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Apocryphal
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I think cultures snd political structures are things that are bound to repeat through the life of human kind, but not languages. We haven’t evolved so very far from Sumerian and Akkadian culture and rulership. We still have kings blessed (if not app…
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It’s an interesting play. I suppose we see similar conflicts in the real world. The narrative of Chine, for example, or North Korea, in their homelands vs the narrative of their ex pats abroad. Right now we are experiencing a reconciling of the Narr…
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The answer is probably to capitulate, but there are no guarantees. Egyptian culture largely survived Assyrian, Persian, and Babylonian control, but eroded under Greek and Roman. I think the religious revolutions had more effect than the political co…
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The cultures were absolutely my favourite part and I found this quite inspiring, though I could never quite get a satisfactory answer to why we had Aztecs in space. Luckily I was able to handwave this. The question of viewpoint is interesting. I’…
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While I absolutely loved the cultures described in the novel, I didn’t come away with a single memory of the physical aspect of the city, so I’m going to go with inadequate on that front. Generally speaking, I liked the writing and thought it was…
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I much prefer hearing Richard talk about poetry to reading the actual poetry, so I guess this is a win for me.
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Three Seagrass, Mahit, Nineteen Adze, and Yskander had the most potential as characters - the first three because we spent the most time with them, and the later because he was a dark horse for most of the novel and had some unusual circumstances to…
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I remember from a previous read finding one of the stories particularly creepy, and I think it might be this one. Since I can’t remember how it ends, I’ll just have to wait and see. > @NeilNjae said: ‘Not only is Graian a visitor to the island…
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Much like a dream…
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@dr_mitch has a ready-made scenario he would run which I've never played in, and being a better GM (I expect) he'd be the best candidate for this. Plus he has a handy set-up for online gaming already :-) A TTRPBCon would be a fun little thing, I th…
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Yes, it's by @Apocryphal AND by @dr_mitch - an at long last released today. It's a 'Mythic' setting centred around the old city of Babylon at the time of Hammurabi (most famous for his code of laws). The default start year is the end of 1765 BC and…
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@WildCard Thanks for the comment - I always find your views fascinating. Sounds like you're drawing a distinction between 'Meaning' in the world (i.e. an intent or message from God), and 'meaning' in the text (what the author had in mind and possibl…
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Ok - I’m easy either way.
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Yes, in the understanding of the situation, but also I think in the growing understanding of what a person, specifically a scientist, is capable of. Moreau has become a near god, and has created beings, including the very worms of the earth: "…
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(Quote) Interesting - and was Wells not writing at the dawn of Liberalism, which recognizes and elevates the needs of the individual?
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My own take is that Wells wasn't trying to say anything about Colonialism. The reason you see Colonialism is because it's part of the fabric of society of the day.
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Yes, I think @NeilNjae has read on past p.177, too. Perhaps breaking up the stories is too artificial... and not generating as much dialogue as I had thought in the midpoints. Would it be better safe the discussions to the ends of the stories (keepi…
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Maybe the solution is just to take a break for the summer…
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The 'Lord of Mystery' has performed a misdirection and fooled all of us in one regard, as you'll see with the next chunk of reading.
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Richard: Yes, thanks for that, and for the encouraging email you sent me a week or two ago - I appreciate it very much. I know that you are very busy - especially with reopening - and it was not my intention to criticize anyone. You are a wonderful …
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Maybe the three humans represent three ills of society: the amoral, the lazy, and the aimless? One can almost stretch that to ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ Moreau sees no evil in what he’s doing. Montgomery doesn’t want to hear about it…
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Yes, that’s true. The new info hadn’t reached the writers of Star Trek, though, which had Jordie turn into a giant newt one episode and it turned out to be caused by something that advanced him evolutionarily along the line. Why they thought giant n…
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I don't know. For reasons I could never understand, there's always a cadre of people that want to play anthropomorphized animals. Probably because of their cozy upbringing reading Sweet Pickles books.
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I'm not sure it fits Campbell exactly, and certainly Wells wasn't following Campbell's lead since he pre-dates him by half a century. I think the comparison to God is likely on purpose. Did I share that Shmoop page on religion in the book? https://…
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Moreau is certainly a character. He has a personality and a character arc. He's a highly symbolic one, sure, but so was Gandalf - who actually had less of an arc, having never had a youth or a previous run-in with Society. Yet I never heard anyone s…
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I was reading that people at the time believed that species could somehow climb or descend the evolutionary scale, and that this was what Wells was riffing off. The moral here seems to be that people are little better than animals, but that God (the…
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There's definitely something about alcohol and it's role in turning men into beasts. I wonder if Wells was a tea-totaler. Despite not drinking, Prendick seems to be finding his own path to decline, so I don't think there's anything as simple as a ca…
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@clash_bowley : Wise in the Ways of Wells :)
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My first thought was that this could more or less be lifted wholesale into Glorantha, and perhaps set in the Eastern Isles. "The Island of Duck Tomoro" - a place run by Tomoro the duck, who purchases human prisoners and exiles to bring the…
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M'ling had a name - perhaps an abbreviation of 'Manling'? Arguably one of the most human characters in the novel, apart from Prendick. I'm not sure if the ship names are a comment on society, so much as suggesting a theme for this particular story.…