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

Traveller’s comments from the On Paths Unknown group.

Marita wrote: "Cecily, I read 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller' years ago and loved it. I still remember chuckling away as I read."

Why don't you join in on our November discussion of it?

Jennifer wrote: "I read The Drowned World and it was very cerebral. But I liked the world in was in.."

Looks very interesting, especially in view of the current climate change debate. Added it.;)

Linda wrote: "Will try to jump in here and there, as time allows. Beginning of semester rush, clubs, activities, plus a couple of laptop issues making re-entry a bit rough. "

Understood, Linda, (in fact, I know exactly what that feels like) so no pressure. :)

Chris! Long time no see. Welcome. Do chime in on the discussion - our discussions never die!

Shall we make a vague date to make a discussion of it sometime in 2016?
Oh, and while I have your attention - which is your favorite Murakami?

Jennifer wrote: "I just finished High-Rise. I am still not sure if I can say that I liked it. I feel kinda dirty. Like I have been with the worst kind of people and I can't get clean. I am surprised..."

Hi Jennifer! How nice to see you posting here. :) Oh, the J.G. Ballard book. Yeah, I keep wanting to read JG Ballard and then - well, I had actually started High-Rise twice and put it down again.

Another novel which i have been toying with wanting to read, but feeling repelled by some of the apparent contents, is The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.

However, the worst book i have ever picked up to date, (and never got past the first chapter) has been a book named Hogg by Samuel R. Delany. Yuckety-yuck yuck, is all I can say to that one!

No rush - I saw the film when I was much younger, so I have vague memories...

Marita wrote: "Wow, some of my favourite authors!"
Yes, I seem to remember, which is why I mentioned them.

I've especially been itching to do any Murakami (I've shelved 2 of them partly read, but want to finish) and I'd really like to do a discussion of The Unbearable Lightness of Being .

Hhmm, and let's not forget real-world "myths" like for example the Hollow Earth....

Lots of that kind of thing in FP, btw.

Cecily, if you ever do feel like reading FP, remind us to point you to our group discussion! ...and Ruth is quite right - it was not an easy thing to do, and I likewise feel proud... :)

@ the gift & Cecily Regarding the "made-up worlds" :
Yes!
I was going to mention video gameworlds here - there are a lot of fantasy worlds, of course, like for example Tamriel in The elder Scrolls, but also, you have games that interact with the real world to encourage you to believe that some fiction is true- for example, there was a game whose name escapes me, where you were led to believe somebody had been kidnapped, and then you could send e-mails to a certain address (supposedly one the kidnapped person had access to) and you would actually receive replies from it. Fun!

Hi Marita! Glad to see you here! \0/ (Yaye!)
Hope you'll be around to join in discussions when we do people like Murakami and Ishiguro and Kundera! :)

Oh, and do pop in for a chat now and then - we have some chatty threads too. :)

That looks interesting, Cecily! I will watch the film tonight and comment tomorrow!

Btw! If anybody has time to do that game, please tell us if your name was added to the ... the... -er I'll have to look it up again - some Borgian hall of fame, anyway, and a few other baubles besides....

Well, I'd say an author can hint, but perhaps he did and I missed it!

Welcome to both Linda's! Hi Spanish teacher Linda - yes, please keep an eye on us, maybe we can co-incide some discussions. Like I say everywhere, our threads remain open, and we've already clocked in on at least one story from Book of Sand, plus, the Borges threads won't be going away.

Borges wrote that kind of story that you keep seeing some reminder of everywhere you go - if you've read some Borges, you'll know what I mean. So I'm hoping people will remember we have some threads on Borges and will come and treat them as a source and a sounding-board. :)

Or you can just drop in to chat about anything else as well, when you feel like it!

I'm glad Linda! I know your standards are high, but you might find something here and there, since we aim to go for variety among other things. :)

This story is to be found in a collection of similar title. The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory (Also to be found in Collected Fictions.)

You can access various versions and translations of the story online, for example, the two best ones that I have found so far, are:

Andrew Hurley : http://www.annecoale.com/web4pics/boo...

and N.T. de Giovanni http://bookofsand.net/hypertext/

What makes the latter one quite interesting, is that it is interactive, and therefore quite fun, but the Hurley text is also well presented.

There is another version of it here, but this one is less impressive visually speaking: http://www4.wittenberg.edu/academics/...
It might be a tad less confusing though. ;)

The story is short, and will only take a few minutes of your time. Feel welcome to start commenting right away! Did you enjoy the graphic depictions in the first link?

Of course, the Di Giovanni link contains a puzzle game, so I hope at least some of you will have fun with that! :)

Cecily wrote: ""I did it because I sensed that the Chief somehow feared
people of my race--for the innumerable ancestors who merge within me."
or, in the second translation,
"I carried out my plan because I felt the Chief had some fear of those of my race, of
those uncountable forebears whose culmination lies in me."

I've been chewing on this story and mulling it over, because I simply cannot decide how I feel about the ending. There is something I want to say about it, something I feel about it, that I just can't put my finger on.

One thing that I found rather cool, is how Borges indeed makes alternate suggestions for the events in the short story - for example, Dr Albert suggests that the protagonist could, in separate forks in time, have come to his house as either a friend or an enemy - and the irony is that Yu Tsun actually went there as both a friend and an enemy. A friend because of the work Albert had done on his ancestor's creation, but an enemy because of him being a spy for the Germans, and then of course - that ending...

I did feel that Borges could have inserted more forking moments into the story, though - for example that kind of thing was very well done in a film called Sliding Doors

Cecily wrote: "I've not read Focault's Pendulum, though. ..."

That is rather a pity since you enjoy Borges. I feel quite certain that you would find it quite Borgian! On the other hand, I must admit that I would probably never have managed to push through the entire book were it not for the company of my intrepid GR friends... :)

Ruth wrote: "AN odd thought that occurred to me as I read: that books must be matched or paired, brought me to the language of Embassytown which can only be produced by non-native speakers if they speak in pairs."

The more I read Borges, the more I see links to other fiction. Interesting link that you made there, Ruth. :)

Cecily wrote: "Evidence, proof, belief: belief is possible when there's plenty of evidence, but sometimes minimal evidence feeds fears of a cover-up. There's also a sort of placebo effect where believing in something becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. So how can we know what's true and real?
..."

This is so very, very true!

...is it just me, or does this story remind anyone of Foucault's Pendulum ?