Maureen’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

p.s. the viking name generator doesn't seem to work anymore. :)

i am embarking (hee hee) on a reading of this with rod and jacob this week. i'm presuming everybody on this thread already read the book when you were all reading it in 2010 but you're welcome to join us in our reading if you like. i don't know what form the discussion will take but i think we're going to try to talk about the book as we read it. i had suggested to rod we might want to append our discussion here even though i was worried about spoilers but aside from a few comments by patty, swanny and margaret, it doesn't look like you guys really said much about it -- not sure if that's an indicator that there's not much to discuss or whether it was just more fun to play with the viking name generator and talk about the crazy movies. :)

adrian! that story gave me anxiety! i am glad i was not managing that building or i would have driven me bonkers before i ever got up to the 13th floor. :P

i would definitely agree that the finney story was part of a fifties trend toward that yearning -- agreed it is manifest in many twilight zones... but i would suggest that that it's began to build since the '50s and hasn't gone away -- now the more pragmatic people just talk about living off the grid instead of dreaming of life on another planet, or the way it used to be. :)

hi patty! thanks for posting a discussion link... i didn't actually think anybody would pay attention -- i just wanted to share.

i love that story. it was written in 1957 but it still feels very fresh to me (except for the cash denominations) probably because i relate so well to the alienation that the main character feels, the yearning for something a little simpler, and a lot happier.

hi skipper! I love you! I think adrian might be in Tampa! unless he is not! you will be happy to hear we talked about balls and poop quizzes and wondered what you would take it! you were definitely with us tonight! and the hugs will be extra good on your account!w can't remember Lauren due date...? is it December? love you guys even when you talk about sports and I don't understand what you're talking about! mo/xo

hello my lovelies! jean-paul and patty went to bed about a half hour ago. I have been reading jean-paul's poems in an anthology he was eatured in... Catullus and brautigan are also in it so he has good company. : ) tonight we went to their local pub for dinner and then came back here and chatted. we talked about dork 2013 and of course I was all for Kentucky and then patty reminded me Jennie told us its too hot in summer in Kentucky. then patty mentioned the only really affordable big vacation houses she ran across last year were in good old Washington and also northern California...which piqued my interest and we wondered who wou d take up the planning baton this year. it's too bad that the skipper hasn't had a chance to add the bunkhouse at his property yet but I guess he's busy what with the wife son one on the way plus a little something called another successful novel and his crazy tour schedule.: P maybe adrian should plan one in Florida for us. I know he'd love an opportunity to feed me to some gators. : )

my apologies for sloppy Joe message I am typing on my phone and I'm not very good at it : ). wish you were here!
smarty, I hope you enjoyed your beer... maybe you read something licentious?
p.s. Jennie Jennie! I still haven't got a replacement after my camera died but I will see if patty will let me carry hers around!

i worry about how sporadic notifications in goodreads can be -- if you haven't set it to give you email notifications it's even more spotty. i'd recommend that hugh or dan send a message via goodreads to the people who said they wanted to read big sleep to firm things up (or not)...

just my 4 cents. :)

sorry, steelwhisper, i haven't read it. i had a look through my goodreads friends, and two have read it but their reviews were short. i'm guessing you've already done a web search but i stumbled upon this -- which might help? or not?

http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static...

another idea might be to look at the general reviews on the site for any recent and thorough reviews and post a comment there. i'm sure there are a lot of people who would be happy to be engaged in a book they just read! :) good luck!

since i'm not american, i wasn't watching the debates but apparently romney would love this article fitzgerald proposed -- or at least that's what my twitter feed seems to be telling me. ;P

poor scott fitzgerald. i'm here to rag on him a bit. today i happened upon this article about a famous photo of him, zelda, and little scottie:

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/07/f-sco...

the point of the article was to prove the provenance of the photo, and they included some telegrams fitzgerald sent to his agent while he was staying in the hotel where the photo was taken.

being a curious george, i read the telegrams and was both amused and horrified to find this:

"would post be interested in article titled QUOTE sissy america UNQUOTE embodying the idea of too much woman education and general ineffectually [sic] of male in any line except business STOP not proposing any remedy nor putting any blame anywhere but on the man for letting control slip from his hands yet a bitter and sensational arrainment [sic] of contemporary male STOP

he goes on to say that he is "so absorbed in the idea" that he thinks he'll write it regardless of whether the post is interested -- he realizes it "is at variance with their current policy" -- whatever that might have been -- maybe to respect women's rights? not to accept unsolicited articles? :P

his agent encourages him to write it, saying he was "sure that the article will not scare the Post as much as the idea did."

oh, fitzgerald. while i love your novels, i was so igged out by the racism i found in some of the stories in "tales from the jazz age", and now this even/despite/because? you were married to a strong woman!

hey hugh: there's already a big sleep thread from the previous group read... did you want a new one, or maybe we could just change the title of the thread to indicate it's all encompassing?

