWIW, I love the original photo in post #1, and I do think it loses a bit by being cleaned up, but I still removed it (but left a link where the original can be viewed) from the original post because I don't feel that it's safe for the workplace. It's regrettable, but I feel if we're going to retain our family-friendly/workplace-safe reputation, it needed to be done. You can lay all the blame with me.

Originally Posted by Catlady

The point of the illustration is clear without any of this "realism." It is also clear without the offensive word, so why include it?

If I may suggest: words are words. It is how they are used that is offensive. In this case, it was used to make a point about the nature of reality. It shouldn't be offensive unless you find reality offensive. Which, alas, it sometimes is.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

You can lay all the blame with me.

Muck, Muckity, Muck-Muck-Muck.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

FWIW, I love the original photo in post #1, and I do think it loses a bit by being cleaned up, but I still removed it (but left a link where the original can be viewed) from the original post because I don't feel that it's safe for the workplace. It's regrettable, but I feel if we're going to retain our family-friendly/workplace-safe reputation, it needed to be done. You can lay all the blame with me.

I agree that the originally posted graphic has more impact. But, I also agree on it not being entirely within everyone's comfort zone. And I believe people are entitled to define their own comfort zones.

Thanks for leaving the link.