Help offset server costs by donating. This is totally optional. Any overages will go to library fines or new books.
RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,065
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member, Administrator, Moderator
- Games I like
- Sundry, mostly board
- Books I like
- Science fiction, fantasy, some historical fiction
Comments
-
I'd be inclined to look at things in the opposite direction (and not just because of perversity :) ). The crux of the Eden story in Genesis is that the woman had been told exactly what the consequences were of doing something, and did it anyway. But…
-
Hmmm. Whilst I agree that the concept of Dracula is scary, I didn't find the manner of relating it scary at all: as mentioned in another thread, I felt it lost much of it's potential scariness precisely because of the structure chosen. Now, I can ea…
-
Again it's an interesting question. On the face of it the problem faced by the women is, perhaps, a little bit different. In Genesis, Eve was presented with the opportunity to deliberately flout an explicitly command, to which she yielded following …
-
Not just Christian, but specifically Catholic, I think. The heroes are mostly from Protestant nations and have to, in some cases reluctantly, adopt Catholic trappings and spirituality in order to tackle the enemy. This is (I think) part of a wider s…
-
Hm, that's a great question. I didn't find the story scary at all - I think that was partly because of the fact that this story set out so many of the themes and tropes that others have followed. But I think it was also partly because of the mode of…
-
(Quote) Everybody loves a plasma physicist...
-
(Quote) Sounds fun! Looking forward to that one
-
Just a quick note on current look-ahead... 1) We are about to have September's discussion of Dracula led by @NeilNjae 2) October's pick is The Ship Who Sang led by yours truly 3) @clash_bowley any ideas for November? 4) @Apocryphal any ideas for D…
-
I've finished so ready when you are
-
For those who would like some virtual monkey-related entertainment, and are also curious about how many monkeys it would really take to produce art, you could check out the following Journal Article: A Million Monkeys and Shakespeare https://academi…
-
The Ship Who Sang discussion area set up now
-
This is also a reminder that this month's read is @NeilNjae 's choice Dracula
-
Excellent, I'll set up the discussion area
-
(Quote) My current thinking is The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey, keeping with our "classics" theme (the separate stories were written between 1961 and 1969, in which year they were collated into a novel). We haven't read this together s…
-
(Quote) That aside, it's me in the rotation for October and I've almost decided... watch this space...
-
Coming back to this after a busy few days as the school holidays wind inevitably towards their close and term-time looms! (And with equal inevitability, the weather dramatically improves). I found the discussion about pulp fascinating, and it made …
-
> @Apocryphal said: > Sadly I haven't yet read animal farm. My take away from the ending is that we're all destined to be apes, in the end. And that the apes are not just copies, but superior - they have no armies, for example. The strife we …
-
(Quote) Yes, understood. I wonder whether a frame story only really works in books rather than films, precisely because of the reason you say. Except, perhaps, for the much more easily assimilated frame where the outer layer is the protagonist (or w…
-
(Quote) as in Madeline? Aha I've got it now - Swiftly Tilting Planet was the link. Sorry to be so slow...
-
There's also the revenge component of the apes' behaviour - they ended up particularly good at medicine precisely because that was where they were (and have been) most experimented on. But yes, any division where someone says "they're not like…
-
I'm with @NeilNjae on that - the story isn't really about Ulysse at all, despite appearances
-
I kind of liked the space flight bits :) especially that space flight took so long. It split the book into several disjoint parts where the stories (and the parallels between the stories) were the only things bridging the gap. So I guess I never fo…
-
I mentioned in one of the other starters that we started watching the 2001 remake and abandoned it before too long as it just didn't grab our interest. I'm sure I have seen the 1968 one but like @NeilNjae it was a long time ago and I should re-watch…
-
Yes! I remember _Recursion _ well ( along with the rather good film _Source Code_ which so far as I recall had no code in it at all, but was a lot of fun. I don't think I'd call _Planet of the Apes_ recursive as it only has two layers, though adm…
-
Definitely satire, and this surprised me - I'd expected a kind of adventure story seeing as that's what the films have become, and enjoyed this treatment a whole lot more! We watched the 2001 remake of the film and gave up after about 1/2 hour cos i…
-
Yes, I had forgotten about them, and loved the twist that they turned out to be apes themselves. An excellent device, and highlights the whole human/ape inversion that we follow in a bit more detail in the interior story. And very neatly written at …
-
Discussion area for Dracula set up
-
(Quote) That looks an interesting site though very extensive :)
-
(Quote) I'm currently listening to her Thornhedge, a retelling from a different and engaging angle of Sleeping Beauty.
-
I wonder (and it's an unanswerable question, of course) how much of the anti-Pict racism was the province of writers like Bede rather than the general population at large? Bede, as we know, had a strong agenda to his writing, and was naturally going…