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BarnerCobblewood
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- BarnerCobblewood
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Comments
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A good way to spend a rainy day while avoiding chores.
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The writing kept the reader reading, so in that respect it was good. Like @Apocryphal I found it a little too much like what I think of as TV writing for my taste. Synergy I guess.
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Didn't really have any expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. Read quickly, and was very familiar even though I'm not really well-read in steam-punk. I expected more how to say explicitness than there was.
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Sounds good to me.
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@RichardAbbott about the book - I think not. Trying to read. I'm overloaded at the moment to lead a discussion though. Not giving up, and I'll let you know when I've cleared my plate a bit.
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(Quote) The author and narrator confused themselves for one another, perhaps. Also, the explicit antagonist (mind parasites) is utterly undeveloped, yet unlike say Sauron the protagonist defeats them so easily. Likewise there is no secondary antago…
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This bigoted aspect is (sadly) extremely like Lovecraft, and it is not credible to attribute it to laziness. If Wilson was lazy, how would he have written so many books? This is particularly true at the time Wilson was writing - 1967. C'mon. There's…
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Sorry I do not. Lovecraft is a better writer. Of course the antagonist in Lovecraft amounts to something more than a parasite. All he got from Lovecraft was the despicable values - see response to Q5.
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Easy read, but enormously boring. Sorry.
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(Quote) Stories I might want to play in a game. (Quote) Are they different? Where is the grammar that organises the world differently? Where is the challenging motivation that the WEIRD reader cannot immediately identify? I agree with Kamal Al-Sola…
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When the great mass of stories published present a caricature of other cultures / peoples / whatever that lacks any meaningful insight into why and how we might have good reasons for not sharing a common, universal, stance to our present situation, …
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(Quote) What is history or science when it is not accurate? I'm not saying that what is accurate can or cannot change, but if someone starts presenting say a group identifiable today as experiencing say less physical pain than the reader because &qu…
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@Apocryphal that's a very interesting read. I found his comments about oral tradition and story, and using native informants, quite interesting.
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@NeilNjae If you haven't read the Maclean's article that Boyden himself composed a few years after the publication of The Orenda, I suggest you look at it. It has a few suggestive quotes: (Quote) He also provides a fairly detailed discussion of hi…
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It's true, I've also never heard about a book about the America or Australian colonial experience that posited another outcome, like say The Man in the High Castle does for WW2. Never say never though. For me the European discovery of the Americas,…
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@Apocryphal got it. In that case, yes I think the trope is in play. I would have liked e.g. Gosling to be a more nuanced character.
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(Quote) I'm responding more to the second question. There is a question about whether history ever ends, which is tied up with question of the writing of history, but is this novel history, or story?
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Not sure what you are asking here - a more recent past is always inevitable from an earlier past, because the past is certain. Seems like your question is about counterfactuals, whereas the idea of historical fiction is that the end is certain, beca…
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I thought that narrator was the Orenda. Was interested to find out that the two main indigenous groups talked about in the novel are both speaking an Iroquoan language, but were opposed politically. So they have a lot in common, but our other narrat…
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Not sure why you put native in quotes - are you talking about a person, or a group?
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So I am a few chapters in on Part three - little less than a hundred pages to read. Will work on finishing it in the next couple of days. I think you can start the discussion when you like. BC
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I am still reading.
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@RichardAbbott To help with your map of North America: The norther border of the US west of the Mississippi is about 500 miles north of the northern border at Lake Erie, the southernmost Great Lake. Lake Superior is quite far north of Lakes Erie an…
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(Quote) Yeah your comments about IRC were enlightening. I realised that my introduction to RPG was about the kind of reading I was doing, not just reading. When I read my first language I don't see the words, or even the book, instead I just 'see' t…
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Saw this this morning: Can't imagine it would have been the same if they were all watching online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQLmVyMNNLs
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Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful replies. (Quote) That's pretty clear. And I like text for imagination. (Quote) I think this is my source of my gut reaction to ZOOM - it really does a terrible job of overlapping voices (not suggesting that it…
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(Quote) Aaah, IRC - good old days. Would you describe it as being like play by email, but quicker? (Quote) Ok I haven't ever hosted any of these platforms. I guess I need to learn them. Definitely would like an update when you get going about the l…
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@clash_bowley Yeah we have been hoping to get a few sessions in over the Xmas break, but here in Quebec the situation has rapidly changed and this holiday-time has been effectively cancelled. How long are your sessions? We would play for a few hour…
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If it is really four short stories, isn't it odd that they seem to all be about one particular person, and are marketed as such? I think it's a serial, not short stories.
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(Quote) I meant that tech objects just won't work for others, not that they are designed to user specs. I think hi-tech security will get to no anonymity at all. That's how I took Bindi's concern at the spaceport.