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Group Reads Discussions 2011
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Consider Phlebas - 13. The Command System: Terminus *no spoilers*
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Brad
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Jun 23, 2011 07:31AM
I saw Super 8 when it came out, so I was really looking forward to the train crash in this chapter. Banks was really cinematic with this whole sequence, and maybe the most cinematic was the way Wubslin died. I could see the cuts from him in the chair to where he was heading and back to his face in close up and then smoosh. Anyway, I am jazzed about the crash at the moment; I'll be back when the other stuff sinks in a bit more.
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Very vivid visceral visualizations. (Excuse my alliterativeness this morning).
Fun alliterativeness, no excusing necessary.
"What's my name?" How perfect that Unaha-Closp and Horza have the same concern in their near death states.
this chapter, maybe more than any other, is ready for the camera...
I thought so.The other part that really sticks with me is when Xoxarle breaks Balveda's arm and hangs her off the railing. Fierce.
stormhawk wrote: "well, that was pointless."But wait ... there's more. :S
Surely a race capable of building a railway system that survived thousands of years were smart enough to include failsafes in the system to prevent two large masses from occupying the same space at the same time ... I was rather expecting the speeding train to be shunted off into another line or maintenance area or something by an automatic switching system ... And, incidentally, nobody would have walked away from the vicinity of that crash.
stormhawk wrote: "Surely a race capable of building a railway system that survived thousands of years were smart enough to include failsafes in the system to prevent two large masses from occupying the same space at..."I figured that had something to do with the system being there to protect in case of some big thermonuclear war. I just assumed that any major failsafe stuff would run on off oc computer systems and to avoid computers being taken over and computer sabotage they left it manual and as low tech as possible. But then I suppose really clever folk could have come up with some sort of hydraulic system. None of it really bothered me too much.
Finally finished the book today (yes, I was slow this month), this chapter stuck out from the others that were narratives of relentless menace by frequent shifts in viewpoint. For me this really helped, seemed like I could catch my breath at each shift.
I hadn't thought about that shift at all. Weird how some things just fly over my head, but that's a great point, Jeff. I liked that too, now that you mention it.
Brad wrote: "I hadn't thought about that shift at all. Weird how some things just fly over my head, but that's a great point, Jeff. I liked that too, now that you mention it."I really liked the shifting viewpoints, especially the Mind's and the dying/dead warrior on the runaway train.
I thought the viewpoint shifts made a difference to the kind of suspense. Before Schar's World there were long section's of non-stop action that just carried me away as long as they lasted. Then from "The Command System: Batholith" on the action scenes were shorter with more thinking and wondering in between. I thought the shifts in viewpoint broke up the flow helped to delay what was going to happen in order to build anticipation for it, like in Homer.
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