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

Traveller’s comments from the On Paths Unknown group.

Okay then, members please; I know it's a bit of extra trouble, but I keep posting the link so that all you have to do, is to click on the link:
Film to be discussed here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Okay, the general gang have given the okay to move a bit faster with this: we can discuss the first chapter in detail here, and then we can move on to later chapters by the weekend, by which time some of us will be watching the film, so that we can also add our 2c about that. I think that in order to avoid spoilers for those who are not able to see the movie yet, we should rather comment on the film here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... I don't know if I'm being over-cautious with that?

Okay you guys are all on! We've already tentatively started discussing it in the opening thread here : https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
- and just to make sure we don't run away too far from the rest of the people, let's stick to no further than general first impressions and chapter one there for now, and then we can maybe move on from there on around Saturday or Sunday. (I know Derek reads fast, so he'll catch up, won't you, Derek?)

I think I'll try and go see the film around Sunday afternoon maybe, hoping there would be less crowds than the evening show or earlier in the weekend. I just hope not everybody else are going to have the same thoughts ... but I feel pretty sure that there's going to be camping in front of the cinema doors for the premiere. They're already saying :"Booking essential".

I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't move the start of our The Martian discussion up to a bit sooner? Has everyone got it yet? Surely, with Martian fever running high?

How about October 4 or 5?

Thanks Annelien! :)

@Yolande: B-)

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deleted user wrote: " I just think this Goodreads is a hoax, and if I were a blogger, I would write: I read everything. I don't shelve books I can't read, don't feel entitled to write reviews on books that obviously were targeted for someone other than me (wish everyone felt the same -- I sound like I'm patting myself on the back ..."

Well, way back, almost 10 years ago when GR started off, it was cool - it really was a place for readers and booklovers to convene. It's only when we were sold out to our capitalist masters that it became facereads, and we became just so many more workers in Amazon's sweatshops.

So, I agree with many of your sentiments - the only problem being that I for one, did make a break from GR and tried to find other similar sites, but there unfortunately is nothing like this out there, and some of them are even more commercialized than this is... so.... basically they have us by the tender nether parts, to use your own terminology.... :(

Okay, maybe I should just add Bleak House to the bookshelf then. I am still afraid though, because it's BIG. But maybe if we tackle it together, it will become less daunting, just as i made it through Foucault's Pendulum with the help of friends, and who knows, American Gods might also become more appetizing if tackled with friends. :))

Slightly less depressed now, thank you, Yolande! :)

Now I'm feeling depressed. :(

....aaaanyway.... as for Dan Simmons, I see mainly nature chatter? http://www.dansimmons.com/news/messag...

deleted user wrote: " It is disconcerting, and embarrassing, to have spoken well of a book, a writer, and then find out they've said or done something really, really utterly stupid. I think in some ways, some of them might be idiot savants. Maybe they can write a book, but can't live in the world? I don't understand it, myself. ..."

You know, that exact same thing has happened to me - many times. It actually hurts to see the writer of something you loved, attacked, doesn't it? I'm wondering if we perhaps don't set too high standards for our writers. They're just human, after all.

Eh what? Where did Nell go all of a sudden? :(

Sad to see you go, Nell. I hope you'll be back sometime. :|

deleted user wrote: "Oh, I understand completely. He's said some really reprehensible things. And seriously, I wasn't talking to you or about you. I'm just, well, you know. It's too bad all writers aren't dead, you..."

I know exactly what you mean! Sometimes you wonder if it was really the same person who wrote the book you just read. It's a bit easier when it comes to music or painting or sculpture, because arts other than writing don't as clearly carry opinions with them.

Nell wrote: "I'm familiar with the essays. I simply am not interested in being a PC reader. ..."

Okay, let me clear something up... it's not about being PC. It's just that I, as a person, dislike Jonathan Franzen as a person. If he stood in front of me now, I would probably not give him the time of day. That does not mean that I would not read his books or even that I would let my personal dislike interfere with how I read his work.

The fact that Mozart might have acted like an idiot in his personal life, does not change the way I perceive his music. I might not personally like Sarah Brightman, but if I did not, that would not change the fact that I think she has one helluva voice and can sing beautifully. In fact, most great artists were actually dickheads in their personal lives. I still greatly admire their works though.

Does that make any sense ?

Personally I would spit in Jonathan's eye for saying that Edith Wharton was ugly - and in any case, I think she was not. As if he is such a handsome chap. He obviously thinks he is, but he's not to me, and that is just a personal opinion, and has nothing whatsoever to do with his work, just the same way as what Edith Wharton looked like, has absolutely zero to do with -her- work. Well, that's just my opinion, anyway.

There were a few other things said in essays as well, as well as some sexist writing in Freedom that just rubbed me up the wrong way, and again - that is something subjective and personal to myself. That does not mean I am not prepared to give his other work a chance. ;)

Jennifer wrote: "I know we Americans are kinda bonkers....but don't mess with those Constitutional Rights dude. And we go to extremes, look at our gun issue.

I bought a book from an Indian Author because he was g..."

Let me not.... let me rather walk a wide circle, because those are two highly flammable issues... (guns and religion).

I find both those issues very frustrating at times, but let me just.... :x

Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Simmons, otoh, seems to be having an off decade. There's nobody stopping the rants on his website's forum, and Flashback is widely criticized as anti-Islamic...."

Ugh, that's such a pity. Nevertheless, I still want to finish my half-done reading of Drood. I highly doubt that he would have managed to slip in anything anti-Islamic on a book about Victorian writers. You never know, but I'll take the chance... ;)

Also, now I'm actually curious to read Flashback.

Jennifer wrote: "I wish I hadn't learned that..:( ..."

Ugh, then I shouldn't have said it. I have a friend(s) who act like the anti-Islam police, and they do tend to exaggerate things, so let's just pretend we never heard about that.

More likely than not, Simmons just had an off-moment. We all get those...

Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Traveller wrote: "Yes, the Americans have a knack for making thing appear bigger than anywhere else in the world. XD "
They do, but I disagree wholly with the implication. In this case, Americans ..."

I was only partly being facetious. I wholly agree that it is a good thing that they speak up against the attempts.

Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "ooh! From wikipedia's article on British censorship: "Last Exit to Brooklyn, a 1964 novel by American author Hubert Selby, Jr. was subject of a private prosecution in 1966."
I have ..."

Sounds interesting.

Yes, the Americans have a knack for making thing appear bigger than anywhere else in the world. XD

Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Traveller wrote: "Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens were friends(/rivals) - and if you're interested, their lives are dealt with in an interesting way in the novel Drood by Dan Simmons. "

Really?..."

I enjoy his style but he's been accused of being anti-Islam, and they may be right...

The part of the monkey myth that was not true, was the idea that at a certain point, a piece of knowledge or behavior would become a "racial trait" of all the monkeys without it having to be learned from other monkeys.

The part that is true, is that the behavior -did- become part of that species' behavior through it being communicated from tribe to tribe and then from generation to generation. So at least part of it is true - it's just a more mundane truth than what was originally reported. :P