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

Traveller’s comments from the On Paths Unknown group.

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Traveller wrote: ":)
This bit reminded me strongly of how I felt trying to get from the first page of the first section of The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, to ..."

Ouch, $2100 - I think I'll just stick with my B&W copy, thanks! I did finally get through Benji's bit, but then I had to move on to other reading. Been meaning to get back to it ever since...

I think I got Icelandic because I've been watching the TV show Fortitude. :P

Anyway, so how about we keep up to end of chapter 4 in this thread, and then start Chapter 5 to end of chapter 9 or 10 in a next thread?

Anyway, it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Let's start off by commenting on poor old prof Uzzi-Tuzii confined to the cleaning closet in the dusty corner :D , and Ludmilla's hi-jinx.

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.

:)
This bit reminded me strongly of how I felt trying to get from the first page of the first section of The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, to the last page of Benji's section.

And so you see this novel so tightly interwoven with sensations suddenly riven by bottomless chasms, as if the claim to portray vital fullness revealed the void beneath.
You try jumping over the gap, picking up the story by grasping the edge of the prose that comes afterward, jagged like the margin of the pages separated by the paper knife.
You can't get your bearings: the characters have changed, the settings, you don't understand what it's about, you find names of people and don't know who they are-

Btw, shout when we need to make a new thread. :)

Shall we discuss the Icelandic bits here as well? (I assumed it was Iceland, anyway, maybe I'm wrong there - the bits with Gritzvi? ..or is it Cimmeria? The setting seemed Icelandic to me, in any case.)

Linda wrote: "I'm old enough, and studying languages, came across that on more than one occasion. Somewhat of a hassle, and those editions were usually not done on the best quality paper, anyway!."

The incident I mention was less than 10 years ago! :O I wish I can remember which book it was....

Ruth wrote: "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 br..."

Thanks!
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.

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.

Thanks Helen. :)

@ Amy- would you believe that I was one of those treebook die-hards for a few months when e-readers hit the market; I agreed with people who said Never! I love my treebooks! ...and now I have hundreds of e-books and never will I look back again...

As for the actual cutting of the pages - it has happened to me before that a brand-new book I bought had all the pages still connected to one another. Cutting the whole book's pages apart would have been quite a time-consuming task! (Not to mention, would have probably had an untidy result...)

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Curiously, the struggles with real world books also distance me quite noticeably from the Reader, as on an ereader I would not have had his 'shops aren't open' problem. (This is not a complaint, just an observation on my reaction as I read.)..."

Well, before e-books appeared, and even now with them, I have always adored book stores, and will still easily spend hours in them given the chance. Also, the adventures in the bookstores (except for the bits about the books being incorrectly bound - but even those could happen in a library), could all conceivably happen in a library. So I felt very amused.

I had to laugh at the legions of books assaulting the reader, you know, he makes it sound like military maneuvers, and honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm doing tactical maneuvers to try and deal with the onslaught of that intimidating TBR pile...

but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too. Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress, where other troops are holding out: the Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages, the Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success, the Books Dealing With Something You're Working On At The Moment, the Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case, the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer, the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves, the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified.

Linda wrote: "Ruth wrote: "No, but my wife read it in French, which has similar properties. I'll try to remember to ask her about that."

Thanks! It would be. It´ll be interesting to see if English-speaking read..."

I suspect we would be. We lose out a lot not only WRT the Romance languages, but with Japanese t/lations as well.

Divine, thanks, Linda!
The pineapple cheesecake you mention makes me think of the banana-pinapple merangue which i need to have as a banana lemon merangue instead because I'm sadly slightly allergic to pinapples.

Linda wrote: "Orange blossom cheesecake with walnuts and cloves in the crust and pomegranate-raspberry sauce?"

OOOOOOOHH! Ouch ouch ouch, is that a real thing? If so, that would really destroy all my good dieting intentions... it might be even worse if we substituted the raspberry with strawberry... it sounds completely heavenly!

Jennifer wrote: "I had the most amazing piece of pistachio cheesecake 2 weeks ago."

Yum, pistachio would also work - how about blueberry pistachio cheesecake or strawberry almond cheesecake? ;)

Ruth wrote: "About 2/3 non-fiction (trying to get educated). "

I completely sympathise. I read so much non-fiction this year that I seriously fell behind with my intended fiction reading.

Do report back on your non-fic reading; maybe we should make a non-fic thread in which we can mention what we've been reading on that front.

Puddin Pointy-Toes wrote: "/me snatches a few brownies, gleefully nibbling on them, until he notices CHEESECAKE!

I feel very welcome indeed!"

I sneaked the cheesecake part in after Derek posted. Sorry Derek, but remembered I love blueberry cheesecake more than blueberry pie... *slurp*

Linda wrote: "So there´s something to be said for those moderators who know how to make everyone feel welcome."

*Lays out the coffee table with some Black Forest cake, Pecan Nut Brownies and Blueberry Cheesecake Pie.*
What would y'all like - there's tea, coffee, homebrewed ginger beer, tropical punch, lemonade cranberry cooler ; anything else you would prefer? :)

Maybe I just immersed myself more strongly in my role as "Reader" than the two of you did. :D I was really seeing myself as Reader and preening my feathers up to that moment that the text says: "You can leave the bookshop content, you, a man..." :P
That's where that aspect of the experiment ended for me, and Reader became, like Cecily said, just one of the characters instead of a hypothetical "me"; which is how Calvino might have intended it all along, but if he had really intended for the reader to identify with Reader, that was the point where he lost me. Note that he keeps age, status and profession open still, though, so I suppose for males it would still work at this point.

Cecily wrote: "Very much so, but it also becomes a book about writing.."

Ah, yes, that it is too, of course; he does those bits more in the parts where he tells the "story", right?

Yolande wrote: "I suppose because I am not a lesbian, for that kind of thing I usually assume the author is assuming that the reader is male. .."

I assume he is, and don't you find that with that, he excludes probably half his readership? I'm used to "being a man" when I game - having to be one when I read novels as well, feels like a bit much. :P

I imagine, though, that part of what Calvino conveys with the little romantic intrigue, is how literature becomes something shared between readers of it.

How do the straight/bi females (ok, let's not discriminate against our lesbian readers, you too!)... let me rephrase - how do the female and gay readers among you feel about him assuming that you, Reader, will be attracted to a Young Lady! :P

Ok, this is not an outing session - let's include everybody here; males and females of all orientations - I don't know, I'm just saying that he's assuming a lot, eh?