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I fight pedantic with pedantic. <3 Dan Send a noteboard - 20/09/2009 10:09:22 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."

Fascinating stuff.
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This board is severely lacking in discussion of female authors - 12/09/2009 08:11:46 AM 1311 Views
One of my two favorite authors is Melanie Rawn. - 12/09/2009 09:16:40 AM 706 Views
Agreed. She is yay! *NM* - 12/09/2009 04:05:38 PM 457 Views
That is very thinly veiled pimping of your blog, Larry *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:48:22 AM 466 Views
No - 12/09/2009 10:52:12 AM 822 Views
I think what you mean is this board is lacking in discussion of lesser-known authors... - 12/09/2009 10:49:56 AM 806 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 825 Views
Re: - 12/09/2009 11:11:48 AM 879 Views
True - 13/09/2009 08:15:02 AM 965 Views
Perhaps. - 12/09/2009 12:13:50 PM 951 Views
Precisely. - 12/09/2009 05:18:07 PM 794 Views
Yeah - 13/09/2009 08:20:12 AM 968 Views
The world is severely lacking in famous female authors. - 12/09/2009 02:53:03 PM 851 Views
Wanna bet? - 13/09/2009 08:23:14 AM 751 Views
Stephanie Meyers? Are you kidding me?!?! - 14/09/2009 05:32:58 AM 801 Views
She's sold tens of millions of books *shrug* - 14/09/2009 05:41:21 AM 757 Views
ugh - 14/09/2009 11:32:18 AM 915 Views
do you see a lot of urban fantasy discussed here? - 14/09/2009 04:24:26 PM 819 Views
The most popular author in the world is female. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:34:27 AM 352 Views
Incorrect. - 15/09/2009 04:14:06 PM 871 Views
You might want to edit that... - 15/09/2009 04:40:32 PM 926 Views
Agreed. - 15/09/2009 07:09:11 PM 870 Views
Actually, most of those authors are talked about on other boards and blogs - 16/09/2009 12:22:46 AM 772 Views
... That doesn't actually change the truth-value of his statement. *NM* - 16/09/2009 05:31:30 AM 438 Views
I think it does - 16/09/2009 06:40:58 AM 827 Views
That was kind of the point. - 16/09/2009 06:48:15 AM 886 Views
Is KJ Parker actually a woman? - 16/09/2009 12:27:35 AM 729 Views
Probably. - 16/09/2009 04:51:57 AM 1129 Views
It is not uncommon in the publishing industry to pull tricks like that. - 16/09/2009 11:19:04 AM 819 Views
True. - 19/09/2009 03:07:03 AM 1049 Views
Review of Kate Griffin's A Madness of Angels coming soon. *NM* - 12/09/2009 05:18:30 PM 385 Views
That's one I'm thinking about reading soon - 13/09/2009 08:15:49 AM 795 Views
female authors - 12/09/2009 10:28:12 PM 815 Views
I discovered Morgan Llywellyn when I was in my late teens/early 20s - 13/09/2009 08:24:15 AM 857 Views
I've heard she's written a little slash. True? *NM* - 16/09/2009 01:53:58 AM 354 Views
None. Why in the world would you place a quota on gender? *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:46:45 PM 373 Views
Who said anything about "quotas"? - 13/09/2009 08:11:21 AM 758 Views
It can be inferred. - 14/09/2009 12:45:18 AM 743 Views
Bah - 14/09/2009 01:09:10 AM 783 Views
How very clever. - 17/09/2009 02:08:19 AM 1006 Views
it can only be inferred if you confuse the necessity employed. - 19/09/2009 06:49:17 AM 1032 Views
Mm. - 19/09/2009 07:13:27 AM 1075 Views
LOL - 20/09/2009 12:40:55 AM 1142 Views
I fight pedantic with pedantic. <3 - 20/09/2009 10:09:22 AM 1094 Views
Whereas I fight it with sarcasm. *NM* - 20/09/2009 06:14:52 PM 411 Views
Everyone knows women can't write! They are by far inferior to men! - 13/09/2009 01:42:16 AM 722 Views
- 13/09/2009 08:24:50 AM 735 Views
Truth. Just ask Bob Dylan! *NM* - 17/09/2009 08:15:14 PM 360 Views
Trudi Canavan, Cate Teirnan and Michelle Paver - 13/09/2009 07:08:57 PM 1033 Views
So many others - 13/09/2009 10:02:29 PM 926 Views
The Yellin will be within the next couple of weeks - 13/09/2009 10:28:21 PM 766 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 700 Views
Jaine Fenn and Liz Williams are two pretty decent recently-emerging SF writers. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:15:40 PM 363 Views
Jaine Fenn looks very interesting - 15/09/2009 07:17:05 PM 797 Views
... we talk about whatever comes to mind. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:13:21 PM 328 Views
This post is severely lacking in discussion of male authors. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:42:23 PM 520 Views
Hey, doesn't Dan Brown have a new book coming out soon? *NM* - 15/09/2009 07:09:36 PM 352 Views
Is it like Black History Month? - 16/09/2009 12:23:34 AM 776 Views

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