Traveller’s Comments (group member since Jan 14, 2015)

Traveller’s comments from the On Paths Unknown group.

I apologize for being a bit late for this one. I've started, and the aura of sophistication and subtle darkness/decay is reminding me a bit of the work of Tanith Lee, though her work is much more purple.

Will post a few more comments on the middle section here soon.
I've made this thread to the end of chapter 16 now, so that we can squeeze one more story in here!

Thanks, Stephen - that was my fault! I should be paying more attention to the discussion - sorry!

Thanks for sharing, Stephen!

I found the middle part of the book a bit awkward to comment on, since Calvino seems so critical against discussion groups in it! :P

But yes, high time for an ending spoiler thread.

You guys can post comments about the book as a whole and about the overarching ending here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hi people, for various reasons this book was rather awkward to comment on in media res, because of all the interruptions - one feels that surely these stories will all be continued later on...

...but in this thread, you can let rip! ;D

Guys, you are getting me all stoked here. Starting with this tonight! ^_^

Carmen wrote: "Found an excellent new book by Borges at the local Barnes and Noble: Professor Borges: A Course in English Literature. Its a transcription of lessons on English literature he gave during his time a..."

Thanks so much for that feedback, Carmen! I think I actually do (or did) have something similar to that lying around - or I saw it somewhere, but thought it would be really dry and uninteresting.
Thanks to your input I will make a point of picking it up when I see it again! :)

Yes, but The name of the Rose is a much easier read. I might be inclined to re-read it sometime - maybe with the group someday. :p

In the meantime, if you and Cecily feel like it, you could perhaps team up and tackle Foucault's Pendulum using this as momentum : https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

At least Derek and I would be sure to reply to any new posts made there. :)

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Completely. VanderMeer is killing me that way just because he bumps into so many things.

More Hume is perpetually on my to do list."

Please don't hate me for asking, Amy, but have you read much by Umberto Eco yet? :P
My intention is not to drive you nuts here (because, so much already).... I do apologize... *cough*.

Hume can be tricky, because sometimes it feels as if he contradicts himself; so in trying to decipher what he is saying, it is useful to keep in mind what he is arguing against.

Not that I am even close to being a Hume fundi - in fact, I have been thinking I should read more about/of Hume in-depth after often bumping into his writings contiguous to other things that would be to do with whatever my current obsession of the day would be. ;) (I think you of all people would know/understand what I mean by that.... @_@ )

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "
Traveller, I'm missing your point about Hume being an empiricist, I'm fraid. Care to expound? .."

Well, everybody has heard about, and now believes in Tlön and Uqbar, without actually have been there, without actually having experienced it firsthand.

That seems to me to be exactly what the inductivists are doing when they say: "Oh, look, here's a gold watch in the sand of this deserted island. There must have been a high form of civilization living here!", without actually verifying that induction first-hand; and this is exactly the kind of thing that Hume says we should not be doing. :)

Cecily wrote: "Hmm, but if he's "over-wrought and boring", I'm not sure what you're saying about me and my tastes!"

Well, not him, his style. What he says is eminently worthwhile; it's just how he says it that can sometimes be a problem. I'm pretty sure that CM would have read Derrida, for example.

May I recommend Introducing Derrida to you? I think it may be infinitely less painful than reading Derrida in the original, and you might find it pretty interesting! I personally find WHAT Derrida had to say at core very interesting. :)

It might be easier to read summaries of what Derrida said. If you enjoy Borges and books like Embassytown, I think you might actually appreciate what Derrida had to say! :)

Cecily wrote: "I've not read Hume or Derrida, so I can't comment there,... "

I suspect Amy might be using a roundabout way to hint that Derrida (and Borges!) tends to write in a boring manner. XD

I tend to agree, except that I'd say that Derrida is more emotional and over-wrought than Borges.

If you wonder how emotional and over-wrought can be boring, read Derrida! :D He tends to be pretty long-winded.

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "What jumped out at me in the onrushing wall of philosophy is the collapse of causality, which to the best of my recollection was Hume. (Sorry to say I didn't get the idealism discussion; my Hume is limited.) I also thought this was an indictment of relativistic thinking.
..."

Indeed: Hume attacked inductivism/assumptions of causation and one of the main points he brought to the table is that the future is uncertain and that therefore current knowledge is always at best uncertain, that our idea that nature and 'reality' is regular and uniform is an assumption at best, and that current knowledge can only be the best we can know in relation to the information we have already received. He points out that predictions based on past experience are no more than well-hedged bets - we can never predict with full certainty.

So, yeah, I'd agree that in many ways this story builds on Hume. That said, we need to remember that Hume was an Empiricist.

I was originally more looking forward to Finch, but I'm going to take your word on this one, Amy, and am therefore also looking forward to it! I'll start reading it full-steam on the 27th. :)

Oh good, I feel relieved at your reply. I've really had a lot going on in RL myself. As Murphy would have it, I knocked my leg while attempting a spectacular jump while trying to chase down my runaway dog ( a while back already (not broken thanks to weight-bearing sports, apparently)) - and knocked my shin-bone to glory and come, so hard that a bunch of the soft-tissue was literally knocked away, so I'm sitting with a hole in my leg that is healing faster on the outside than the inside, so I have to deal with daily visits to the clinic as well, just to top everything.

...and to top everything even more, someone broke my Kobo and my Kindle refuses to take new books. So now I'm reading on my phone. Fun.

At least my life never seems to get boring.... :P

Ah, yes, that sounds pretty Borgian also - referring to Borges' story The Circular Ruins.

Btw, some members have noticed that Shriek is on the list for 29 November, so I hope you're still in for that discussion, Amy. I'm writing two big exams, one on the 25th and one on the 27th, so I'll suddenly have lots more time after that.

Opening thread for Shriek. Readers can clock in here for us to say hi to one another and get our bearings before we start the actual discussion. So you can clock in here at any time before, on or after the due date, if you like.

Initial impressions of the book are welcome.

Heheh, I don't mind if you want to discuss this one too, but the artist in me loved the Martin Lake story.... :D