Bobby’s Comments (group member since Mar 15, 2013)

Bobby’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

Amelia wrote: "The second makes for a better film..."

See Amelia, we're going to get along just fine. ;-)

G33z3r wrote: "When you read the journals of, e.g., Commander Wesley Powell or Meriwether Lewis, even though their trips often lasted a year or more, and were plagued by any number of problems and mishaps, they d..."

I don't know, G33z, maybe that's why I never see the journal of Meriwether Lewis on any "Great Literature" lists.

AND, by the by, those journals also didn't have a constant run of silly jokes or show any sense of humor at all.

Rose wrote: "Bobby wrote: "Michael wrote: "Bobby wrote: "a little different from "surviving on a hostile planet, no food, no human contact, no freaking air and tons of radiation for a year and a half"

A little..."

Ah ha! But I sayeth not that he never had hope. I just wanted some variety. I think pretty much no human being is ever one thing all the time.

And now we're just talking about what for me would be a more interesting book. You're by yourself (and I honestly don't think the odd messages to NASA a hundred forty million miles away -- he wasn't even "talking" as much as we are now -- is the same as "human contact" except in the most technical sense), on a planet waiting to kill you at the slightest misstep, you have very little food, (when my partner's blood sugar gets to low she gets very hard to live with), so you're close to starving most of the time, you don't sleep on a bed, you don't read a book, all you have to listen to is disco, you aren't taking a shower, brushing your teeth, shaving, you have to carefully plan how you relieve your bowels every time, think about all the thousand little things you do casually every day that you could not do or that you had to be extremely careful about every minute of every day, to me the more interesting book is that the journal is exactly where we hear about his hopes and dreams and the times when his hopes and dreams falter and the times when he gets mad and the times when his spirit would get tired, etc. It becomes more than just his journal. It becomes his diary.

Once again, I'm not saying he wouldn't be exactly as he is right now some of the time, perhaps even most of the time. But there times when I don't stay in the same mood or attitude, minute to minute, let alone for a year and a half. I wanted some variety in his personality, some fluctuation in his mood, some moments when he was weak as well as when he was strong because in my experience, the vast majority of human beings are many things, in many situations and never just one thing.

Amelia wrote: "Bobby wrote: "Which side did you fall on with Stranger in a Strange Land?..."


As I recall there was some debate between a couple of goodreaders in a group I was in back 8 or so years ago. I thou..."

Amelia, we should probably start another thread. It's funny, I read that book first when I was a teen-age boy and it was like, earth-shaking. Then I read it last summer with my nephew, who is now a teen-age boy and he loved it and I was pretty unpleasantly surprised. I was totally curious about how much of that was just about me being an older, more sophisticated reader, and how much of that was about any given work of art, save music and theatre, being a fixed point in the continuum. Like, in 1961, Stranger in a Strange Land was revolutionary but in 2015, it's almost reactionary.

Michael wrote: "Bobby wrote: "a little different from "surviving on a hostile planet, no food, no human contact, no freaking air and tons of radiation for a year and a half"

A little different? Not for him - thos..."

He trained for a year and a half isolation from humanity with death breathing down his neck? And I mean seriously, even with all the training in the world, he never experienced normal human emotions? Fear? Doubt? Despair? Loneliness, for pete's sake? Because he's so well-trained? Really? Okay, and then he pulled himself together and got on with it. That's fine. But at least live it.

What you're talking about, I'm willing to bet, has never happened in the course of human history. You don't think the most stalwart mofo in the world, when he got shipwrecked, had, say, a moment when he thought, "You know what? It's not going to work. I'm going to die out here." And that thought brought him down for a second? You don't think at some point, in a year and a half, he just wanted to sleep in a bed and that need ached inside him so bad and he cried because he had to sleep on the floor of the HAB again? You don't think, over a year and a half, he ever, ever thought, "Why me? I work hard, I'm smart, I'm resourceful, I'm a productive member of society?:" Man, the more this conversation goes on, the more ridiculous the book is starting to seem. Anyway, glad you liked it.

