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

Traveller’s comments from the On Paths Unknown group.

A. wrote: "I have a very weird theory about this story. I could be totally off-base here, but this is what I got out of it. The most significant points of the story for me are these:
1) After reading The Yell..."

Yes, fascinating theory in its intricate detail! Thank you for posting it!

The narrator alone still recognizes "him" from his pre-Death appearance..."

Hmm, okay, so you are saying he is now dead?

There are 2 things that I'd like to point out though:

Firstly, I don't see where there are any clues that anything points to Jesus specifically. Yes, indeed there is the statement about the Living God; and that could indeed be a reference to the Christian God, but the story doesn't specifically say.

Secondly, reading the play makes you insane, it doesn't kill you; so what the narrator is telling us could all be a manifestation of his insanity.

I do agree with you that the insanity definitely manifests around religion, though, and to me it seems to indicate the kind of living hell you would live in if your religion ceased to bring you the comfort and protection you had always felt it had given you in the past.

Oh btw! If you like biography and always wanted to know a bit more about the lead-up to WWI, this one is not too bad: George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I Miranda Carter.
Just saying...

Thanks!
Ruth, you mentioned that you're still reading Europe by Norman Davies, which reminded me that I'm still reading The Penguin History of the United States of America and People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn; and in those books are also mention of the slavery issues.

In referral to the thread where Ruth mentioned Europe by Norman Davies:

Ruth wrote: "Yup, that's the one, and I will finish it. Grrrr...."

Ruth, Goodreads is driving me nuts. I have that book; have had it for a long time, but never considered reading from start to finish; more as just a reference book. ...but now you're making me think... if I read it, probably I won't have to read much else on Europe ever again.... @_@ errrr... hmm, and Norman Davies is a well-respected historian... but then there's also so many other thick tomes on Russia, for example, that I already own, and.... *pulls some hair out*

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "You get so used to your territories, right? My brother is a smart guy, and we have wonderful discussions and debates on all manner of things, but things like this are just generally my realm and no..."

You never know, maybe he's met somebody with a deep interest in Nordic mythology? ;)

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Very, very fishy! And let me just tell you, VANDERMEER IS NOT HELPING ME! I had to go and expand my 'octopi' shelf to include squid, darn him! And look at that real world history of ambergris! (It looks like it might not even be good, but there's nothing else like it, so now I have to read it. Argh!) ..."

Oh boy... now I'll probably want to read it too... :s

Yolande wrote: "I've seen a mention of "Killer Whales, Seaworld and the truth beyond Blackfish". I usually stay away from such books because I just know the content is going to be upsetting. Same kind of thing as ..."

I totally agree with this; dolphins are my fave animals and I physically hurt when witnessing vids of whales being harpooned.

Heh, that sounds like me. I also like to have fic and non-fic going at the same time.

Martin Lake thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Did you want a thread for "history"? I suppose I shld make one, huh? Ok, will shortly.

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Our lists, oh goodness. I am currently trying to decide which nonfiction to attack next year. I am thinking of taking just one of my shelves and making a dent in it next year, and I'm currently lea..."

You list looks fishy to me! :D There's something fishy going on here. XD

Ruth wrote: "You are!

Not until next year, please. I'm still mired in Europe, Norman Davies' 1350-something-page tome."

Ah yes, I know exactly the one you mean :Europe, eh? Well good luck to you, reading that from start to finish: I just peck. :)

Well, we could always use it just as a starting point, eh? ...and now I have made the thread about your book, Ruth, so no you have zero excuse not to read it and come discuss with us, har har har, I'm so evil. XD

Heh, currently I am trying my best not to get mixed up between the Berlin Group, the Vienna Circle, and the Frankfurt School.
Oh, why so many Germans! :P

Due to some member feedback, I started a new folder for non-fiction here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Okay, started a thread for the slavery thing here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Started a thread for the feminism thing here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Started a thread for general non-fiction reading here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Copying and pasting a reply to Ruth:
Hmm, oh, I realize you won't know this, but on another group which has members here as well, we discussed doing Dworkin's Pornography: Men Possessing Women as part of a feminist project. Other parts of the project included The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography by Angela Carter, The Second Sex/de Beauvoir on de Sade by Simone de Beauvoir.

I'm lazy since I have a really crappy KB to work with and not lots if time, so I basically just copied and pasted the whole thread where this started:


by Traveller:

Hm, interesting that you want to do The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870. I have that and have read some of it for a project. You might also be interested in ... grr, okay, I can't find it now, but if you want to get the full lowdown on slavery, you need to be aware that it's far wider than just the Atlantic slave trade, and you might be very surprised to see how many whites were also trapped into virtual slavery in America and real slavery elsewhere.

message 16: by Traveller (last edited 19 hours, 8 min ago)
19 hours, 11 min ago

Ruth wrote: "Yeah, I've been reading tons of stuff on 'modern day' slavery, which is why I chose this book (besides it being super cheap at a fire sale); I felt I needed background to the current day.
..."

