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NeilNjae
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(Quote) Methinks you're not taking this entirely seriously... (Quote) Is it something to do with marking the imperial orogenes as separate, apart from the normal population? There's an element of clothing restrictions too: orogenes wear black, Guar…
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It's interesting that the slow read format is already allowing greater exploration of the book than when I read it first. In my first read, I got so caught up in the book that I didn't stop to think about anything that was happening. But by taking i…
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The Chapter 2 and 3 thread went up a couple of days ago.
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Just in case people have missed it, I've posted the first thread about the book. Further threads will be in the Broken Earth category.
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(Quote) That's an interesting parallel! Well spotted.
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(Quote) It was the culture aspect I was aim towards in the question. Obviously, things are changing: does one have a sense of what they're changing from? (Quote) It's "use of the sessapinae sense organs." I've no idea of the (invented) et…
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Related to this, someone on the Indie Games Reading Club slack posted this old StoryGames thread on detailed settings and story games. There's a lot of chatter, but there are some gems in there.
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Wasn't the enemy the "Savages" on their reservation? Reject the BNW order, and we'll all be plunged into barbarism like them!
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Very good! Thanks for drawing it to our attention.
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(Quote) Yes, it was quite didactic in style, and the racism and sexism is ever-present. But then, it's a book that's about how eugenics can make the world a better place. But I must admit, I'd not noticed the -isms either when I first read it, many …
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(Quote) I'm not so sure. I think there's some truth to the idea of the "metropolitan elite". I think there's a fairly consistent world view of people who embrace diversity and multiculturalism. But at the same time, and as you say, that ma…
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It was a somewhat provocative question. But the ethical choices brought up by the issue do seem to be good fodder for a game!
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(Quote) No, the Notes author thought less of the writing than Richard did. But they were being paid to write a book of notes and criticism about Brave New World, and that's what they did.
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(Quote) Deconditioned, or brainwashed to be unhappy and rebellious? Are the Jeshen doing anyone a favour by their re-education, or is the stronger moral choice to prevent the slaves from being created in the first place? And from the game point of …
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Another couple of topics that could be interesting stories in utopias: * Romance and relationships. People form attachments and pair-bond. Sometimes those relationships are wanted from only one side (many romance stories) and sometimes the relation…
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Not directly related to the question, but... I bought a book of "York Notes on BNW" and reading that criticism of the book was eye-opening. The notes author was a literature academic, and had no time at all for the ideas presented: that wa…
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My own opinion matches @RichardAbbott : range is needed, in both artist and perhaps audience. But even if suffering is needed, it too high a price to pay for art. A friend of mine has suffered a lot, and draws on that to make their art, as a way of …
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(Quote) Thanks!
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That's working great for me. Thanks, @Michael_S_Miller !
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I've posted some questions about the book in the Brave New World discussion category. Have fun with them! And I hadn't realised that I'd be posting these questions on a day of such widespread reflection on what has gone before, and what might come …
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(Quote) Yes, he doesn't seem at all deserving of the position of Autarch. Even at the end of the book, you wouldn't call him a good person.
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...and another loose end, mentioned in the text. How was Severian able to resurrect the dog at the beginning, even without the Claw? Was the Claw magical, or was it a placebo?
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(Quote) I'm having trouble importing it into my Google Calendar set. Google Help says something about clicking the "get sharable link" option. (Quote) It's fun!
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(Quote) That sounds entirely reasonable. But if we're going with the theory that the two Severians started the same, but the timelines split due to the intervention of time travellers, then they had the same mother and grandmother. Other loose ends…
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Thanks, @Michael_S_Miller . I've adjusted the spreadsheet to have a recap week after each book. I think it will be useful for us to reflect on each book as a whole as we go: there are some big-picture themes that emerge from the books, which could d…
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That looks fantastic, thanks @Michael_S_Miller ! I was going to to suggest perhaps having "recap weeks" after each book, to reflect on the book as a whole. But I don't think they're worth going through the effort of rejigging the calendar…
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(Quote) > (Quote) I'm with you on this opinion. A lot of the last few chapters has been about Severian undertaking the test to return the New Sun. And what is the test? Why does Severain (and us) think he could succeed, where so many others have…
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(Quote) And yet... the narrator-Severian says that the tomb he visited at the beginning of book 1 was the tomb of that earlier Severian. And that tomb is old. Of course, it could be that the other-timeline Severian died and was buried in the alread…
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I've updated the schedule to indicate when we'd be reading if we did two chapters per week. If we discuss the first two chapters on 9 January, we'd finish the book on 20 August.
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I don't know how many pages are in each chapter, as I've only got the books on Kindle. But I've just re-read a couple of chapters, so two chapters a week should be fine. Shall we start at that pace? We can always adjust if things are going too fast…