Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel' • Hacker News Board

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#81

Post by ijk » Wed, Feb 04, 2015, 4:22 AM UTC

stormbrew wrote: post #78

ijk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm certainly thinking of running the ebook through a statistical analysis to see if the patterns in the writing match. If they were both written in the same time period by the same author, they should be pretty similar. I do hope there's nothing untoward going on here and that this book lives up to the legacy of To Kill a Mockingbird , but the possibility is at least worth examining.

Huh? I don't think anyone is really doubting the authenticity of the book. At least not yet. They're doubting that Harper Lee has actually authorized its release with full knowledge of what that means.

Oh, it's not the most likely hypothesis; not having access to the book yet I can't even say if it'd even be a relevant question. My most likely depressing scenario is that it's a less interesting novel that wasn't published at the time because it simply wasn't as interesting, and Harper Lee isn't in a position to evaluate it because she hasn't read it in fifty years.

I'm hoping for a happy ending here, though.

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#82

Post by SL61 » Wed, Feb 04, 2015, 4:33 AM UTC

savanaly wrote: post #22

mrkipling wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...why?

I get it. To take the joke even farther, you might imagine a headline from The Onion along the lines of "God working on sequel to The Bible". Not funny when I state it all dryly of course, but hopefully you can see the joke now?

They actually did something very similar to that :P

http://www.theonion.com/articles/reclusive-deity-hasnt-writt...

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#83

Post by swatow » Wed, Feb 04, 2015, 5:30 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #21

puranjay wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because it is a timeless tale about the goodness of people, of faith and charity and humanity. Those are everlasting values. My girlfriend reads the book at least once a year. She says it keeps her grounded and optimistic. I started doing the exercise last year and I have to say, she is right.

True. But also because it's a sensitive and nuanced examination of the fucked-uppedness of US culture with regards to race. I certainly hope that isn't everlasting, but the book remains depressingly relevant.

I think a lot of the US has progressed a lot since that book has written. But it may have relevance to some places such as Alabama or Israel [0].

[0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10717186

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#84

Post by icantthinkofone » Wed, Feb 04, 2015, 11:58 AM UTC

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #76

icantthinkofone wrote: post #74

Great. But what does this have to do with Hacker News?

This is HN.

You make no sense at all. My complaint is about the numerous postings of "general news" here on HN. If I wanted general news, I would not come here to find it and, instead, would go to my favorite actual news sites. HN is not a general news collection point.

Hence my question, why is this here?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I'm wondering if you are just agreeing with me.

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#85

Post by wpietri » Wed, Feb 04, 2015, 3:40 PM UTC

swatow wrote: post #83

wpietri wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. But also because it's a sensitive and nuanced examination of the fucked-uppedness of US culture with regards to race. I certainly hope that isn't everlasting, but the book remains depressingly relevant.

I think a lot of the US has progressed a lot since that book has written. But it may have relevance to some places such as Alabama or Israel [0]. [0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10717186

I think there's no denying that there has been some progress. But if you think To Kill a Mockingbird no longer has relevance to racial issues across the US, I'm going to guess you're white. There's an ocean of stuff relating to that, but this would be one good place to start: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case...

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#86

Post by fletom » Mon, Feb 16, 2015, 8:36 AM UTC

chaostheory wrote: post #65

mw44118 wrote: post #45

To Kill a Mockingbird perpetuates the idea that women make false rape accusations. We shouldn't celebrate such a hurtful topic.

Rape is a problem. However false rape accusations are also a real problem and not just an imaginary one. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/09/false... It varies by country but in the US, it's estimated that 8% of rape cases are false accusations.

The article you link to does not support your claim of 8%. It mentions data "averaging 8 percent to 10 percent" but then goes on to point out that:

> Not all reports classified as unfounded are necessarily false. In some cases, women who were victims of rape were disbelieved, pressured into recanting, and charged with false reporting only to be vindicated later on—the kind of awful story that adds to people’s skittishness about discussing false accusations. Some police departments have been criticized for having an anomalously high percentage of supposedly unfounded rape charges: Baltimore’s “unfounded” rate used to be the highest in the nation, at about 30 percent, due partly to questionable and sometimes downright abusive police procedures, such as badgering a woman about why she waited two hours to report a street assault. By 2013, an effort to provide better training and encourage full investigation of all complaints reduced that rate to less than 2 percent.

The problem is that you cannot rely on a police officer's opinion that a rape accusation is false. It could too easily be based on a sexist perception of the woman reporting the crime. The rape of sex workers, women who use drugs and alcohol, and women who have many sexual partners has never been taken as seriously by law enforcement.

On the other hand, we have actual scientific data from the CDC showing that 20% of women have been raped: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6308a1.htm?s_cid=...

What we need is an equivalent study that asks men if they have ever been falsely charged with rape. My guess is that the number is quite small.

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#87

Post by chaostheory » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 9:53 AM UTC

fletom wrote: post #86

chaostheory wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rape is a problem. However false rape accusations are also a real problem and not just an imaginary one. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/09/false... It varies by country but in the US, it's estimated that 8% of rape cases are false accusations.

The article you link to does not support your claim of 8%. It mentions data "averaging 8 percent to 10 percent" but then goes on to point out that: > Not all reports classified as unfounded are necessarily false. In some cases, women who were victims of rape were disbelieved, pressured into recanting, and charged with false reporting only to be vindicated later on—the kind of awful story that adds to people’s skittis…

I was citing the FBI for the 8% estimate.

> On the other hand, we have actual scientific data from the CDC showing that 20% of women have been raped: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6308a1.htm?s_cid=.... What we need is an equivalent study that asks men if they have ever been falsely charged with rape. My guess is that the number is quite small.

What are you arguing? Since false rape accusations can't be measured well, they shouldn't be considered a problem and they should be ignored?