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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,136
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member, Administrator, Moderator
- Games I like
- Sundry, mostly board
- Books I like
- Science fiction, fantasy, some historical fiction
Comments
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Hi all, quick check around to see how people are getting on with The Ship Who Sang?
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Discussion area for Shardik now set up
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If you're settled on Shardik I'll set up the discussion area in the next few days
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In passing, it's an interesting choice to have a solicitor (and one barely qualified) as the main focus of action against Dracula. Sure they needed van Helsing's experience and practical know-how, but it was Jonathan who really began the program of …
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Never read it but happy to give it a go
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Over here I can get it in paperback or hardback but not kindle (nor Audible, though I probably wouldn't choose that anyway)
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Arabella of Mars discussion area set up now
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Off on a side-note, I spent a good deal of my childhood in Godalming, from about 10 years old until I left my parental home. There is of course no Lord Godalming, and so far as I know there never has been, but Surrey in general has a lot of large la…
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(Quote) haha yes, though I was thinking more of Scar from The Lion King, or maybe one of the hyenas - "follow me and you'll never go hungry again!" "couldn't we just take one of the little weak and sick ones?" and so on. I guess …
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(Quote) :)
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(Quote) It might have been cool to have one perspective from which the Count was a good-but-misunderstood guy?
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Yes, van Helsing is surely the prototype of the monologuing villain, even if he is on the good side! Lucy's death - at least one person had to die, I think, and I suppose Stoker decided Lucy was the one so that we would all want the same fate not t…
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Isn't van Helsing aristocratic as well? I suppose he came over to me like that because he is decisive in directing all the others to follow his lead. Other period pointers - the predominantly agricultural nature of Europe, and the splintered state …
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I'd be inclined to look at things in the opposite direction (and not just because of perversity :) ). The crux of the Eden story in Genesis is that the woman had been told exactly what the consequences were of doing something, and did it anyway. But…
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Hmmm. Whilst I agree that the concept of Dracula is scary, I didn't find the manner of relating it scary at all: as mentioned in another thread, I felt it lost much of it's potential scariness precisely because of the structure chosen. Now, I can ea…
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Again it's an interesting question. On the face of it the problem faced by the women is, perhaps, a little bit different. In Genesis, Eve was presented with the opportunity to deliberately flout an explicitly command, to which she yielded following …
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Not just Christian, but specifically Catholic, I think. The heroes are mostly from Protestant nations and have to, in some cases reluctantly, adopt Catholic trappings and spirituality in order to tackle the enemy. This is (I think) part of a wider s…
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Hm, that's a great question. I didn't find the story scary at all - I think that was partly because of the fact that this story set out so many of the themes and tropes that others have followed. But I think it was also partly because of the mode of…
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(Quote) Everybody loves a plasma physicist...
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(Quote) Sounds fun! Looking forward to that one
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Just a quick note on current look-ahead... 1) We are about to have September's discussion of Dracula led by @NeilNjae 2) October's pick is The Ship Who Sang led by yours truly 3) @clash_bowley any ideas for November? 4) @Apocryphal any ideas for D…
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I've finished so ready when you are
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For those who would like some virtual monkey-related entertainment, and are also curious about how many monkeys it would really take to produce art, you could check out the following Journal Article: A Million Monkeys and Shakespeare https://academi…
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The Ship Who Sang discussion area set up now
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This is also a reminder that this month's read is @NeilNjae 's choice Dracula
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Excellent, I'll set up the discussion area
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(Quote) My current thinking is The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey, keeping with our "classics" theme (the separate stories were written between 1961 and 1969, in which year they were collated into a novel). We haven't read this together s…
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(Quote) That aside, it's me in the rotation for October and I've almost decided... watch this space...
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Coming back to this after a busy few days as the school holidays wind inevitably towards their close and term-time looms! (And with equal inevitability, the weather dramatically improves). I found the discussion about pulp fascinating, and it made …
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> @Apocryphal said: > Sadly I haven't yet read animal farm. My take away from the ending is that we're all destined to be apes, in the end. And that the apes are not just copies, but superior - they have no armies, for example. The strife we …