David wrote: "The premise of this book is fantastic. That is the hook and a good hook it is. The science is hard but I feel like I got most of it. Mr. Weir did a great job with the science. What I didn't like wa..."

Ha! David, I would love it if you jumped into this conversation I'm having with Michael and Rose. They don't seem to hear what I'm saying. It's probably because I'm not communicating well.

What's funny is, I doubt any of the Red Mars series sold anywhere near as well as The Martian. I had a much harder time with Red Mars. Just trying to get through it. Too much "magic resources". Where did they get all of that raw material? Like all the little fans all over Mars? Or the black sand on the poles? How did they haul all that to Mars? Did anybody bring toilet paper or toothpaste? How could no one ever die by accident or disease? In the entire human history of exploration, I don't think that's ever happened. Etc. However, I definitely feel like Kim Stanley Robinson is a better and ultimately, more ambitious writer.

I plan on trying it again because I own all three and I've only read the one.

And I feel the need to reiterate: I liked The Martian. I just felt the lack of human-ish behavior was a flaw.

Michael wrote: "Bobby wrote: "Rose wrote: "Bobby wrote:"I guess the question for people is that Mark Watney continues to talk that way even though he's living under the threat of imminent death for a year and a ha..."

Um, call me crazy, but why do I think "next broken thing ends up on our desk" is a little different from "surviving on a hostile planet, no food, no human contact, no freaking air and tons of radiation for a year and a half"? I mean, I'm sure you're good at your job and all...

Amelia wrote: "I've moved it up to next in the queue. Like Stranger in a Strange Land, I have to see which side of the argument I fall on. Here's hoping I don't spend most of the book hoping this Mark Watney gu..."

Which side did you fall on with Stranger in a Strange Land?

Rose wrote: "Bobby wrote:"I guess the question for people is that Mark Watney continues to talk that way even though he's living under the threat of imminent death for a year and a half. It doesn't waver. Like,..."

Michael wrote: "As a tech geek myself, yes, that is our level, including the jokes. Sorry."

Sheesh, you guys. I mean, it's not about being a "tech geek" or not, is it? Being a witty tech geek does not equate to "surviving on a hostile planet, no food, no human contact, no freaking air and tons of radiation for a year and a half". I mean, c'mon.

I'm sure your brother's break up sucked. Was humor all he used to cope? He didn't ever cry? Or get mad and throw things? Or get frustrated? Or depressed? At all? All I'm saying is I would liked to have seen those scenes as well.

And this wasn't a breakup. This was imminent DEATH literally just on the other side of the space suit. For a year and a half. And he has to figure out how to live. If all he had to do but sit there and eat and wait for help -- on a hostile planet, with no human contact, etc., -- that would still be a lot of pressure. But it's all that and he has to figure out how to survive at all.

Listen, I gave the book four stars. I enjoyed it. But is it too much to ask for doubt, fear, even terror, moments of despair, moments when it feels like everything is stacked against him, how about feeling really, really alone because you know, he's as alone as anybody has ever been in the history of human existence and man, just no joke came to him because he's so screwed? You don't think a moment (or twenty) like that might have happened over the space of a year and a half of looking death in the eye?

I will say, that's exactly how it read to me. Like a "tech geek" was sitting at home on his couch, thinking "this is the joke I would make in this situation".

Rose wrote: "April wrote: "I'm halfway through, and I don't like Watney very much because he speaks like he's 17, not a grown-@ss man who is a NASA astronaut. I'm absolutely disappointed in his monologue. It's ..."

I guess the question for people is that Mark Watney continues to talk that way even though he's living under the threat of imminent death for a year and a half. It doesn't waver. Like, does your brother continue to talk that way even when we're down to some serious sh!%?

And it is a very entertaining book.

Michael wrote: "I just finished reading this book and overall I really enjoyed it. I liked t h e main character, and as some others said, it was a real page turner. once I started, I didn't want to put it down. ..."

