When a male author gets Brown's disease, he suddenly loses all ability to characterise. His plots lose coherency, his syntax gets the trots and his storylines become far-fetched and ridiculous.
That's not a disorder. That's a congential defect!
*snerk*
Wish I had a camera the day a coworker informed in, in all seriousness, that I should read DaVinci Code (I am so sick of getting that as a rec); she went on to talk about how he did all this research and even got permission to get into the Vatican library!
Me: Anyone can do that. Coworker: No, they can't. It's the Vatican library. Me: Right. And it's been open to the public since it was created by Pope Nicholas, in 1451. Coworker: ... Me: Of course, it lagged from the 1460s until about 1494, when Pope Alexander -- the Borgia Pope -- donated a bunch of books, money, and appointed someone to be the librarian, but the entire point was that anyone could go see what's there. Still can. Coworker: But... Me: You can't take the books out, of course, not since the mid-1600s, and some books have always remained on the premises. Coworker: But Dan Brown... Me: Even the Inculabula and non-printed material are still each 'signed out' and brought to the reading room, to be returned at the end of the library's hours. You can see Galileo's signatures on some of them. And they have a list of people who checked out stuff and had to pay a fine for not bringing it back on time. Apparently Augustine was very bad at returning books on time. Coworker: But you still have to get permission if you're not Catholic... Me: Nope. You just go in. Like any other library. Coworker: But... Me: Except I think they make you wash your hands, or wear gloves, if you want to see really old stuff.
At which point the coworker stumbled off looking utterly flabbergasted.
Sometimes I feel like I need to come up with a catchy t-shirt that says something like, "don't try to get me to read Dan Brown by impressing me with his fabulous research."
no subject
Date: 7 Jan 2007 02:31 am (UTC)That's not a disorder. That's a congential defect!
*snerk*
Wish I had a camera the day a coworker informed in, in all seriousness, that I should read DaVinci Code (I am so sick of getting that as a rec); she went on to talk about how he did all this research and even got permission to get into the Vatican library!
Me: Anyone can do that.
Coworker: No, they can't. It's the Vatican library.
Me: Right. And it's been open to the public since it was created by Pope Nicholas, in 1451.
Coworker: ...
Me: Of course, it lagged from the 1460s until about 1494, when Pope Alexander -- the Borgia Pope -- donated a bunch of books, money, and appointed someone to be the librarian, but the entire point was that anyone could go see what's there. Still can.
Coworker: But...
Me: You can't take the books out, of course, not since the mid-1600s, and some books have always remained on the premises.
Coworker: But Dan Brown...
Me: Even the Inculabula and non-printed material are still each 'signed out' and brought to the reading room, to be returned at the end of the library's hours. You can see Galileo's signatures on some of them. And they have a list of people who checked out stuff and had to pay a fine for not bringing it back on time. Apparently Augustine was very bad at returning books on time.
Coworker: But you still have to get permission if you're not Catholic...
Me: Nope. You just go in. Like any other library.
Coworker: But...
Me: Except I think they make you wash your hands, or wear gloves, if you want to see really old stuff.
At which point the coworker stumbled off looking utterly flabbergasted.
Sometimes I feel like I need to come up with a catchy t-shirt that says something like, "don't try to get me to read Dan Brown by impressing me with his fabulous research."
*rolls eyes*