Fire-sale, LOL. Well, I read up a lot about US immigrant history for a project on challenges that immigrants are faced with and how cultural prejudices form, and it is shocking how groups like for example the poor amongst the Irish and Italians were "indentured" into slavery in the 1800's (and possibly before?), although I suppose that's not really news as far as Europe in general is concerned, what with how the feudal system was structured in most places, so I was more referring to historical 'systemic' slavery.

Keep in mind also, that slavery went back to ancient times, as you of course know, (but it's easy to forget where everywhere and how it was practiced).

Hmm, maybe we should make a thread for discussion of the topic in general - there's lots of reading to be discussed in that regard.

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message 17: by Amy (Other Amy)
18 hours, 47 min ago

Ruth wrote: "My list is skewed to non-fiction only because they were more balanced but I keep making up excuses to read the non-fiction. Any help to rectify greatly appreciated."

No help from me; I'm going in the opposite direction :) I'm trying to decide whether to read everything off my marine biology section next year, or everything off my volcano shelf. I'm leaning toward marine biology.

Re: modern slavery (this is not an exact fit, but I want to mention it), modern Civil Rights also folds into this. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an article about reparations for US slavery a while back (which I have not read), making the argument that the current issue is the continued way in which the descendants of slaves have been held behind economically and kept from having an equal footing (in being disbarred from Social Security and other benefits; the exact specifics escape me). I read his Between the World and Me this year and it was very good.

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message 18: by Ruth
17 hours, 41 min ago

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Ruth wrote: "My list is skewed to non-fiction only because they were more balanced but I keep making up excuses to read the non-fiction. Any help to rectify greatly appreciated."

No help from me; ...
Re: ...Ta-Nehisi Coates "

Great article, despite its length, lol. If you don't have time for it, try to catch interviews on, for example, NPR or WNYC.

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message 19: by Amy (Other Amy)
16 hours, 53 min ago

Ruth wrote: "Great article, despite its length, lol. If you don't have time for it, try to catch interviews on, for example, NPR or WNYC. "

Excellent to know, Ruth. I will make a space for it eventually for sure.

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message 20: by Ruth
14 hours, 10 min ago

Oh, and speaking of slavery, human trafficking and all that, these articles just appeared in CSMonitor:http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Topics...

Ruth's list:
: by Ruth
Nov 09, 2015 10:33AM

Not sure how I should write up this list. It won't be pretty like yours, Traveller. Anyway, here goes:

The march of folly by Barbara Tuchman
Civilization of the Middle Ages by Norman Cantor
The broken mirror by Phillips
The slave trade by Hugh Thomas
Women who run with wolves by clarissa Pinkola Estes
Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman
An intimate history of humanity by Theodore Zeldin
Pornography by Andrea Dworkin
A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking

There, that's a start.

Right, we seem to have established that our group contains many readers who have non-fic TBR piles as well.

Let's post our non-fic piles here, and we may find ones that co-incide!
We might also want to use this folder for discussions on things like human rights and slavery, etc, as we had started to in some of the other threads.

What I'm currently reading on the non-fic front:

What Is This Thing Called Science? byAlan F. Chalmers

The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Introduction

Understanding Philosophy of Science

A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science

There are more, but I'm still working my way through that. I don't tend to read books like these from start to finish, which is why, more often than not, I won't officially mark them as "read".

Wow on both counts. Pretty mature work there for a 14-year old!

And wow for posting about the Dylan Thomas poem (a personal fave of mine, btw) in relation to the movie, which I will now make a point of viewing - thanks so much, Yolande!

You people really are a wonderful group of people gathered around here, you know..... sometimes it makes my heart swell in gratitude that we all found one another. :):) <3

Yes, well, I was wondering, since they're both composers and since of course Wagner was the one known for The Nibelungen. I also wondered if Dvorak was combined with that association because a lot of his music has to do with folksongs and folklore, as you also pointed out in your post.

But there might also be biographical details I was unaware of.

Hey, when are we going to do the Martin Lake story? (It's a good one - oops, and I still wanted to comment on Dradin some more, but been confined to a laptop with crappy kb for a while).

I've noticed (I think?) that you're somewhat of a restless spirit like myself -jumps around from book to book...? I tend to start feeling caged in if I stay with one at a time too long... :P

I've been renting Fortitude, so I'm guessing I would be far behind anyone else.

"Selectively ambitious"! I love it!