191 replies to this topic

[Rory Abel]

Fuck. Now I feel bad because I have never read Peer Gynt, much less seen it performed. I think The Doll's House is the only Ibsen play I've read and seen.

Time to rectify this.

As a birthday present for her blind grandmother a girlfriend and I recorded a Doll's House, her grandmother's favorite play, where we performed every role in the play.

[David Meadows]

Lord Valentine's Castle.

I can't work out what Robert Silverberg was thinking when he wrote this. Oh, it's a good story, nicely written, everything I would expect from a writer of Silverberg's calibre. But I think he went a bit over-zealous with his world building, or missed a decimal point in his maths or something.

We are told the world is absolutely massive, populated by 20 billion people. Cities have upwards of 10 million inhabitants -- in a basically low-tech society I have no idea how they feed them all -- and I'm reluctanly accepting this, until the point where the protagonists travel between two cities in a covered wagon in two days. Checking the map at the front and doing a rough calculation for the amount of ground a horse-drawn wagon can cover in a day, it turns out that the entire continient is about the size of Great Britain. And has several cities of 10+ million people. In a low-tech society.

Hmmm.

[Ogul]

How do you know they don't have super horses?

[David Meadows]

How do you know they don't have super horses?

They do have amazing super-horses that are bred to be docile and comfortable to ride, and they are described in such loving detail that I find it hard to believe the author forgot to mention "...and they pull a wagon at 200 miles per hour"

[Ogul]

Maybe it was just too obvious to point out, like "and their flatulence smells of cinnamon."

[garjones]

Fuck. Now I feel bad because I have never read Peer Gynt, much less seen it performed. I think The Doll's House is the only Ibsen play I've read and seen.

Time to rectify this.

I studied it in drama classes in school and even acted portions and can remember absolutely nothing about it other than the title. That reflects far more of a comment on my memory than the quality of the play.

[Christian U]

As a birthday present for her blind grandmother a girlfriend and I recorded a Doll's House, her grandmother's favorite play, where we performed every role in the play.

That is so great!

Gar: tsk tsk tsk.

David: I read Lord Valentine's Castle ages ago and liked it a lot. Um, I never noticed all that stuff. I may a less than critical reader when it comes to the practical and geographical aspects of world-building.

[David Meadows]

David: I read Lord Valentine's Castle ages ago and liked it a lot. Um, I never noticed all that stuff. I may a less than critical reader when it comes to the practical and geographical aspects of world-building.

Don't get me wrong, I'm liking the book. I'm just suprised at what appears to be obvious blunders of geography when everything else is meticulously described.

[Dave Wallace]

I studied it in drama classes in school and even acted portions and can remember absolutely nothing about it other than the title. That reflects far more of a comment on my memory than the quality of the play.

If you've never read the alternative ending (seriously - one that Ibsen was made to write to correct the perceived wrongness of the play's message) I strongly recommend seeking it out. It's breathtaking in the way it completely undermines the entire thrust of the play in the space of about two lines.

Edit: Ah, found it after a quick google:

NORA. ... Where we could make a real marriage out of our lives together. Goodbye. [Begins to go.]

HELMER. Go then! [Seizes her arm.] But first you shall see your children for the last time!

NORA. Let me go! I will not see them! I cannot!

HELMER [draws her over to the door, left]. You shall see them. [Opens the door and says softly.] Look, there they are asleep, peaceful and carefree. Tomorrow, when they wake up and call for their mother, they will be - motherless.

NORA [trembling]. Motherless...!

HELMER. As you once were.

NORA. Motherless! [Struggles with herself, lets her travelling bag fall, and says.] Oh, this is a sin against myself, but I cannot leave them. [Half sinks down by the door.]

HELMER [joyfully, but softly]. Nora!

[The curtain falls.]

Edited by Dave Wallace, 01 December 2011 - 08:44 PM.

[Nicholas Taggart]

I read John le Carré's A Perfect Spy. What a fantastic book. I can't believe I hadn't heard more about it before reading it.


