Aotearoa Daily Kōrero 21/11/2023
Welcome to today’s daily kōrero!
Anyone can make the thread, first in first served. If you are here on a day and there’s no daily thread, feel free to create it!
Anyway, it’s just a chance to talk about your day, what you have planned, what you have done, etc.
So, how’s it going?
Everyone in the house is grumpy today, so good thing they all got sent off to school/daycare/work and it's just me working from home. I think we are all tired from a poor night's sleep.
I understand this well.....one more kid to get to the sleeping through stage...just one more
Ours all sleep through most of the time. The issue was the older ones didn't go to sleep early enough, then had to get up early because of a before school club today - which they missed out on because of refusing to do anything to get ready on account of their bad moods. The 3yo went to sleep on time but was awake at 5 for some reason.
Thought for the day
How do you see the modification of literature; where the authors intent is changed or censored. Some books are outright banned, but that isn't really what I'm thinking about. I'm more interested in your thoughts on how books are more subtly modified, this kind of modification has been happening for thousands of years. Modern examples are Roald Dhal's stories being changed, but the Victorians modified Chaucer in similar ways.
Obviously autocratic censorship is terrible; anything that restricts general access to knowledge is bad (in my opinion).
I'm conflicted on the practice, for example reading the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton in the original and the modern reinterpretation; the modern versions flow better because the more familiar language. I haven't gone through with a fine tooth comb to see if the story hasn't changed.
I'm not really sure where I stand on this. Sitting here waiting for someone else to tell me what to think 😆
I think there is probably an element of judgement here. Some I'll be ok with, others not. A rewriting of the Famous Five I think would be ok if it's clear that's what it is (the same as there is a more modern version of the Willy Wonka movie - but I'd be upset if I went into the movie thinking I was seeing Gene Wilder and ending up with Jonny Depp).
With regards to editing Roald Dahl to make them more PC, I think I'm ok with it if the edits are minor. But I'm eager to have my mind changed if there's something I haven't thought of.
I think the problem with this is the line where updating becomes censoring; this is a good example of the decision point fallacy.
e.g. the paradox of the heap: A typical formulation involves a heap of sand, from which grains are removed individually. With the assumption that removing a single grain does not cause a heap to become a non-heap, the paradox is to consider what happens when the process is repeated enough times that only one grain remains: is it still a heap? If not, when did it change from a heap to a non-heap?
The fallacy is assuming that since no definitive point can be drawn when the edits become censorship; then either all edits are censorship or none are. Thus since we can all agree that continuing to edit a book until there are no words left, is clearly censorship, therefore all edits are censorship.
This is difficult because my personal view is that editing becomes censoring when the authors intent is changed or the edits remove the style of the authors voice. e.g. in the Roald Dhal case, the intent of the author (my interpretation) is to entertain children and teach vocabulary, the edits are not changing that intent and his style is maintained; thus they are not censorship.
I think it really depends on both the text and the reason for it.
I have been involved in some publications and I always insist that the moral rights of the authors are asserted alongside copyright. ("Moral rights" are things like the right to have no one change it without your permission or excerpt it without attribution, and unlike copyright you do have to actually assert them in order to have them).
Simple english versions of novels for the purpose of having something to teach adult literacy with, I have no problem with.
Readers Digest Condensed novels for the purpose of allowing people to think they have read these books without ever having to encounter unusual words or long chapters, I think is regrettable but to each their own.
Bowdlerizing (removing objectionable material to make it more palatable) is something I disagree with entirely and see as an act of moral cowardice that probably flattens people's understanding of history and context.
Finally made some real progress in getting connected to fibre - They started laying the micro-duct for it :)
Exciting! I can't remember the pre-fibre times, but I'm pretty sure they were dark times.
Golf clap
I still remember tying up our phone line all day to download Counter Strike over 56K.
Anyone remember when Telecom/Spark offered an unlimited ADSL plan around maybe 2010?? It didn’t last for very long, I was sad when they got rid of it and I had to go back to a 60Gb data cap.
Haha it really has been the dark ages
Update: After all the horror stories I've seen online, Super happy (apart from the months it's taken to get to this point) with the exterior build work they've done.
Hopefully now it wont take too long to do the internal ONT Connection :)
Yay!
We went to look at a house we might buy on the weekend, and the exterior fibre cable pipe thing goes from the wall not straight down, but 20cm out into the path. In case you felt you weren't getting your money's worth out of ACC