´óÏó´«Ã½

A celebration of the riches of the web.

Today in Web Monitor: recreating the Neanderthal, the end of the pun and settling down.

the extensive work going into cloning the Neanderthal. It's problematic:

"The ultimate goal of studying human evolution is to better understand the human race. The opportunity to meet a Neanderthal and see firsthand our common but separate humanity seems, on the surface, too good to pass up. But what if the thing we learned from cloning a Neanderthal is that our curiosity is greater than our compassion? Would there be enough scientific benefit to make it worth the risks?"

that we could be seeing the end of pun. Although groan-inducing crackers gags may not be missed, Mr Parks is unhappy about what he sees as the end of more sophisticated word-play. He blames authors, for chasing international success by writing in simpler easier-to-translate language:

"What seems doomed to disappear, or at least to risk neglect, is the kind of work that revels in the subtle nuances of its own language and literary culture, the sort of writing that can savage or celebrate the way this or that linguistic group really lives. In the global literary market there will be no place for any Barbara Pyms and Natalia Ginzburgs. Shakespeare would have eased off the puns. A new Jane Austen can forget the Nobel."

Lori Gottlieb's book Just Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr Good Enough has caused an online furore according to . She explains why she isn't so turned off by the idea:

"She debunks the vapid 'You go, girl!' form of empowerment, which often harms women by suggesting that they shouldn't settle for less than everything. As a television series, Sex and the City dramatised some of the challenges (and perks) of looking for love as a mature woman. Unfortunately its big-screen culmination delivered a very Hollywood ending - fluffily satisfying, but hardly representative. Gottlieb, in contrast, tells her story as if she were speaking to a roomful of adults, who can be trusted not to faint at bad news."

Links in full

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?