JK Rowling threatening legal action

It's very short in Wigan.

Ive always liked the phrase

Take a long walk off a short pier

It was very cutting in my youth...

IIRC I was about 13 so it would have been late 80's.

I’m from Wigan and the pier is so ridiculously disappointing it’s worth taking any visitor just to see their reaction

Wigan Pier is an area around the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, south-west of the town centre. The name has humorous or ironic connotations since it conjures an image of a seaside pleasure pier, whereas Wigan is in fact an inland and traditionally industrial town

Sometimes it looks like Brave New World will be the most prophetic of the dystopian futures
Agree, and you know what, I might object to surrogacy less if there was honesty about it. If we are to have a class of women, deltas or epsilons, who are breeders for the rich alphas and betas, come out and say it. What really sticks in my craw is all the stories and brain washing one sees and hears, of women saying how proud they are to give the gift of life, help build a family, what an achievement to go through pregnancy and birth to provide a baby for someone's house feels entitled to have a baby. So many cliches repeated ad nauseam.
Women gaslighted to think they must be kind and the ultimate kindness is to give away a baby.

I think much of my cynicism stems from reading "Island" (Huxley) age about 18. Basically you can create utopia but human nature is such that there's always some greedy bastard who'll trample all over your paradise and ruin it.

I’m from Wigan and the pier is so ridiculously disappointing it’s worth taking any visitor just to see their reaction.

Though the nightclub was good, back in the day.

Well you must have visited a good few years too late. in the 1980's it was quite interesting. A Victorian schoolhouse and a 'living museum'.

True story.

I went to Wigan once, and looked for a pier. It was a bit disappointing.

Also a fan of The Road to Wigan Pier. But it's def an odd read

I know this isn’t helping get back to the original topic but I want to give some love for The Road To Wigan Pier and whilst we’re at it Bea Campbell’s Wigan Pier Revisited.

1984 is an absolutely brilliant book in terms of the story and breadth (and depth of vision). But by God is the prose leaden

It's not as leaden as Keep the Aspidistra Flying, IIRC.

I think that might've been me, TehBewilderness. HSTS is homosexual-transsexual - most of the old-school transsexuals fitted that profile (because the straight fetishists didn't make it past the gatekeeping) and women tended to be pretty sympathetic because we intuitively grasped that they'd been horribly damaged by a homophobic world.

I like it when people ask for clarification too - if I have to find the words to explain something it helps me to understand it better myself, so it functions as a learning aid for all parties.

Sounds almost poetic

The garments can not be
against the will of the spirit
of the spaces there is nothing
the penalties are death
Despair or castration

Sometimes it looks like Brave New World will be the most prophetic of the dystopian futures

I'm inclined to think so.

I ave this to my dd15 to read this year for school, and it made her cry.

Ooh A Clockwork Orange! Did my A-level lit coursework on that. All the other classes did Wuthering Heights. Luckily we had a brave teacher who was willing to go with the class vote. Brilliant book. Travesty of a film adaptation.

I’ve never read a clockwork orange. Should I?

It's both brilliant and really bloody disturbing, so I guess it depends on your tolerance for reading about disturbing things. If you ever had to read the Canterbury Tales at school and found yourself going from having the check the glossary every paragraph to being able to read smoothly it'll feel a bit familiar in that way.

In terms of the how does this apply to our current timeline aspect of things Brave New World is definitely worth a read, and I'd throw in We to round out the set.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel)

Lordfrontpaw, it doesn't work as well in the other direction:

the garments can not be against the will of the spirit of the spaces there is nothing, the penalties for

Clockwork Orange was bloody brilliant while simultaneously horrifying in many directions.

I don't want to talk to you personally about it though, ProfessorSlocombe, because you've triggered my subconscious "danger" alert by denigrating "cleverness". Nothing personal, blame the bullies of my childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, etc.

I may start a new needlepoint...

I’ve never read a clockwork orange. Should I?

Didn't enjoy 1984; I get why the prose is bleak but by gods it was a drag.

Seems this thread is my people then

1984 is an absolutely brilliant book in terms of the story and breadth (and depth of vision). But by God is the prose leaden. It may have been a stylistic decision, but it does sometimes get in the way (another PS personal comment not intended to speak for anyone else but me, just in case).

Now A Clockwork Orange ...

nihil pene in invitis spiritus spatia ibi non potest vestes

No uninvited dicks in spaces where I'm not wearing clothes?

(A bit of guesswork - 3 years of Latin, 40 years ago!)