So I read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother yesterday. Which is a fast read, and a fun one. Although, in the end, it felt more like a political screed than a story. YBMV.

Interesting. I was wondering if it was Gemma sleeping with Kartik, even if it was in their dreams.

For some reason I had a hard time keeping track of Felicity's homosexuality--I mean, she'd been in love with Pippa, but that didn't mean she was gay--just that she'd been in love with and having sexing with another woman. Not sure why. I guess I'd been convinced by the scant bits of attention she'd thrown to men. Fee was bi to me. But I got it by the end.

It's the kind of book I need better "world rules" for, when all is said and done with.

Mnnf. I want to try and start a discussion that features a character death in a series of novels. Sort of a Women in Refrigerators thing. Character died in 2005, 14 of 16 books in. I can't work out how to accomodate for spoileriness.

Hrm. Perhaps you should delete or spoilerfont or something the above message, and just say "I want to discuss the Blahlblahbah series, but how to deal with the Big Honkin Spoiler in Book 14? People who've read the series, what do you think?" and then it could be discussed. As is, if anyone hasn't read the book, well...your post above kinda kills it, as soon as the series in question is revealed. :)

Maybe you can describe the series of books in such a way that only people who have read the series of books would know what series it is. And then they would know it's safe to read the...first set of whitefont, which would obliquely identify the book. And then they would know it's safe to read the rest.

Yeah, this could be difficult. Although your description seems like it's vaguely explicit enough that anyone who's read the book knows who and what you're talking about?

See, it's not so much the series, it's that the author has written a long explanation of why this character died, and you can't even begin offering it up as evidence in the discussion without saying too much. And she does talk about reader backlash, so it's not like her audience all took it lying down.

Mostly she's in line with my read on WiR, although she doesn't explicitly state it--whose death hurts the most, without taking out a lynchpin character of the franchise? Dollars to donuts, it's a chick. And that's outside of any societal frisson gained by women in danger. It's just that you're hero's most likely a straight guy, so the SO in question is a chick. His mother is more vulnerable than his father. That sort of stuff.

But she does say much more. Thought it was interesting outside of any bearing it has on my Refrigerator thoughts, but still feeling fingertied.

So, mr. flea read The Road on Saturday, and woke me with the volume of his sobbing at least twice, and reread parts of it yesterday, and keeps talking to me about it. I had been deliberately avoiding this book because I really don't need the trauma, thanks (I find literature to be anti-cathartic, as a general rule). But at this point I feel like I've got much of the trauma and none of the potential joy of actually reading the book. Should I go ahead and read it, and risk REAL trauma? Or just hope I forget the things he keeps talking about?

Just whitefont everything? Headline all posts "Spoilery WIR discussion", so people know which discussion is white fonted?

Should I go ahead and read it, and risk REAL trauma? Or just hope I forget the things he keeps talking about?

I think you should read it. It's definitely sad, but it's also, strangely enough, one of McCarthy's most optimistic novels. My wife loved it, too, and has declared it harsh but worthwhile.

flea, I suggest you seek out a lolcats/Cleolinda version, laugh your ass off, and then not read the book itself. That is what I am planning to do.

(Because I have read my fair share of post-apocalyptic literature in which nothing exciting happens*, and, bored now.)

• If any of McCarthy's characters suddenly don feathered headdresses and go chase each other around the desert in souped-up dune buggies, I imagine I would have heard about it by now.