Now I am reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman because people keep recommending those books.

[Mike]

Man, it's 20 years since I read Lord Valentine's Castle. That makes me feel old!

Anyway, I don't remember the details that much any more (though I remember being disappointed in the sequels) but isn't there more to the world set-up? I can't remember when some of the back details of the planet are revealed, and don't want to spoil it!

[Christian U]

Yeah, but I don't think that would necessarily have an impact on what David was saying?

[David Meadows]

It's starting to unfold that the world has more technology than was originally apparent, which I assume is what you're alluding to. But nothing that really explains how you feed a city of 11 million people without roads full of food trucks, or how you cross a quarter of a thousands-of-miles-across continent in two days in a horse-drawn wagon. (They are now saying that the next quarter of the continent will take weeks, so maybe the map at the front is a distorted projection )

[Ulf Imwiehe]

[...] or how you cross a quarter of a thousands-of-miles-across continent in two days in a horse-drawn wagon.

Maybe it's downhill all the way...?

[Ulf Imwiehe]

A recent interview with Steven Pinker piqued my interest so I’m currently reading his latest book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Pinker puts forth the theory that violence in the (especially western) world has declined since WW II but also in the long run. I found some of the stuff he said somewhat questionable if thought-provoking, so I’m really curious as to what data he employs to base his theory on.

[T Masters]

I just bought How Fiction Works by James Wood, so that's next on my list.
And I'm looking for a copy of Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, although I may have to resort to ordering from Amazon.

[Johnny Henning]

HOW FICTION WORKS is very insightful and well written. Isn't the David Lynch essay in A SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I'LL NEVER DO AGAIN? Written during the filming of Lost Highway I believe.

I read Jerusalem's Lot and One For The Road in Stephen King's collection, Night Shift. The first is the prequel to Salem's Lot and connects that novel directly to the HP Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos. The latter is a straight vampire story, and serves as a follow up epilogue to Salem's Lot.

No one alive writes Lovecraftian short stories better than King - probably because he's a New Englander. Gaiman and Moore are good, but not even close.

Speaking of Lovecraft, I'm now into The Fuller Memorandum by Stross concerning The Laundry and its doomed espionage holding action against the Lovecraftian demons and their sinister mathematics.

[Rory Abel]

HOW FICTION WORKS is very insightful and well written. Isn't the David Lynch essay in A SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I'LL NEVER DO AGAIN? Written during the filming of Lost Highway I believe.

I read Jerusalem's Lot and One For The Road in Stephen King's collection, Night Shift. The first is the prequel to Salem's Lot and connects that novel directly to the HP Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos. The latter is a straight vampire story, and serves as a follow up epilogue to Salem's Lot.

No one alive writes Lovecraftian short stories better than King - probably because he's a New Englander. Gaiman and Moore are good, but not even close.

Speaking of Lovecraft, I'm now into The Fuller Memorandum by Stross concerning The Laundry and its doomed espionage holding action against the Lovecraftian demons and their sinister mathematics.

Jerusalem's Lot is basically just a straight up Lovecraft tale. It has no real connection to Salem's Lot other than being set in the same town. One for the Road is far better connected. I always liked the sequel to Nightflier that he did too. King has some really good Lovecraft style stories, particularly The Shortcut and the one about the broken down truck inching towards the house.

[Johnny Henning]

True, even though it does have vampires, it doesn't directly mention any of the characters in Salem's Lot. Though it does explain how the evil in the town predates Barlow and why he settles there.

[Rory Abel]

True, even though it does have vampires, it doesn't directly mention any of the characters in Salem's Lot. Though it does explain how the evil in the town predates Barlow and why he settles there.

Are there vampires in Jerusalum's Lot? As I remember there are re-animated corpses but they're not vampires, they hosts to the worms. Am I forgetting something (I haven't read the short since college)?

Edited by Rory Abel, 08 December 2011 - 10:38 PM.