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NeilNjae
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- NeilNjae
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(Quote) If Newton said to a Terrestrial leader, "I'll give you lots of tech if you build me a spaceship," there's a good chance things wouldn't go well for Newton. You could argue that the stealthy approach is more likely to succeed. (Quo…
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I agree with the role that Betty played in the book, and that was explicitly described as Newton getting a better understanding of the unpublicised part of society. But I think the way the character was included in the story was clumsy. As an aside…
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Then the question is, was Newton Icarus, or was the Anthean society the overambitious Icarus and Newton was the "wings" (the part that was overstressed and failed)?
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I'm not sure Newton would be a PC in a game: the detail of creating and running an industrial empire doesn't seem like a great deal fun to play through. Newton's identity could be the core of a mystery scenario, but I'm not sure that game would fit …
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I watched the film once, many many years ago and I can't remember a great deal about it. Would the book still be read now, and published in the Masterworks series, if it hadn't been for the film?
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I didn't get a great deal from the painting, beyond the initial reading of Newton contemplating how he could never go back to his ideal home: he was the fallen Icarus. I think that means that I missed the importance of the discussion. But one other…
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Newton's physical frailness and gentle character came through and made him rather sympathetic. I could certainly feel for his stress and loneliness. Bryce seemed pretty down to earth. He wasn't some ethereal super-genius, like you often find in gen…
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I thought it held up pretty well. I can skip over the outdated science of "Mars as barely habitable". But the characters weren't awful, the plot was believable, the worldbuilding was reasonable. There's an element of the book addressing t…
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I think the preference is for Babel in two months. I'm happy to go along with that.
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I hadn't realised is was such a long book. Do we think it's too long for this venue? Or we could split the read over two months, if that's easier. Or, I could find another book. It's not like there's aren't lots of books to choose from!
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(Quote) I'm open to hearing other thoughts. There's no point proposing a book that no-one will finish or enjoy. There are reviews from The Guardian and Goodreads, and others at Grimdark Magazine and Paste Magazine. Take a look, see what people thin…
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(Quote) Ah, found it. It looks like a summary of the book, perhaps like a budget "Cliff Notes".
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RF Kuang's new book's just been released (she previously did the excellent Poppy War, though the sequels were less good): Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution A review of Babel from the Guardi…
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(Quote) I think RPGs, as a medium, can "play the notes requried". There are plenty of games (Nordic LARPs, and any number of games on itch.io) that are built around a particular "theme" or "play experience". If you play…
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(Quote) I'm sorry, I'm obviously missing your point. How is "musicians collectively improvising a composition" not "jazz" (or "jamming")? Jazz and improvisation are not deep musical skills. Similarly, actors improvise.…
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That idea of listening as a part of interaction is a basic technique of RPGs, I think. In Improv it's described as accepting offers and building on them, the "Yes, and" approach to interaction. But just that, I think, gets you nowhere nea…
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(Quote) I strongly suspect that Ishiguro wrote the book with more than one possible interpretation. (Quote) Yet Axl remains, with his memory returning. Is he the only one left who was there at the start of Arthur's great project (of genocide and pr…
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(Quote) Interesting then that the monks weren't developed more, to illuminate the importance of written texts to record things outside fallible human brains. Why did Ishiguro do that?
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(Quote) Given that the "truth" of the son is revealed at the very end of the book and not developed, I'm inclined to take it as face value: a literal son who died from disease.
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(Quote) Beatrice dies of cancer; Axl continues to live. But their love is sufficiently strong that they will remember each other in the afterlife, when Axl eventually dies. They'll remember their love, even if they don't remember all the events in t…
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(Quote) That's an interesting thought. It seems like Camlann hasn't happened in this book, so perhaps Axl is Arthur, Beatrice is Guinevere, and the son could be a metaphor for Camelot. That could equate Wistan with Mordred, and hint at the battle to…
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One can understand good stories as having three elements. There's the external, "procedural" actions that take place, the sorts of things that can be observed and recorded: a dungeon crawl, a conversation. Actions and obstacles. There's th…
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Axl is our viewpoint into the allegory, giving us insight into how people forget their past actions in order to move on with their lives, and how those actions come back to haunt them. Some of those actions, like the ethnic cleansing of Saxons, need…
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I think many "nerd" types are deeply conservative. Some of that is restricted to the adoration of "canon" and the urge to specify all the loose ends in a setting. It has its uglier side too: witness the controversy about casting …
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I think it's meant to be set somewhere from Midlands to South West. But I agree, the geography doesn't match anything actually in that area. But then again, the book's not about "realism" as "allegory", so I don't much mind. This…
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I think this book should be read as "allegory" rather than "story". It's not a retelling of events that happened (or could have happened). It's a collection of vignettes that point to a theme of memory and forgetting. Once I rea…
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I've finished, so ready when you are.
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But then, what counts as "family" as distinct from "friend" or "crewmate"? I associate "family" with "caring for children" so I didn't consider the Haimey, Connla, Singer group to the a "family&…
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(Quote) All very true. She's written a second novel in the same universe, called Machine. I may pick that one up, especially as it's got a good dose of medical drama included.
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That's a good observation. Haimey did experience first-hand the effects of maladjusted people, with the bombing. But she didn't know about it when she was having those discussions. Would the book have been better if she'd had those revelations earli…