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

Traveller’s comments from the On Paths Unknown group.

Matt wrote: " is called Earth Platinum, an atlas with only 128 pages..."

Now that is what I call a BIG book.....

Yolande wrote: "I want to share here that I have been saving up to get this book, the penguin classics edition of Coleridge's complete poems - The Complete Poems.
So, the Amazon kindle edition is ..."

Wow, what a bargain eh? If I may ask, what is special about this specific version - the notes?]

Yolande, I wonder if your ebook version is as messed up as they say the Kindle version is? Apparently the formatting is bad.

Oh, that suits me very well! I'll come back to it myself this coming weekend then. :)

I thought that if I'm going to re-read HOD, i may as well do it properly and so i got the Norton critical edition of it. That means it will take me a bit longer to read, so i may only catch up with this in about a week's time, due to work and other reading.

I really need to catch up on my American po-mo writers. De Lillo, DFW, Mitchell, Coover, etc.

Alex, there's a green link above the "posting" box....

Ah yes, we are reading 3 Moments of an Explosion on Mievillians in January, eh gang? I have been remembering about that, don't worry!

That's why I initially left a bit of a space in January on this group here, but forgetting Smilla's Sense of Snow in the initial schedule messed that one up. Still, we'll manage.... :P

Wonderful stuff- you've obviously been busy! :)
Will join in later if I can get through all my other reading in time...

Well, steampunk and cyberpunk have a lot to do with setting and theme as well, and fiction can definitely be placed in such a setting if the author goes to all the trouble of mentioning steampunk technology as part of his-or-her worldbuilding, and Vandermeer does, less so cyberpunk than steampunk - though I don't have time right now to point to the specific bits. All in all the world has a rather more organic feel to me than either of those as a primary setting. It doesn't have to actually play completely centerpiece to the story to still be said to have those elements, though. Especially in our postmodern age, fiction tends to cross over genres.

Interesting to note, is that both steampunk and cyberpunk can be divided into a bunch of subgenres.

It's probably not primarily steam-or cyberpunk, agreed, especially since the author himself places it into the genre of "new-weird" but there definitely is a flavor of both. Also interesting to note is that Vandermeer and his wife are both steampunk enthusiasts, and have published/edited some work on/in the genre.

Oh, and as a work of fantasy, this would fall into low/urban fantasy.

Linda wrote: "votes in the House and the Senate"

Ha ha ha!

Well, Bret Easton Ellis does that on purpose to satirize the extreme obsession with the material aspects of wealth as well as the image-consciousness, of postmodern consumerist society, but one literally cannot read it all, you mentally say: "Ok, I get the point!" and skim to the end of it when he puts up such a wall of text.

I can't help wondering how he managed to write all of that....

Linda wrote: ""Galileo's Daughter". .."
Thanks for that endorsement. I've had that book for a long time, tho it was not high on my priority list. Up it goes! :)

Linda wrote: "It might communicate the drudgery of life in those times (something that people who romanticize it forget about),.."

Oh, yes, I agree, and I got that, but the book is just so full of drudgery! Pages and pages of it, no? I mean, maybe people in the 24th century would be bored to follow every single day of a 21st century person going to the toilet, to the shower, watch them brush their teeth, get their coat, walk to the bus stop, catch the bus, catch the train, walk to the door, go up the elevator/escalator, greet all their colleagues, walk to their desk, log into their PC... you get the idea.

Heh, though writing the above, I realized that American Psycho actually does just that!
(view spoiler)[ "get up I slip on a paisley ancient madder robe and walk to the bathroom. I urinate while trying to make out the puffiness of my reflection in the glass that encases a baseball poster hung above the toilet. After I change into Ralph Lauren monogrammed boxer shorts and a Fair Isle sweater and slide into silk polka-dot Enrico Hidolin slippers I tie a plastic ice pack around my face and commence with the morning's stretching exercises. Afterwards I stand in front of a chrome and acrylic Washmobile bathroom sink – with soap dish, cup holder, and railings that serve as towel bars, which I bought at Hastings Tile to use while the marble sinks I ordered from Finland are being sanded – and stare at my reflection with the ice pack still on. I pour some Plax antiplaque formula into a stainless-steel tumbler and swish it around my mouth for thirty seconds. Then I squeeze Rembrandt onto a faux-tortoiseshell toothbrush and start brushing my teeth (too hung over to floss properly – but maybe I flossed before bed last night?) and rinse with Listerine. Then I inspect my hands and use a nailbrush. I take the ice-pack mask off and use a deep-pore cleanser lotion, then an herb-mint facial masque which I leave on for ten minutes while I check my toenails. Then I use the Probright tooth polisher and next the Interplak tooth polisher (this in addition to the toothbrush) which has a speed of 4200 rpm and reverses direction forty-six times per second; the larger tufts clean between teeth and massage the gums while the short ones scrub the tooth surfaces. I rinse again, with Cepacol. I wash the facial massage off with a spearmint face scrub. The shower has a universal all-directional shower head that adjusts within a thirty-inch vertical range. It's made from Australian gold-black brass and covered with a white enamel finish. In the shower I use first a water-activated gel cleanser, then a honey-almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Vidal Sassoon shampoo is especially good at getting rid of the coating of dried perspiration, salts, oils, airborne pollutants and dirt that can weigh down hair and flatten it to the scalp which can make you look older. The conditioner is also good – silicone technology permits conditioning benefits without weighing down the hair which can also make you look older. On weekends or before a date I prefer to use the Greune Natural Revitalizing...." (hide spoiler)] and so it goes on for pages! ROFLOL...

