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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 1194 Views
One of my two favorite authors is Melanie Rawn. - 12/09/2009 09:16:40 AM 605 Views
Agreed. She is yay! *NM* - 12/09/2009 04:05:38 PM 388 Views
That is very thinly veiled pimping of your blog, Larry *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:48:22 AM 427 Views
No - 12/09/2009 10:52:12 AM 709 Views
I think what you mean is this board is lacking in discussion of lesser-known authors... - 12/09/2009 10:49:56 AM 736 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 730 Views
Re: - 12/09/2009 11:11:48 AM 773 Views
True - 13/09/2009 08:15:02 AM 862 Views
Perhaps. - 12/09/2009 12:13:50 PM 847 Views
Precisely. - 12/09/2009 05:18:07 PM 693 Views
Yeah - 13/09/2009 08:20:12 AM 872 Views
The world is severely lacking in famous female authors. - 12/09/2009 02:53:03 PM 732 Views
Wanna bet? - 13/09/2009 08:23:14 AM 640 Views
Stephanie Meyers? Are you kidding me?!?! - 14/09/2009 05:32:58 AM 700 Views
She's sold tens of millions of books *shrug* - 14/09/2009 05:41:21 AM 648 Views
ugh - 14/09/2009 11:32:18 AM 736 Views
do you see a lot of urban fantasy discussed here? - 14/09/2009 04:24:26 PM 712 Views
The most popular author in the world is female. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:34:27 AM 306 Views
Incorrect. - 15/09/2009 04:14:06 PM 759 Views
You might want to edit that... - 15/09/2009 04:40:32 PM 824 Views
Agreed. - 15/09/2009 07:09:11 PM 774 Views
Actually, most of those authors are talked about on other boards and blogs - 16/09/2009 12:22:46 AM 677 Views
... That doesn't actually change the truth-value of his statement. *NM* - 16/09/2009 05:31:30 AM 397 Views
I think it does - 16/09/2009 06:40:58 AM 714 Views
That was kind of the point. - 16/09/2009 06:48:15 AM 777 Views
Is KJ Parker actually a woman? - 16/09/2009 12:27:35 AM 634 Views
Probably. - 16/09/2009 04:51:57 AM 1019 Views
It is not uncommon in the publishing industry to pull tricks like that. - 16/09/2009 11:19:04 AM 712 Views
True. - 19/09/2009 03:07:03 AM 958 Views
Review of Kate Griffin's A Madness of Angels coming soon. *NM* - 12/09/2009 05:18:30 PM 349 Views
That's one I'm thinking about reading soon - 13/09/2009 08:15:49 AM 684 Views
female authors - 12/09/2009 10:28:12 PM 722 Views
I discovered Morgan Llywellyn when I was in my late teens/early 20s - 13/09/2009 08:24:15 AM 744 Views
I've heard she's written a little slash. True? *NM* - 16/09/2009 01:53:58 AM 312 Views
None. Why in the world would you place a quota on gender? *NM* - 12/09/2009 10:46:45 PM 333 Views
Who said anything about "quotas"? - 13/09/2009 08:11:21 AM 651 Views
It can be inferred. - 14/09/2009 12:45:18 AM 647 Views
Bah - 14/09/2009 01:09:10 AM 675 Views
How very clever. - 17/09/2009 02:08:19 AM 890 Views
it can only be inferred if you confuse the necessity employed. - 19/09/2009 06:49:17 AM 926 Views
Mm. - 19/09/2009 07:13:27 AM 943 Views
LOL - 20/09/2009 12:40:55 AM 1045 Views
I fight pedantic with pedantic. <3 - 20/09/2009 10:09:22 AM 1002 Views
Whereas I fight it with sarcasm. *NM* - 20/09/2009 06:14:52 PM 375 Views
Everyone knows women can't write! They are by far inferior to men! - 13/09/2009 01:42:16 AM 619 Views
- 13/09/2009 08:24:50 AM 638 Views
Truth. Just ask Bob Dylan! *NM* - 17/09/2009 08:15:14 PM 319 Views
Trudi Canavan, Cate Teirnan and Michelle Paver - 13/09/2009 07:08:57 PM 873 Views
So many others - 13/09/2009 10:02:29 PM 822 Views
The Yellin will be within the next couple of weeks - 13/09/2009 10:28:21 PM 655 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 590 Views
Jaine Fenn and Liz Williams are two pretty decent recently-emerging SF writers. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:15:40 PM 324 Views
Jaine Fenn looks very interesting - 15/09/2009 07:17:05 PM 692 Views
... we talk about whatever comes to mind. *NM* - 15/09/2009 03:13:21 PM 293 Views
This post is severely lacking in discussion of male authors. *NM* - 15/09/2009 04:42:23 PM 416 Views
Hey, doesn't Dan Brown have a new book coming out soon? *NM* - 15/09/2009 07:09:36 PM 312 Views
Is it like Black History Month? - 16/09/2009 12:23:34 AM 658 Views

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