Travis’s Comments (group member since Jan 16, 2013)

Travis’s comments from the Readering Group group.

You should power through. The book ends around 77 percent and starts into sources and acknowledgements so you are close to the finish.

Possible spoilers below:

Basically, H.H. Holmes was one of very few people with the will and motivation to realize that at the turn of the century, you could literally get away with almost anything. With a contrite look and a sob story, you could run up hundreds of thousands in debt and throw missing person investigations off course. Clearly he had a god complex, and based on how easy it was for him to manipulate people, it is easy to see why.

On to Burnham: What are your thoughts on Sullivan's assertion that the white city set American architecture back for decades to come? Obviously after the fair, most American architects adopted the roman classical style, so in that regard, I believe he was correct. However, his own colleague and former employee became the most famous architect in American history with a style all his own. You could argue that Burnham's white city advanced American architecture by causing the rest of the world to take notice when other Americans emerged.

yeah I kinda think that the middle of the book is lacking in Holmes narrative and bullish on burnham. perhaps there is not enough information on what actually was transpiring at the murder castle but the Holmes chapters are just a few pages compared to long passages about the number of people delegated to pick up world's fair garbage.

http://hhholmes.blogs.plymouth.edu/au...

This site has pictures of Holmes' building and even has a floorplan of the 2nd floor.

http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo...

This is a link to the website for the Chicago World's fair exhibit in the Chicago History Museum with some interesting pictures and advertising.

When you guys get to the part about the proposals for the structure that would "Out Eiffel" the Eiffel tower, you will laugh at what some of these architects thought would be possible.

This book does a pretty good job of showing just how daunting a task it was to get the fair in Chicago off the ground. Given the technology of the time, it is truly remarkable to see what they were attempting to accomplish.

I have done a little bit of light reading on the subject. It truly is fascinating. This book in particular was interesting because I learned about people I had never even heard of. I think the motivations behind their compulsions are what interest me the most.

Serial Killers

So far, so good! Interesting dichotomy in the exposition. On one hand, you have the architect who is hopeful, working to showcase Chicago on the global scale, and on the other, you have Mudgett/Holmes who is preying on the seedy underbelly of the city and taking advantage of those who trust him. It has my attention early on. Anyone else?

you just have to load it up into your library in your kindle through your pc like you would on an external hard drive.

here is a link to a blog with a free download for this book. http://kindlefreeebook.blogspot.com/2...

As it stands, It looks as if I am the chosen one. What would everyone like to read? I am thinking about a little truecrime. If people have already read it, I will choose something else.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

what was the point? I feel like the author was trying to make a statement regarding the potential hazards of playing God with genetics. Both the cheshires and the new people are viewed as invasive species, treated like vermin in need of extermination despite being more advanced and better suited for survival than their predecessors. Every new strain of frankenfood seems to have a horrible illness that accompanies it. Aside from this theme, it seems every potential message or moment of personal triumph is put down or left unfinished. Anyone have any insight?

it was quite an ambitious undertaking, this book. There were times that I thought I knew what the author's message would be and then he would meander away. Like a puppy he was enchanted by new and exciting plots but his frantic jumping about let the whole book feeling unfinished. I thought he had the notion to create a postapocalyptic world unlike anything seen before and came very close to the mark, but forgot to create a compelling story to go with it.

What are we supposed to have gathered about the windups and their current lot in life? it seems to me that they were created to be slaves but are now seen as abominations and are killed and recycled?

What do you guys think of the story so far? I am 30% finished.

I don't believe there is anything in the next paragraph that could not be gleaned from a book jacket so I don't think I am spoiling anything.




It is kind of slow moving in the beginning, but that seems to be the way of things in a revolution. I imagine it will soon boil over and from that point on, the action will increase exponentially. This revolution, like many others, seems to be incited by those that will profit financially from a regime change.

So far, I think Hock Seng is the coolest. he plays himself off as this unassuming peon, but he is always watching, judging, scheming.

I am about 20% through it now, and while the storyline has become much more compelling, I am still having to wade through a lot of references that go unexplained, but it is much more palatable when you are more invested in characters and plot. I would like to see a visual interpretation of this world because there is a lot of background to keep track of.

I kind of put it down for a minute in order to finish the stuff that I was reading before. Looking forward to seeing how it shakes out.

It seems to me that this writer takes a fairly antiseptic approach to his characters so far, giving little insight to the emotions, thoughts or feelings of his protagonist. Also he has made a million allusions to unfamiliar aspects of his created society. We are just supposed to accept them as things we either will find out about later or are just supposed to be accepted and dismissed as cool future things. I feel like this would work seamlessly in a film setting but it is somewhat offputting in the exposition of a novel when used in such an abundance. Maybe I am nitpicking, but as a reader. I am having to remove myself from the story to piece things together, which i don't enjoy. Surely it will become easier as the story progresses and I familiarize myself with his world.

Typically, I believe we are trying to aim for a month per book, but since we have started the group in the middle of the month, our first discussion will go until the end of February.