Help offset server costs by donating. This is totally optional. Any overages will go to library fines or new books.
BarnerCobblewood
About
- Username
- BarnerCobblewood
- Joined
- Visits
- 2,761
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member
Comments
-
I would turn it around - I think the book is possibly about remembering, not forgetting, and about how remembering is a fantastical process. The plot-arc of the book then is shaped by what is remembered, and when, rather than what has been forgotten…
-
Hello everyone, just checking in as to whether we can start the discussion next Tuesday or so?
-
Thanks for the feedback. BC
-
@Apocryphal Following up on your post back in Dec 2021, what's your reaction to using Roll20?
-
(Quote) I think you're mixing social organisation with the social activity of unifying. The analogy of organisation is that society is like a body inside which are organs necessary for its existence, but a body of only kidneys is, well, not a body. …
-
@NeilNjae I found the whole section of Hainey and Farweather a chore to read. Too much emphasis on theory, not enough on fiction. @RichardAbbott Quite possible I suppose. I got a bit frustrated by the book because I do think Bear can write, and so t…
-
I thought the flatness of the locations could have been a strength when discussing rightminding, but it never went anywhere. Combined with the flatness of Hainey's affect, or perhaps due to it, I wasn't ever really invested. I think it striking that…
-
A lot of good ideas that were left undeveloped because of trying to be something for everyone. If I want good ideas undeveloped I'll read Philip K Dick. I think it's a shame to be honest because she can write. @NeilNjae I think that it is more due …
-
I liked it, especially in such a discursive structure. And agreeing with @Apocryphal and going further I think it makes books better. If you need or want to put it use appendices like LOTR for everything not germane to plot-action. Or likein Guns Ab…
-
Thought the work was too long for the form. I put it down to The Martian making this commercially attractive.
-
I have to agree with @Apocryphal that the political discussions with Farweather were hard to take. And I also thought there was just too much repetition in general - the book could have been 200 pages shorter without cutting any actual content (ok a…
-
I love Bradbury. Maybe try Something Wicked This Way Comes.
-
Done,
-
The story was episodic so I found it kept moving forward, but each episode seemed of equal importance, which makes the larger structure flat. I thought this particularly showed in the lack of preparation for the end of the book lading to book two, b…
-
As the book went on I got the feeling that it was necessary for the serial nature of the genre - the technique is developed by the story more than the character.
-
While I liked the names, I found that they did not help me visualise the moves of the fight, as much as the level of the fight and fighters. Like @Apocryphal I found the fights quite abstract, and so very stressful. I was also left wondering id they…
-
I'm ready.
-
@RichardAbbott, as well as everyone who wants to join, I can lead Buried Giant in August. Let me know.
-
Makes me think more of Hobbes's Leviathan, i.e. the state. From a discussion of the symbolism: (Quote)
-
From Wikipedia: In English law, natural justice is technical terminology for the rule against bias (nemo iudex in causa sua) and the right to a fair hearing (audi alteram partem). While the term natural justice is often retained as a general concept…
-
@Apocryphal thanks for suggesting this book - I never would have read it without the club, and I'm glad I did. I agree that the City of Baghdad is a place I'd like to play in, but the amount of prep is over-whelming. It's not just the GM either - t…
-
Agree with @NeilNjae that stories as things are over-rated, but OTOH as I think @RichardAbbott means it's hard to describe anything significant without talking of a sequence of events. And unreliable narrators are only unreliable because we can imag…
-
Thought the characters were the best part of the book. Realised while reading that this is what I miss in many of the discussions about RPGing I overhear - the characters get flattened into stereo-types, e.g. classes, races, etc., and the games are …
-
Sorry to be contributing quite late here. I thought that the discussions about justice were actually more about crime and punishment, and thought it was interesting that the response to crime was conflated with justice by violent people, as if just…
-
Really liked it. Had no real expectations going in. I especially liked the details of public daily life - was good world-building. Thought the ending and character development was well done. After I finished it I read somewhere that there was quite …
-
Also is there any interest in reading the Buried Giant - see blurb and availability at https://www.amazon.ca/Buried-Giant-Novel-Kazuo-Ishiguro/dp/0345809416/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=buried+giant&qid=1653916545&sr=8-1 , and reviews at https://book…
-
Shit, I read the wrong book. Oh well, Hero Born is completed. Will power through this in the next few days. Post the questions when you like.
-
@NeilNjae I'm talking about PCs, not players. PCs don't have their "own" goals. The question is whether the PC's goals are only subject to / strictly determined by one player, or if they are subject to all the members of the group.
-
I see this book as more a wargame than a rpg, but I liked wargaming when I did it. For people who like that, I think it provides a good setting for several sessions. I also think the military and war aspect allow a more human and realistic 'railroad…
-
Yes I understood them, but there was too much telling rather than showing.