You know, I actually do hesitate to recommend his next book. Well, not really. That's silly. But I'll be curious to see how it turns out. This is part of my thing with the book. The premise of The Martian is fantastic and Weir obviously knows his science. But his reliance on his own goofy sense of humor throughout and his inability or unwillingness to go much deeper into the emotional stakes of his character's journey suggests to me that there might not be a whole lot there. In the back of the book he stated that he wanted to go back to more conventional type sci-fi. The good versions of that, typically, are character/plot driven. Judging from The Martian I don't think he's capable of succeeding in that form. He needs to have a seemingly insurmountable problem that he can then solve and have the simple act of solving it be the source of the drama.

I think. Right now. I'd be open to being proven wrong.

Great topic, William! (Unfortunately, I can't think of one.)

Amelia wrote: "http://www.apartments.com/apartments/...

(Portland)

http://www.apa..."

Oh yeah, when I lived in Seattle, it was routinely in various "top ten cities to live in U.S." lists. Everybody moved there and Seattle exploded. Now, Portland is much the same way -- and much the same thing is happening.

Spooky1947 wrote: "me, i love thunderstorms, so rain is cool...the rent is steep tho...I'd likely find a smallish town just outside the city...I'm going to seriously think about this...never did like Alabama, and I'm..."

And I don't know how you are about the outdoors, Spooky, but like, where Amelia lives, the Olympic Rain Forest? Beautiful. Both Seattle and Portland are very pretty cities.

Probably both places are more expensive than anything in Alabama. My guess is, and I'm prejudiced, is that you'll get your money's worth in Cooler Place to Live.

Spooky1947 wrote: "move where Bobby?

nope, Amelia, i live in Alabama...my brother calls it "the land of the dumb"

a few years ago our town got hit by a tornado...made national news, even W Bush came down to see the..."

The Pacific Northwest, buddy. Both Portland and Seattle are routinely in the top ten of book stores per capita. There used to be, I don't know if there still is, a half-priced book store that used to stay open twenty-four hours on Fridays. In Portland, there is a place called Powell's: City of Books that is an entire city block of books. These are reading cities.

Spooky1947 wrote: "Amelia, my dad wanted a football player, not a reader (i loved books, not sports...he was beyond disappointed)...i really can't blame him, that's the culture here down South...to this day i believe..."

I know just the place you should move to...

Brian wrote: ""No Luke, I am your father."

Best plot twist ever."

Brian, I saw that movie in the theatre when it first came out. I have never heard another collective gasp like that by an audience. Still gives me shivers just thinking about it. Amazing moment of storytelling.

Lynne wrote: "Probably the scene when Darth Vader dies. I always find it emotional."
Lynne, didn't mean to get all obnoxious and say yours didn't count. Just only one for me.

Resident Evil Though one I've always thought would make a great movie was Devil May Cry. Love that game.

G33z3r wrote: "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby,... I think you just don't like stories about people who want to survive and have the scientific chops to force their will on the universe.

For you, there's the alternate novel..."

The hell of it is, G33z3r, you're right! That totally sounds like a better book!

But to be fair, I do appreciate the stories about people who have the scientific chops t enforce their will, etc., etc. It's just that history shows us that "forcing your will" on the universe, such as it were, never comes without a cost.

And hey, I gave the book its props. Unlike some people I could mention, I have room in my heart for books that are a little different from my standard fare. I mean, it was definitely a page turner and I thought, despite the fact that any imbecile probably guessed that he lived at the end (wow, that would have been a shocker if he'd died -- but the book wouldn't be nearly as popular) I actually thought the ending was the most riveting part of the book.

Hahahaha. But that was too funny. Gotta come up with a better title, though.

Yeah, it's funny. I started Lucifer's Hammer and it started out totally dry for me! I'm like, "Oh sh!%, maybe I am turning into the Literati!"

But no, the truth is, I always have been. That's why as much as I love Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, even Larry Niven -- my guy, my guy was Ray Bradbury, who writes beautifully.

And Lucifer's Hammer is starting to pick up for me, too. :-)