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
-
Great, I'll post some starter questions Labour Day.
-
Glad to hear that she has managed to survive the plague year. A Canadian institution.
-
So the choice for August is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Please do join in. Any comments etc please post in the followup thread: https://www.ttrpbc.com/discussion/638/august-book-choices/ Thanks, and have a good summer.
-
So Cloud Atlas it is. I'm looking forward to it - thanks for mentioning it @Apocryphal. I'm curious to find out how it is put together - episodic? collage? something else? Based on the poll it will be 4 or 5 of us reading, but I encourage everyone t…
-
Thanks Richard.
-
Thanks to all for the feedback. I'm attaching a poll, and will follow up the 25th. I don't have permission to create the poll. Would someone with the permissions kindly make a poll with three choices: 1) War of the Maps; 2) The Man Who Fell to Eart…
-
(Quote) Will post some suggestions towards the end of next weekend.
-
@RichardAbbott I'll post a couple of suggestions mid July, then the decision 2 August, then discussion starters 30 August.
-
Who has asked to stop? At present I do not like this book - perhaps I will come to like it later. We'll see. I'll respond to your other comments elsewhere. If you think I am being too hard on the book (Priest), I am simply following his lead: https…
-
(Quote) I hoped so too, but I haven't seen it yet. What is there here for RPGing? (Quote) This seems mean. What set you off?
-
(Quote) Well I'm still hoping that he will show us that it isn't adolescent. I'm just saying he could get there faster - we're a third of the way through the book. As for the ridiculous guilt: I'd like to think Priest is a good person, but all I kn…
-
(Quote) Maybe ex-pats is his target. (Quote) I have yet to move past John Donne's No man is an island, but trapped in a penisolate war?
-
(Quote) You are a good person to be so patient. (Quote) Seems to me the Islanders are exactly these people, and descendent of such people. Part of me wonders if my negative reaction is because the American (and Australian) experience of these peopl…
-
(Quote) Your headings don't quote properly so we have to edit them. Maybe use bold to make it easier? (Quote) I'm finding the plotting to be increasingly hard to follow - no dates etc., and I am not invested in the characters - it's too brief? No h…
-
(Quote) Imagine the Dude's voice: "There's no real economy man, only magic technology - it's a dream." I do think there is a kind of profound truth there, but I find it distasteful, so I can't imagine why I would consume it. (Quote) I thi…
-
(Quote) I'm feeling that this is more like literary technique in search of a point.
-
Finally got around to reading this. (Quote) A conceptual confusion among what is mysterious and what is boring. I trust him to have a long game, but so far I can say this is a master-class on why character and personage matter to me in novelistic n…
-
I thought it had to do with boats - haven is when you land, tie up to a dock, shelter is when you don't: hide in the lee of the island, in a cove etc. But since the culture appears to be of magical technology, who knows?
-
(Quote) I'm seeing no real movement so far. (Quote) We're getting to a narrative at least. We'll see if it goes anywhere. (Quote) I'm starting to suspect that we might have filler sprinkled throughout, because there isn't enough material for a 're…
-
(Quote) Indigenaeity (being native) is a difficult category. I meant that the scientists think that the indigenous people are shy, so not really Islanders, who presumably do not consider themselves native anywhere. (Quote) +1
-
When I first lived on the Island (PEI) everyone talked about Buddy down the road. It took me a few weeks to realise that there was no one named Buddy in town. I always thought this reticence had something to do respect for with the power of names.
-
(Quote) I was wondering about this too, but the references to silicon economy and art installations made it seem to me to be pretty much about humans. They might be wearing suits, but ... Did anyone else notice there are a lot of lists? Or is that …
-
(Quote) I'm struck by how privileged and uncurious the reader is assumed to be. As a travelogue I feel like I'm reading a Lonely Planet book - this is what's important about a place, for outsiders. I don't find my memories of travel are really about…
-
This conversation is wandering off the content of book itself, so if folks want it moderated let me know. But the author's name is Priest, so ... @Apocryphal You're exactly right. But literary critique can be applied to any work, but the cost is ig…
-
I'd like to think it should, but does it? Not so clear. I think we can all find daily evidence of fiction (dreams) derailing seemingly stable individuals and societies in shockingly short order. (Quote) Not real evidence I know (marketing faff from…
-
(Quote) Briefly, yes. There is the message, the transmission, but also the reception, which are all part of the event. None of them are not parts, and their meaning comes from their relation, not from themselves. What is noise depends on the stance …
-
(Quote) I'm not sure myself. But I do think we are currently living through a series of industrial accidents caused by the heavy manufacture of dreams (pace Umberto Eco), and I also think that our dreams are likely to kill us, and many other beings,…
-
(Quote) Not sure what to say. A gazetteer is not usually read as a novel, so I wanted to think about what was being done here. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Islanders_(Priest_novel) some people think this is a novel. Why do they thi…
-
(Quote) I'm using novel to point to a book made of prose, narrative, and an intimate, even individual and private reading experience, all of which contributed a great deal to who we are, e.g. the idea spoilers are bad, and that we share some respons…
-
(Quote) Dream logic.