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it can only be inferred if you confuse the necessity employed. Dan Send a noteboard - 19/09/2009 06:49:17 AM
Which you obviously did. Larry didn't say "must" in his post, he actually used the word "need", twice I think.
His use of "need" was an informal one that had a meaning tantamount to "ought", or "should". The (hortatory, if I'm not mistaken) necessity that "should" imposes is in no way as binding as "must", which involves a strict adherence. Quotas employ the latter sort of necessity. The fact that quotas tend to be digital and quantitative supports this point.

You could only infer a vague quota (is there even such a thing?) If you fail to understand the obvious context of the post. A proper context that would support your inference would be something like: "I realized that I haven't kept my promise to read a comparable amount of female authors lately, so I need to read more. Which of them do you think?" or "This board is misogynistic and must correct its skewed preference for female authors. We all need to find one to review."




I almost said "it was implied," but that suggests that it was your intention to imply it.

Anyway. Saying "I must read some female authors" is a quota, if a particularly loosely-defined one. It's only a "loaded term" in the context of starting an argument about it, I find.

But I can certainly understand why he might have taken that implication from your post. So suggesting that it springs from some sort of deficit in his character... well, it strikes me as sort of ingenuous.
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This board is severely lacking in discussion of female authors - 12/09/2009 08:11:46 AM 1377 Views
One of my two favorite authors is Melanie Rawn. - 12/09/2009 09:16:40 AM 761 Views
Agreed. She is yay! *NM* - 12/09/2009 04:05:38 PM 484 Views
That is very thinly veiled pimping of your blog, Larry *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:48:22 AM 500 Views
No - 12/09/2009 10:52:12 AM 871 Views
I think what you mean is this board is lacking in discussion of lesser-known authors... - 12/09/2009 10:49:56 AM 850 Views
While part of that is true, part of it really deals with a thought when I glanced through the posts - 12/09/2009 10:55:07 AM 887 Views
Re: - 12/09/2009 11:11:48 AM 942 Views
True - 13/09/2009 08:15:02 AM 1018 Views
Perhaps. - 12/09/2009 12:13:50 PM 1012 Views
Precisely. - 12/09/2009 05:18:07 PM 848 Views
Yeah - 13/09/2009 08:20:12 AM 1054 Views
The world is severely lacking in famous female authors. - 12/09/2009 02:53:03 PM 906 Views
Wanna bet? - 13/09/2009 08:23:14 AM 821 Views
Stephanie Meyers? Are you kidding me?!?! - 14/09/2009 05:32:58 AM 858 Views
She's sold tens of millions of books *shrug* - 14/09/2009 05:41:21 AM 805 Views
ugh - 14/09/2009 11:32:18 AM 972 Views
do you see a lot of urban fantasy discussed here? - 14/09/2009 04:24:26 PM 889 Views
The most popular author in the world is female. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:34:27 AM 383 Views
Incorrect. - 15/09/2009 04:14:06 PM 926 Views
You might want to edit that... - 15/09/2009 04:40:32 PM 982 Views
Agreed. - 15/09/2009 07:09:11 PM 924 Views
Actually, most of those authors are talked about on other boards and blogs - 16/09/2009 12:22:46 AM 820 Views
... That doesn't actually change the truth-value of his statement. *NM* - 16/09/2009 05:31:30 AM 463 Views
I think it does - 16/09/2009 06:40:58 AM 877 Views
That was kind of the point. - 16/09/2009 06:48:15 AM 941 Views
Is KJ Parker actually a woman? - 16/09/2009 12:27:35 AM 790 Views
Probably. - 16/09/2009 04:51:57 AM 1185 Views
It is not uncommon in the publishing industry to pull tricks like that. - 16/09/2009 11:19:04 AM 871 Views
True. - 19/09/2009 03:07:03 AM 1099 Views
Review of Kate Griffin's A Madness of Angels coming soon. *NM* - 12/09/2009 05:18:30 PM 420 Views
That's one I'm thinking about reading soon - 13/09/2009 08:15:49 AM 855 Views
female authors - 12/09/2009 10:28:12 PM 871 Views
I discovered Morgan Llywellyn when I was in my late teens/early 20s - 13/09/2009 08:24:15 AM 903 Views
I've heard she's written a little slash. True? *NM* - 16/09/2009 01:53:58 AM 379 Views
None. Why in the world would you place a quota on gender? *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:46:45 PM 403 Views
Who said anything about "quotas"? - 13/09/2009 08:11:21 AM 817 Views
It can be inferred. - 14/09/2009 12:45:18 AM 801 Views
Bah - 14/09/2009 01:09:10 AM 836 Views
How very clever. - 17/09/2009 02:08:19 AM 1077 Views
it can only be inferred if you confuse the necessity employed. - 19/09/2009 06:49:17 AM 1102 Views
Mm. - 19/09/2009 07:13:27 AM 1130 Views
LOL - 20/09/2009 12:40:55 AM 1200 Views
I fight pedantic with pedantic. <3 - 20/09/2009 10:09:22 AM 1147 Views
Whereas I fight it with sarcasm. *NM* - 20/09/2009 06:14:52 PM 431 Views
Everyone knows women can't write! They are by far inferior to men! - 13/09/2009 01:42:16 AM 777 Views
- 13/09/2009 08:24:50 AM 790 Views
Truth. Just ask Bob Dylan! *NM* - 17/09/2009 08:15:14 PM 388 Views
Trudi Canavan, Cate Teirnan and Michelle Paver - 13/09/2009 07:08:57 PM 1084 Views
So many others - 13/09/2009 10:02:29 PM 981 Views
The Yellin will be within the next couple of weeks - 13/09/2009 10:28:21 PM 818 Views
I read mostly scfi these days and there just are not that many new female scfi writers - 14/09/2009 04:28:31 PM 746 Views
Jaine Fenn and Liz Williams are two pretty decent recently-emerging SF writers. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:15:40 PM 389 Views
Jaine Fenn looks very interesting - 15/09/2009 07:17:05 PM 843 Views
... we talk about whatever comes to mind. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:13:21 PM 354 Views
This post is severely lacking in discussion of male authors. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:42:23 PM 545 Views
Hey, doesn't Dan Brown have a new book coming out soon? *NM* - 15/09/2009 07:09:36 PM 374 Views
Is it like Black History Month? - 16/09/2009 12:23:34 AM 826 Views

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