BWAH!
Where's the praising and extolling of my virtues? Where's the love?
Host ,'Not Fade Away'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
erikaj - May 26, 2005 12:38:57 pm PDT #7780 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
Lyra Jane - May 28, 2005 10:28:52 am PDT #7781 of 10002
Up with the sun
So I remember reading a sci-fi book many years ago where the plot was that an alien race planned to exterminate human beings, but refrained because "there's only one of [them]" -- all human consciousness was connected into one, like in a jellyfish or slime mold but on a larger scale.
Does anyone have any idea what this was? I mentioned it to my husband recently, and he thinks I'm insane. Thanks.
Gandalfe - May 28, 2005 11:17:59 pm PDT #7782 of 10002
The generation that could change the world is still looking for its car keys.
Does anyone have any idea what this was?
Ummmm . . . . By the end of the Forever saga by Haldeman, they were, but, um, nope.
Volans - May 29, 2005 5:15:11 am PDT #7783 of 10002
move out and draw fire
Does anyone have any idea what this was?
Rings a bell, but it's kind of the plot of the Alpha Centauri computer game, so I may be confused.
Jessica - May 29, 2005 7:02:56 am PDT #7784 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
It sounds like a cross between The Puppet Masters and Childhood's End.
Sophia Brooks - May 29, 2005 7:20:52 am PDT #7785 of 10002
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
Move it along...nothing to see here (thanks Steph!)
Steph L. - May 29, 2005 7:21:31 am PDT #7786 of 10002
I look more rad than Lutheranism
Sophia, I think you meant that for a different thread.
Lyra Jane - May 29, 2005 1:43:27 pm PDT #7787 of 10002
Up with the sun
Hmmm. I did read Childhood's End. How close is that to the scenario I'm describing, Jess?
Jessica - May 29, 2005 1:54:26 pm PDT #7788 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Well, humankind does evolve into a singular consciousness, but there are no plans to exterminate us (the aliens are there mostly to watch, and make sure we evolve like we're supposed to), and the quote doesn't ring a bell.
(And people who've read it more recently than I have, please correct me if my details are fuzzy. I found the book too disturbing to read more than once.)
Volans - May 29, 2005 11:35:20 pm PDT #7789 of 10002
move out and draw fire
I'm reading Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945. by Field Marshall Viscount Slim. (He was Governor-General of Australia in the 50s). It's one of the assigned readings for my husband's Masters program, but it's really pretty good! It's not a brave-men-standing-tall sort of war book; it's more about leadership. It's the analysis, written shortly after the fact, by FM Slim of what he did well, what he did poorly, what mistakes he made, and how the British army fared strategically. Very readable.
This amused me: Following a battle, there's about 600 dead Japanese that they have to bury. Ghurkas are assigned to body detail. As one Ghurka is dragging a body, the body moves! The Japanese soldier is still alive. the Ghurka draws his knife, but the British officer on the scene says, "Hey now, Johnny - we can't kill him!"
The Ghurka replies, "But sir - we can't bury him alive."