Damn, that's some faint praise

[Uncle Robin]

The Kobo store, dissing 4 of 6 authors featured, apparently.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The Kobo store, dissing 4 of 6 authors featured, apparently.

Perhaps they did not feel like being politically correct and changing the Oscar Wilde quote?

Would you have preferred "Anybody can make history. Only a great <insert non-excluding noun of your choice> can write it.

Oscar Wilde was very correct when he said “Give a man a mask and he will show his true face” looking at what anonymous posters have done to the Internet.

Even locally where the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League drafted a 15 year old girl as a skater. There have been female goaltenders drafted before but this is the first time a female has been drafted as a skater. Some of the comments were so far over the line, they would need the James Webb telescope to catch a glimpse of it. Reminded me of some of the fuss when Hayley Wickenheiser played in men's league games in Europe (Finland and Sweden if my memory serves me).

[Lykke]

…although the books by the female authors have higher ratings.

[Uncle Robin]

Since they used the quote without attribution, using "person" would not have been unreasonable.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps they did not feel like being politically correct and changing the Oscar Wilde quote?

Would you have preferred "Anybody can make history. Only a great <insert non-excluding noun of your choice> can write it.

It’s not an either/or situation. Pick a different quote altogether, for gack’s sake. This reads as if they were trying to offend, the either/or being that or obtuseness beyond belief.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

It’s not an either/or situation. Pick a different quote altogether, for gack’s sake. This reads as if they were trying to offend, the either/or being that or obtuseness beyond belief.

Exactly!

[Lykke]

My general impression of the Kobo webpages is that the quality checks are… minimal? For instancet the Norwegian front page for months has had a large text saying "Must essential reading in all genres for less". Yeah, no one cares about Norwegian, but they should still fire their translator.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Lykke

My general impression of the Kobo webpages is that the quality checks are… minimal? For instancet the Norwegian front page for months has had a large text saying "Must essential reading in all genres for less". Yeah, no one cares about Norwegian, but they should still fire their translator.

Yes, my post was inspired by a similar view of Kobo's (in)competence. I felt reasonably certain that whoever came up with the marketing idea applied the exactly same meticulous care and attention to detail as Kobo does across its website

[issybird]

Even aside from the arrant sexism, it’s such a tin-eared choice. The gulf between writing history and writing historical fiction is vast; Herodotus or Thucydides or Carlyle might be great; Georgette Heyer or John Jakes, not so much.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

Even aside from the arrant sexism, it’s such a tin-eared choice.

Interesting - the word that sprang to my mind was "cloth-eared". Old-fashioned Indian English vs US English, perhaps?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Interesting - the word that sprang to my mind was "cloth-eared". Old-fashioned Indian English vs US English, perhaps?

The Indian as well as British term, to be sure! One of those words where I wouldn’t need it translated into Yank if I ran across it, but I’d never have identified the American term as one that needed translation in the mouth of a British or Indian or presumably other Commonwealth character.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

The Indian as well as British term, to be sure! One of those words where I wouldn’t need it translated into Yank if I ran across it, but I’d never have identified the American term as one that needed translation in the mouth of a British or Indian or presumably other Commonwealth character.

Oh, for sure - I understood it immediately.

[MGlitch]

Hark what have I stumbled upon, ‘tis a pebble writ large as a mountain. Pray the muses are kinder in the future to the scribe who dared scrawl such a thing, lest they doom said scribe to a cruel and certain end.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Hark what have I stumbled upon, ‘tis a pebble writ large as a mountain. Pray the muses are kinder in the future to the scribe who dared scrawl such a thing, lest they doom said scribe to a cruel and certain end.

No one’s blaming Wilde; they’re blaming Kobo.

And Wilde’s own “cruel and certain end” could easily be ascribed to the biases of his own time; no need to wait on the future.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by issybird

No one’s blaming Wilde; they’re blaming Kobo.

And Wilde’s own “cruel and certain end” could easily be ascribed to the biases of his own time; no need to wait on the future.

I was referring to the Kobo employee who opted to use the quote.

I stand by my statement of this being mountains out of molehills, pebbles more specifically.