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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 1358 Views
One of my two favorite authors is Melanie Rawn. - 12/09/2009 09:16:40 AM 743 Views
Agreed. She is yay! *NM* - 12/09/2009 04:05:38 PM 473 Views
That is very thinly veiled pimping of your blog, Larry *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:48:22 AM 488 Views
No - 12/09/2009 10:52:12 AM 853 Views
I think what you mean is this board is lacking in discussion of lesser-known authors... - 12/09/2009 10:49:56 AM 833 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 865 Views
Re: - 12/09/2009 11:11:48 AM 920 Views
True - 13/09/2009 08:15:02 AM 998 Views
Perhaps. - 12/09/2009 12:13:50 PM 993 Views
Precisely. - 12/09/2009 05:18:07 PM 829 Views
Yeah - 13/09/2009 08:20:12 AM 1032 Views
The world is severely lacking in famous female authors. - 12/09/2009 02:53:03 PM 887 Views
Wanna bet? - 13/09/2009 08:23:14 AM 803 Views
Stephanie Meyers? Are you kidding me?!?! - 14/09/2009 05:32:58 AM 834 Views
She's sold tens of millions of books *shrug* - 14/09/2009 05:41:21 AM 786 Views
ugh - 14/09/2009 11:32:18 AM 956 Views
do you see a lot of urban fantasy discussed here? - 14/09/2009 04:24:26 PM 864 Views
The most popular author in the world is female. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:34:27 AM 366 Views
Incorrect. - 15/09/2009 04:14:06 PM 900 Views
You might want to edit that... - 15/09/2009 04:40:32 PM 962 Views
Agreed. - 15/09/2009 07:09:11 PM 901 Views
Actually, most of those authors are talked about on other boards and blogs - 16/09/2009 12:22:46 AM 800 Views
... That doesn't actually change the truth-value of his statement. *NM* - 16/09/2009 05:31:30 AM 452 Views
I think it does - 16/09/2009 06:40:58 AM 859 Views
That was kind of the point. - 16/09/2009 06:48:15 AM 922 Views
Is KJ Parker actually a woman? - 16/09/2009 12:27:35 AM 770 Views
Probably. - 16/09/2009 04:51:57 AM 1167 Views
It is not uncommon in the publishing industry to pull tricks like that. - 16/09/2009 11:19:04 AM 852 Views
True. - 19/09/2009 03:07:03 AM 1081 Views
Review of Kate Griffin's A Madness of Angels coming soon. *NM* - 12/09/2009 05:18:30 PM 409 Views
That's one I'm thinking about reading soon - 13/09/2009 08:15:49 AM 830 Views
female authors - 12/09/2009 10:28:12 PM 851 Views
I discovered Morgan Llywellyn when I was in my late teens/early 20s - 13/09/2009 08:24:15 AM 883 Views
I've heard she's written a little slash. True? *NM* - 16/09/2009 01:53:58 AM 368 Views
None. Why in the world would you place a quota on gender? *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:46:45 PM 394 Views
Who said anything about "quotas"? - 13/09/2009 08:11:21 AM 796 Views
It can be inferred. - 14/09/2009 12:45:18 AM 779 Views
Bah - 14/09/2009 01:09:10 AM 815 Views
How very clever. - 17/09/2009 02:08:19 AM 1057 Views
it can only be inferred if you confuse the necessity employed. - 19/09/2009 06:49:17 AM 1077 Views
Mm. - 19/09/2009 07:13:27 AM 1111 Views
LOL - 20/09/2009 12:40:55 AM 1178 Views
I fight pedantic with pedantic. <3 - 20/09/2009 10:09:22 AM 1127 Views
Whereas I fight it with sarcasm. *NM* - 20/09/2009 06:14:52 PM 425 Views
Everyone knows women can't write! They are by far inferior to men! - 13/09/2009 01:42:16 AM 759 Views
- 13/09/2009 08:24:50 AM 772 Views
Truth. Just ask Bob Dylan! *NM* - 17/09/2009 08:15:14 PM 376 Views
Trudi Canavan, Cate Teirnan and Michelle Paver - 13/09/2009 07:08:57 PM 1068 Views
So many others - 13/09/2009 10:02:29 PM 958 Views
The Yellin will be within the next couple of weeks - 13/09/2009 10:28:21 PM 799 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 727 Views
Jaine Fenn and Liz Williams are two pretty decent recently-emerging SF writers. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:15:40 PM 380 Views
Jaine Fenn looks very interesting - 15/09/2009 07:17:05 PM 827 Views
... we talk about whatever comes to mind. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:13:21 PM 341 Views
This post is severely lacking in discussion of male authors. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:42:23 PM 536 Views
Hey, doesn't Dan Brown have a new book coming out soon? *NM* - 15/09/2009 07:09:36 PM 364 Views
Is it like Black History Month? - 16/09/2009 12:23:34 AM 810 Views

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