But Ellis is doing that to make a point of course, a point that a 24th century person might not appreciate....

This is the kind of filler that I find boring:

(view spoiler)[ "When they got to the kitchen area they found that Brother Bernard, who was in charge of the bakehouse, was making bread today. Because his helpers were all working on the site, he was carrying firewood for himself. He was a young man, but rather fat, and he was puffing and sweating under a load of logs. “We’ll fetch your wood, Brother,” Jack offered.

Bernard dumped the load beside his oven and handed Jack the broad, flat basket. “There’s good children,” he panted. “God will bless you.” Jack took the basket and the two of them ran to the firewood pile behind the kitchen. They loaded the basket with logs, then carried the heavy load between them. When they got back the oven was already hot, and Bernard emptied their basket directly onto the fire and sent them back for more. Jack’s arms ached but his stomach hurt more, and he hurried to load the basket again. The second time they returned Bernard was putting tiny loaves of dough on a tray.

“Fetch me one more basket, and you shall have hot buns,” he said. Jack’s mouth watered. They filled the basket extra high the third time, and staggered back, each holding one handle. As they approached the courtyard they met Alfred, walking with a bucket, presumably on his way to fetch water from the channel that ran from the millpond...etc. etc. etc." (hide spoiler)]

Welll... to be quite honest honest, it's one of those books that focused on the moment in such minute and boring detail that I skimmed most of it, and even so, didn't finish it in the end... (So Kudos to you!) But the point I was making about it, is that, well, if one makes up your own characters in a book like that, it's kind of less of an affront to history than when, for example, you completely change the parentage of people like members of Julius Ceasar's family like they did in the HBO show Rome. (Or if you do like Phillipa Gregory does).

(What does she call it? "Making history more interesting" or something like that.)

Ah, yes, and building and stonemasonry, I'm sure... You can never know enough Spanish builder's terminology!

Linda wrote: "Traveller wrote: "Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Traveller wrote: "Imagine trying to fictionalize all of that. I suppose one could yes, but honestly, I prefer the shorter route."

But that'..."

Heh heh heh - Ken Follet in Spanish! That sounds... interesting! ;D

Might be a plan to discuss Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad in reference to this story in it's own thread; here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I thought it might be a good idea to make a thread for this, since we started referring to it in the Dradin threads, and it is a book which in itself merits a lot of discussion.

Alex wrote: "Hear hear ... there are very few books I would flat out refuse to consider - but zombies - well lets say the book would have to be mind blowing"

Or brain-sucking? :D

@Paul & @Alex:
Btw! ...so did you see I added The Chimes to our reading schedule for beginning of Feb 2016? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... Also FYI, Paul. I should probably send out a newsletter linking to that schedule.

Oops, and Alex, I didn't advertise it because it was a stalled discussion come to life again, but if you still want to do City of Saints and Madmen, we are in a wild discussion of it over here : https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and a general thread here - or wait let me link to the folder and you can pick a thread if you like: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Traveller wrote: "Imagine trying to fictionalize all of that. I suppose one could yes, but honestly, I prefer the shorter route."

But that's not what good (OK, admittedly a very subjective word!) ..."

Ah, so if that's what people mean when they say a book is too dry, then I must remember that I like very dry books!
That doesn't mean that I don't like historical fiction as well, though, especially when a writer is writing about a period more than about a specific well-known character such as in The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

I definitely still want to read Mantel, and I kinda started reading McCullough but got sidetracked.

I really enjoyed watching the HBO Rome series except where they take liberties and completely change aspects of history. See, the latter is what I don't like - I don't mind if they add small fictional characters, but they mustn't change known facts - that drives me dilly! (Unless it's a deliberate alternate history like The Man in the High Castle.)

Linda wrote: "Sounds like a particularly charming chap...."

The one who gave his wife her parents? Indeed! In fact, his entire life story is very interesting. Sadly for me, and lucky for y'all, I can't fit all in here. XD