'Selfless'
This thread is a focused discussion group. Please see the first post below for the current topic and upcoming book discussions. While natter will inevitably happen, we encourage you to treat this like a virtual book club and try to keep your posts in that spirit.
By consensus, this thread is reopened specifically to discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It will be closed again once that discussion has run its course.
***SPOILER ALERT***
FYI, we've moved to a 4 week/start-on-Monday system so the next three discussion dates would be 11/8, 12/6 and 1/3/05.
Meep. Would it be easier if we went with the Monday closest to the 15th instead of four week rotation, keeping it close to the middle of the month? Or am I the only one whose confidence in my organizational skills is so low that a revolving date seems like too much to remember?
Not that I couldn't, say, write things down. That might also work.
sits in the...area...with brenda
tries to decide if it is corner
contemplates tidying it up
falls asleep
falls asleep
sneeks up on Cindy
writes "Thinks Wrong Thoughts" on her forehead in permanent marker
sneeks out
writes "Thinks Wrong Thoughts" on her forehead in permanent marker
crosses out "Thinks Wrong Thoughts"
writes "CONTAINS SPICY BRAINS"
writes "CONTAINS SPICY BRAINS"
chloroforms Sunil
writes "Kisses Cindy's Spicy Ass" on his forehead
I had the weirdest dream.
Ack! You killed Sunil! You bastards!
Ack! You killed Sunil! You bastards!
Ahh, settle down. He's just having a nap.
I get to pick a book!
happy dancing around the room...
and realizing the terrible pressure. I no longer have many months before the moment of truth. I must choose soon. What if I choose a sucky book?! Should I choose one I've read and know is good, or one that I just really want to read? Good thing I'm not a neurosurgeon or, you know, president of the United States. I would totally crack under the pressure.
deep breath.
I'm a librarian. I can do this. When is it due again?
FYI, we've moved to a 4 week/start-on-Monday system so the next three discussion dates would be 11/8, 12/6 and 1/3/05.
Meep. Would it be easier if we went with the Monday closest to the 15th instead of four week rotation, keeping it close to the middle of the month? Or am I the only one whose confidence in my organizational skills is so low that a revolving date seems like too much to remember?
The 4 week method was my tricksy way of sneaking in a 13th book a year. But honestly, I'm good either way. That would make the next three discussion dates: 11/15, 12/13, and 1/12/05.
It would also be good if we had our next selection ASAP. Pokes libkitty gently. Sees no reaction. Goes off in search of bucket of ice water.
ION, today is discussion start for Small World. Anyone want to jump in?
ION, today is discussion start for Small World. Anyone want to jump in?
I'll throw out a little pre-amble.
One thing to know is this book is sort of a sequel to an earlier novel that Lodge wrote back in the sixties titled Changing Places.
That book (which I never read, and isn't necessary to have read to appreciate Small World) involved the characters Phillip Swallow and Morris Zapp, who both recur in Small World (though Swallow is just a walk-on, Zapp is a major character).
Another thing to note is that Small World is structured like a medieval romance. If you'll recall, Hawthorne described The Scarlet Letter as a Romance, indicating that he wanted a little more latitude than pure realism would allow. Coincidences and the ligaments of plot tend to be more fantastic in a Romance.
Brief Primer on Medieval Romance: Literature courses always make a big stinking deal about what the first novel is. The silly thing is that people read long prose narratives for hundreds of years before the ostensible advent of the novel. These were medieval Romances (capital "R" please), and they generally involved Knights and magic and evil wizards and...stuff that's not unfamiliar to the Buffista readership. The most famous of these was Orlando Furioso, but there were hundreds of Romances. On the continent there is less distinction made between "novel" and "Romance" - indeed the word for "novel" in France is "roman."
The whole point of Don Quixote is that he spends his time reading these medieval romances instead of living life. Then he goes off his rocker and acts them out. Not unlike somebody who spent all their time watching their Buffy and LoTR EEs until they went mildly bonkers and went out into the world trying to act on those nobel ideals.
So, one thing that should be pretty apparent is that all the academic travel here is presented as parallel to the the Grail quest, and even includes a pure character based on Parsifal.