Lucy’s Comments (group member since Sep 08, 2014)

Lucy’s comments from the Discourse in a Digital Age group.

Ken - I'm up in Mich at the moment, will comment on Station... when I get home Tues, but I am SO glad you're enjoying it!

I'm a couple chapters in to ...Sword, they've just landed on Athol and Breq is sizing up the captain of the ship that nearly attacked them. Very interesting, how she handled the baby ltnt that A. Miaanai had 'taken over', and the crew politics. But her personality seems so different (so subtle, refined, polished -- not at all like her direct, down to business, warrior self) than in the 1st bk, i'm having trouble adjusting.

Almost finished and don't want it to end. I submit that while you're probably right that all the ancillaries (certainly all the ships) have individual personalities, Breq/One Esk is special & unique (as Bilbo and especially Frodo were in LOTR). Somehow in creating Justice of Toren, A. Miaanai goofed and allowed compassion & empathy a foothold that over thousands of yrs became her strongest characteristic.

I'm about half-way thru, and already it's plain that my questions won't be answered and there'll be no help for it but to immediately get hold of the next two in the series. Like I have nothing else to read, sigh. The ancillaries are uncomfortably (to me, anyway) like zombies, or like the Borg in Star Trek; is Breq unique in that she feels compassion, concern, humor and anger?

Have sent this to my daughter, who just finished the last of the Ancillaries, and loved them. Wish the first one was on our schedule for next year (hint, hint -- Kenny, are you there?)

Ok, I confess, haven't yet started "Left Hand of Darkness". I've been engrossed in Stephenson's epic "Seveneves", have finally made it to the last 1/3 of the book, and wonder if anyone else in our group is reading/has read it? I see that it's too long for our discussion to tackle, but there is SO much to discuss!
And I will get to the LeGuin before the 18th, I promise...

Not apropos of Wd Exchange, but have you all noticed that Ready Player One has been on the Bestseller list for StL bookstores for a couple of wks? Very cool, but wonder what's bringing it into popularity just now?
Have to confess that I went to see The Martian with my sis here in Durango; utterly fantastic film, and so much better than any previews you may've seen. I'm up for seeing it again if the Discoursers decide to go. Last but not least, I'm a chapter or two into Neal Stephenson's Seveneves, and there's already so much to discuss; anyone else read it?

Well, hope everyone's finished it by now. The denouement was a disappointment -- didn't need the pointless "seeing the sights in Paris with her father" stuff, but instead to hear more about what happened in the U.S., more from Dr. Thwaite, less glossing over & rushing thru to the end and more from the characters themselves. As Gulliver said, way too much telling, not enough showing. I do think this was the perfect book for our age, tho', and I loved the discussions of Hegel's theory of the origins of speech and the human necessity for language - to communicate & connect. Glad & proud to be a READER and to share books & thoughts about them with all of you.
However, my smart phone has forgiven me, and I think I just got a text from my daughter, so back to my device-ridden life...

Forgot to ask Discourse in a Dig. Age groupies: do we want to schedule another dinner & movie outing, to see "The Martian", even tho' we're not reading it until next year?

Very glad to greet new members Jen, David and Kimberly! We have a great group, and Ken always leads value-added discussions, with author skypes or websites, etc, that pertain to what we're reading.
Consider also joining Travis' Schlafly Book Discussion Group (why not pile on more reading?!), which meets in person the 4th Thurs monthly at 7pm and also has a GoodReads group going.

Oh, amen to that last remark!
Why didn't some kindly Engl teacher or hardboiled editor
take her in hand?!

Has anyone else started this yet? Intriguing premise, and there are indeed echoes of "Mr. Penumbra...", but the scary "biocomputer" stuff, discussions of Hegelian philosophy, and the machinations of a vast corporate scheme to take over the human ability to commmunicate with spoken & written language set it apart. My beef so far is the author's constant digressions, which are seriously interrupting the flow of the mystery/conspiracy/incipient romance.
Kenny -- GoodReads thinks we're reading the Le Guin book next!

We missed you awfully, but had a good group, with one new guy. Teresa was right about the bk really getting going around pg 80, and I got so the dialect didn't distract me and actually added to the enjoyment of the story. Hope you can cram finishing it into your crazy no-sleep schedule, because the ending is really satisfying.

Has anyone else seen the really great interview with Mary Doria Russell on a website called Infinity Plus (out of Britain)? It's at: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfict...

Indispensable reading for Sparrow/Children of God fans!

Help needed to get into this book!! I'm not even thru 100 pgs, and it's slow going in the extreme. My uber-literal mind keeps having to "translate" the dialect into 'standard' English, and to make matters worse Hopkinson switches back & forth between the Caribbean dialect and Engl with no warning, within the same character's thoughts/speech, and sometimes where it doesn't seem appropriate. And I usually love this stuff! Suppose I'm cranky at being in recuperation phase (tho' it's going FAMOUSLY now that I'm on a steady regimen of Naproxen & acetominaphen); you'd think any book at all would have been devoured post-haste.
Any plans for "End of the Tour" this weekend? I'm up for it!

Perfect! See you all next week for book discussion.

The latter sounds perfect! Ken -- for those who aren't following these Goodread discussion postings, share by email to the group?

Dinner with C. of God discussion, then movie?

I know it opens Jul 31 and you all will be chomping at the bit to go see it, but if you can wait 'til I get back from this latest Mich trip (leaving 7/26, arriving back StL Aug 8th), I'd love to go with you. Glad to drive if it's only going to be at the P. Frontenac or Tivoli.

I've added another to my list of books I didn't want to end -- loved it, and to appreciate that you have to know the total distaste I have for all things horror, zombies especially. My daughter said I'd like Brooks' interview-based 'history', that whatever horror is described is one step removed, clinical not gory, and that turned out to be true. So many characters I wanted to follow longer, to find out what happened to them & the people in their lives. Brooks' research must've been intense -- so many arcane facts about so many fields, and so much jargon (Todd Wainio's military profanity-laced slang was great!). The old Japanese gardener, the dog trainer, Sinclair, Wainio, hard to pick my favorite character. Can't wait for the discussion, to ask the many questions I was left with.