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NeilNjae
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I've just noticed that Vita Nostra is about 400 pages. That's long for a monthly read. Do we want to modify the schedule to accommodate this? (Cloud Atlas was 530 pages, for comparison.)
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The book is six short stories, sharing a theme, and written with an unusual structure. Would it have worked as well had the stories been written as separate stories? Did the interlocking actually add anything?
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I liked that all the narrators had distinct voices. Well, apart from the central Hawaii section: I just couldn't face the prospect of sounding out the phonetically-spelt thick accent for that chunk, so I skipped it. I think the first-person narrati…
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My Kindle copy of the book has a section by Mitchell talking about the film, the different medium demanding as different structure, the increased emphasis on reincarnation, etc. I found the structure of the book discouraging. The first half of the …
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(Quote) I think that's it. This setup could have been done much quicker. (Quote) That's a good guess, and perhaps the knife is a sign of that. Makes a change from the escape lines being run by prostitutes. As for talking to them... immigration off…
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I think we've had enough foreshadowing that things are about to go very badly for Sandro (but the frame of flashback means we know he survives at least long enough to write his memoir). Yes, I think all the elements mentioned will return. I liked t…
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So did I!
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I don't have anything to add beyond the blurb! I stumbled across this book in some review somewhere. It sounded intriguing, the Kindle preview was compelling, and I wanted to read the rest. Then the book club slot came up, and I thought I'd give it …
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(Quote) I was expecting some repercussions too, perhaps pressure not to compose with such seditious inspiration. But I agree, the book so far seems to be foreshadowing things to be resolved later.
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Again, lots of foreshadowing of things that will come up later in the novel. This time we get the wand, And Ante, and Jacj's absence is reinforced. I got the impression that Sandro won't see his wife again. And I can't unsee that the Archipelago is…
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I've been struggling to engage with this, and am only about half-way through. But hopefully I've got past the interminable setup and we can get to the action! I have seen the film and enjoyed it, so I think I can remember the basic shape of the sto…
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(Quote) i'm not sure if that's a joke I didn't get, but the meanings seem to be "step, walk, ascend (stairs or a ladder)" to "change in increments" to "change slowly", with the latter two meanings coming in after the Mi…
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Some of the now-familiar motifs are here again: the viewpoint character as an artist (this time a composer, instead of a painter or tunneller), being an outsider to the Archipelago, the war, the lack of information about the Archipelago. But this ti…
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(Quote) I've read it, it's good. Interesting to see a different cultural background in SF. There are two more novellas after that, I think. Perhaps we could fit more than one novella into the month, depending on preference. Also note that Okorafor…
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(Quote) I think he only talks about war in terms of its cost and the damage it does. At best, we're shown how people adapt to their new situation, but it's worse than before. We never hear about victories, or glory, or the defeat of evil. I don't th…
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I preferred The Dream Archipelago to The Islanders. I think The Islanders was an experiment that didn't quite work. The longer stories in The Dream Archipelago gave Priest more space to evoke and develop the dreamy, emotional settings that he does w…
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(Quote) I think that's true. When Priest tries to give explanations for things, the stories fail. He's better at evoking feelings than revealing logic. When I read the "three thousand year war" I just rolled my eyes and moved on. (Quote) …
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There are elements of memory and hallucination too. We're told that tactilist art destroys memory, so we're supposed to infer that the narrator can't remember his childhood due to an over-indulgence in art. This supports the notion that the tableaux…
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Yes, let's try Vita Nostra. I don't know if it's good, but hopefully it'll be interesting!
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(Quote) True. I think the 3000 year war and the amnesia are meant to tell us that we have an unreliable, probably deluded, narrator. (Quote) Perhaps my mind's in the gutter, but that did make me wonder what "Discharge" the story title ref…
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There's obviously more going on than appears on the surface. I think we're expected to infer that the black-caps are searching for the narrator, and the tableaus he sees are enacted for him. Were told that every person perceives each tactilist work …
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Alternatively, what with the film coming out soon, perhaps Dune? We've been talking about it for a while. Maybe split the discussion over two months, especially as the film covers just half the novel.
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I've been intrigued by Vita Nostra, a Ukranain novel that seems to defy easy explanation. I have the feeling that, like Piranesi, it's a novel that works best if you know little about it. (I have no idea if it's as good as Piranesi.) I read the sam…
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(Quote) I could well believe that everything Ordier saw was a hallucination. But if that was what Priest wanted us to think, he did a bad job communicating that. The same goes for time distortions or any other explanation of the story: us readers ha…
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(Quote) It's fun. It's a bit of a mess, but it has Tom Hanks enjoying being a villain at one point, and Hugo Weaving has a great time chewing the scenery as a spooky apparition. It's been criticised for a bout of yellowface, where the actors are ma…
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I was disappointed by the ending. It seemed to be utterly self-centred, with Ordier concluding that the entire situation was engineered purely for his benefit and his reaction: the folly, his purchase of it, the ritual, the comings and goings, every…
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I enjoyed the film, so I'm interested see what the book's like.
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(Quote) I've not been to Qatar, but I've done work trips to Bahrain and Kuwait. My impression is that most of the Persian Gulf was pretty desolate before oil came along. Yes, there were bits of trade, and some servicing of shipping going up and down…
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(Quote) I noticed the Qataar / Qatar similarity as well. Qatar has always been occupied by different states (it was a British dependency until 1971), and I don't think was especially rich before the discovery of oil. But by 1978, the trope of oil-r…
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The "race" angle is one I wanted to bring up. The description of the Qataari reinforces that this is a very European setting and the Archipelago is the Mediterranean. Jenessa is described as "dark in hair and complexion" and havi…