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
-
The introduction argues that the novel is a step up in the genre because it understands that the selves of the protagonists must be constructed for them to be able to become spies, and that that construction is a function of society. In the novel C…
-
I was looking into Childers' definition of romance - the gay pursuit of a perilous quest - and came across the introduction to the Oxford world classics edition. It includes a good discussion of the way that the novel, and i would argue all text inc…
-
@kcaryths yes when we compare how these issues were dealt with in the book, and how conflicts among states are dealt with now, we can really see how things have changed in the last 100, 150 years.
-
@NeilNjae Oh I get it now. Thanks. I think these kinds of issues are part of what I think of as "table-culture." I mean they are obvious within a community that plays games together. So not rules / mechanics but customs and conventions, wh…
-
@Apocryphal The set encounter approach is exactly what I mean. I don't mean the GM should get lost with the players.
-
@NeilNjae I'm not sure I follow you here. What do you mean by interesting, and sensible, decisions? Getting lost is not a decision, but what players do once their PC lost is up to them. There's lots of evidence that people people make foolish de…
-
I agree. I think it makes sense to have board game / war game sessions separated from theatre of the mind sessions, so people know what to expect when they show up to play. Quite different rules and thinking though. Based on my brief research in…
-
@NeilNjae Fair point. Perhaps he had simply misunderstood his social set as he had misunderstood the vacation request, and came to a better understanding of what it was. A kind of YA novel, even though everyone is a bit older than now. But I sti…
-
What i remember is that at the beginning Carruthers is very disdainful of Davies, while also being ticked off about missing the social season, and some time with a lady. He is then unprepared for the vacation he actually goes on, having misread what…
-
Yeah, it is not a thriller, nor a detective story exactly. But given its reputation it clearly spoke to readers. A fantastic empire or war story. I saw it more in the tradition of H. Rider Haggard or Joseph Conrad, about the challenges that the succ…
-
I guess for me the boat stuff seems to be something that would be better modeled in war gaming than role playing. Do any of us include war gaming type rules in our sessions?This is certainly something I will be doing in my upcoming game, specificall…
-
I was quite impressed when I saw Morecambe Bay, and there is no way I would go for a walk upon it. I think that was part of the fantasy of the book. The story in your comment just shows how difficult it is for people to connect up descriptions with …
-
I think the dramatic conflict in the book is about the narrator's opinion of the society he is / was a member of, and how it selects those in positions of power. So very similar to contemporary times.
-
I'm not sure if your question is specifically about the theme of the British Isles being invaded, or more generally about threats from other nations. Obviously a constant theme of what is presented as both fact and fiction. For why this remains a co…
-
They worked in the story / plot. It was an interesting example of how dominance civilisations maintain themselves through language. See https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse
-
No I liked it. I think that it might be interesting to see how the descriptions of these technologies / techniques differ from the techno / magic babble that often appears in SF settings. I don't know if it's because I know the description maps onto…
-
I did like it. It reminded me of my youth I guess, Swallows and Amazons, Great Northern, etc.
-
Done.
-
> @NeilNjae said: > (Quote) > Which is why I interpret the ending as the dying hallucinations of the passengers aboard the train, as they're consumed by various plants in the quarantine zone. Maybe it's the whole novel.
-
Yeah I remember that I thought the first volume was too long. And that is about all I remember of it. Oh well. It should be a great idea. I want to use this in my campaign to play what I'm calling side-genres. Actually I'm thinking that part of the…
-
@Apocryphal While reading this book I was thinking of the southern reach books also, but I only read the first book. And it hasn't left much of a mark on me. Did you find the following books worthwhile? I think the comparison with Roadside Picnic…
-
I want to clarify something. I am disappointed in the book not because it is thoroughly bad, but because (imo) it doesn't fulfill the great promise within it. I actually hope Brooks continues with this theme in future writing, because (imo) it is a …
-
@RichardAbbott Yeah, until you get to the end of the book.
-
@kcaryths Actually I should find a better word. You are right - death cults seem to have been an aspect of human culture for as long as we know e.g. ancestor worship, ideas that land continues to belong to those who have died, construction of "…
-
Based on the first few chapters I'm looking forward to @clash_bowley 's take on this.
-
@NeilNjae When I say I see a death cult I'm most often using it in a perjorative sense to refer to the worship of death as necessary and productive of life. All cult/ures have aspects that are about death, but those that suggest that death is some k…
-
@NeilNjae Of course you're right about PKD. I'm not saying it's gospel. It helps me think through whether something is SF. And I do think he is right that a story must have a narrative where the characters interact with something outside them, that …
-
@RichardAbbott Of course, PKD is being provocative when he talks about Virginia Woolf, and if he is saying that Virginia Woolf is a poor writer, he also is clearly wrong. But is he saying that? Or is his point to use Virginia Woolf, or is to point o…
-
So I found this book quite frustrating. There are many excellent ideas here, too many, and they are limited by the books adherence to the idea of progress being good. This is why I don't see it as much use for gaming. From THE BEST OF PHILIP K. DIC…
-
Here are a couple more pages of background about Sarah Brooks / Dodds. http://samovar.strangehorizons.com/masthead/ https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/languages/staff/717/dr-sarah-dodd http://samovar.strangehorizons.com/ http://strangehorizons.com/ Added: h…