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

also, i am still very keen on reading the long goodbye as a group read so if you guys get done with the big sleep and feel like doing some comparative chandler, let me know, okay?

missing you guys like crazy. i'm glad you were talking about us skipper... makes me feel closer to everyone. :)

i keep forgetting to mail your shirts -- this week for sure! and since i am not going to see you at all on any part of this tour, i'm really glad i'm going to go visit patty and jean-paul in just under two weeks! hurray!

love to you all from me, mo :)

good idea! hello! :)

i'm glad you like his floppy hair too, and i am not the only one! in lecture two it is clearly refusing to part properly. i also like watching him trying to dart around the quotes on the screen, and when he's obviously reading a page off screen and we can a sliver of his head. :P

he's not going to delve into the nasty bits? i thought he warned us he was going to, and people better make sure they are coming up... i suppose it's unavoidable when oedipus is coming down the pipe. i hope when we get to ovid he does my favourite tereus, procne, and philomela. i'd almost qualify that as my first favourite horror story. everybody is psycho!

starting to read my odyssey today so i am ready for next week. did you notice the link to the perseus project for reading texts online if you don't have the recommended. i like the online links are the classics translated by the classics. :)

skipper! glad you had an excellent birthday and are enjoying your tour! glad milwaukee was so kick ass. :)

there are a few more wishes in the happy birthday and other announcements threads for you...

i love a good toasted cheese sandwich. though i suppose i might like a grilled cheese more. only not made in a toaster. :)

adrian! did you know how much the skipper hates gene simmons? it's well documented! i hope you did and were trying to wind him up... :P

i would just like to point out that adrian is naughty and that is a fake certificate. they are only doling out the quizzes once a week!!

martha!!!! hurray!!! i am so excited you have joined us! i don't have the fagles on hand but i have four others, so i figure i can wing it. i'm actually stubbornly refusing to get any of the recommended translations and am going to get through with what i've got. our dear mr. mendax above sent me a translation of the metamorphosis i've never read so i'm going to use that and my beloved rolfe humphries.

i do seem to have misplaced my copy of hesiod theogony, so i'm going to have to ferret one out. :)

but yay! hurray! and how awesome that emonk remembered birthdays and myspace. i was just visiting there the other day. i'm so glad i can go back and visit though sometimes i try to click on dewey's links and then i get sad that there's nothing there. but a quick trip back to my profile comments always cheers me right up. i will keep that profile until they pry it from my cold dead internet connection. :)

love love love you all!

i just signed up for ancient greeks in march and am tempted by the video game course, and a few lit ones. i am going to be rolling in online course certificates (not that i have the time for all these which is why i'm trying to resist. :P)

but if you take the quizzes you can compete with me! i just got 19.6 out of 20! top that, adrian of syracuse? smyrna? thermopylae? :P

professor struck doesn't seem as struck by milman parry as i was, which is disappointing. he doesn't even mention him. he also says "par-tick-ular" but i do enjoy a professor with floppy hair! :)

you guys! dan and i are taking a course in greek and roman mythology/literature for free online at coursera! you should join us!

https://class.coursera.org/mythology-...

it doesn't look like it will be too onerous, especially if you have read the texts before (i'm looking at you adrian and neil. :) if you don't, i think i've nearly convinced dan that we should start a classics corner thread/area where we can talk about epic and ancients, and kick ass classics. now i am going to go listen to my instructor's first video lecture again. i'm loving this guy so far! :)

hey patty:

is it really unethical? this kind of thing is never limited to ebooks, it happens with print too. there are lots of content that's out in the public domain that gets published by other publishers and packagers and sold, and to suggest that it's unethical for ebook publications to be sold sort of implies that you're willing to pay for packaging, but not for words, doesn't it? if the text is available online in a free format, at say project gutenberg, i'd suggest as much as i love gutenberg, i've never found their offering eminently readable. so if B&N has formatted the pages of this book in their own (potentially more user-friendly -- i haven't used a Nook, so i don't know) and decided to sell it for 17.75, i don't really see it as different from anything else. i know one of the hot button debates regarding ebooks lately is price point. are you suggesting that the price point is unethical?