Watho and stuff..

Does anyone else feel a little sorry for Watho? Are we supposed to?  What do you all think about the tale?

Sorry Jenna!

I'm late, but I approve too! I hadn't read it until just yesterday..Amazing.

Jenna choice is George MacDonald's The Day Boy and the Night Girl.

More comments and discussion to follow!

Next Week and Beyond..

Thanks, Charles for being so patient with the holiday slump! We have a few weeks before Christmas, and I was hoping Jenna would pick for the next discussion.

After that, so close to Christmas, we'll all probably be pretty busy, but I want to try to keep some sort of conversation alive..so I thought we could pick a movie and slowly discuss that for a few weeks..something with meat to it, but not terribly distracting, any suggestions?

Discussion began below..

In the previous post. Laura began, and Seth offered his thoughts..join in!

Pre-Holiday Slump..

For those of you who have been, like me, filling your days with things unrelated to blogging, I want to give an extra chance to appreciate the story that Charles has selected..and since this week is Thanksgiving, and I'll be busy all day Tuesday-Thursday making good things to eat and feeding the stoves, I decided to extend the reading through next week. Charles, I'm so sorry all this delay had to fall on your story.

If you haven't wandered over to Charles 'dropbox' yet to download the file, do so! The story is fascinating. I think we have a lot to discuss her (I'll post a Subject for discussion when Yarrow isn't being quite so distracting).

So let's get back on track folks!

Selection #4: From Charles

How about a selection from the beginning Jorge Luis Borges's Ficciones? In particular the Prologue to the first section and then the first story, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"?

If that sounds like a plan, let me know. Ficciones is available in stand-alone format or as part of a big collection of Borges's Collected Fictions that was released a few years ago. I can provide a PDF of scanned pages for the selection for anyone who needs it.

(Charles will be sending me a PDF, and I'll probably just send it out to everyon - except Charlie, whose e-mail I don't have yet - feel free to fix that, Charlie, by sending me a message at cyganeria.milika@gmail.com. )

The 4th Selection goes to...

Charles!

Sorry I'm late at sharing. Charles, I know we haven't really seen you in the discussions, so if you don't have the time just let me know!

Seth's question for discussion: (spoiler?!)

Why does she cry?

Short Story Selection #3

"The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck.  It's a part of his collection: The Long Valley. It shouldn't be to hard to find, he read it in a 'modern short story collection'.

Enjoy!

Guess who gets to pick next!

I have a collection of names to draw from..if you’d like a chance to pick the story or essay for the coming week, say ‘hi’ in the introduction section, it’s the easiest way for me to decide who has the time to check often and choose!

       This week, I let Yarrow draw the name, and she picked Seth. So here you go, honey, pick something good!

 

 

 

A response - From Charlie to "All In"

(Thanks Charlie! For getting the discussion started! I moved it to it's own page to make it more visible. I'm about to lose battery, so I'll have to wait to actually comment, but I think you make some great points. Welcome to the discussion!)


This is Gerard's friend Charlie here, and I thought I'd break the ice on this one. I have to say that it took me a while to really get a hang on what was happening in this piece. The prose was very detailed and evoked a nice scene for me, but the back story (the world) is very important in science fiction, and it took me most of my time reading to really get a sense for what was going on.

As I still think I might be mistaken, let me throw my thoughts out there. Effectively, the main character is mortgaging his own life by stepping into this game. As in, if he loses, he'll be one of the people that they use to incubate this miracle cure (like the guy who is taken into the back room). Is that what everyone else got?

Since it took me almost my entire time reading to piece this all together, I guess the poker scene lacked a bit of the urgency that it acquired once I gained more of an understanding of the situation. Maybe that is intentional (I'd have to say it is, given the way the piece is structured). As it stood while reading, I thought it was a very accurate account of a high-stake poker game, which was fun to read. I just wonder if some of the tension in the piece is buried in the initial obscurity of the world's backstory, because we don't realize what's at stake until the hand has been played.

Anyway, I'm interested to hear what everyone else thought, and thanks for letting me participate in these discussions.

Short Story #2

Christie’s selection -  A story called "All In" by Peter Atwood you can find it at,   http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2009/03/20/all-in/.

I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out!

Another note, don't feel like you have to abandon any discussion just because the new story is posted, they can go on and on if there is still something to say, so Charles, post you historical information, I've been looking forward to reading it, and you slackers who haven't said anything yet, introduce yourselves! Some of you (and you know who you are) were the ones who came up with this whole idea, so come on over! :)

For next week..

Christie, I drew your name to pick our next essay or short story. If you don’t have the time, or are just way too undecided, feel free to let me know and I’ll draw again, if not, send me an e-mail or comment here with your selection, and I’ll sort of ‘officially’ post it on Monday.

And, by the way, everyone, Christie has a writing prompt set up on her blog, this month's goes through the fourth Friday of October. I think anyone here would enjoy it, so skip on by and check it out.

Discussing The Exiles #1: From Masha

So, I’m hoping that we can discuss the whole idea of censorship, especially relating to the supernatural and fantastical in the story. Especially the attitude of Dickens, who denies that he really belongs because he ‘isn’t a supernaturalist’ like the rest of them, but Christmas is, after all, every bit as dangerous to the sanitized mind as Halloween. What are your thoughts? What did this story bring to mind? Anyone, Anyone??

Content warnings - a Recommendation from Laura

(Content note: discussion of rape and violence in literature)

 

           Hey, so I was wondering if we should have a content warning / content note system in place for book club discussion? Especially since the group has expanded, it might be a good thing to keep in mind. Here's an example relevant to the book club context: I don't personally mind reading stories with rape scenes in them, but I do like fair warning, so that I can skim or skip if I'm not feeling up to reading it at the moment. A warning also gives any of us who might never feel up to reading a rape scene the opportunity to choose to sit this one out or not. This is a courtesy I've definitely come to appreciate.

Expanded example: I just read a great story where the rape was just DROPPED IN to the middle of a paragraph and I would definitely have appreciated some kind of heads up. So, if it were my turn to pick for book club and I chose that story, I would include in my blog entry, somewhere visible, "Content note: rape" or some such thing (like the parenthetical above).

       Or, if I were recommending this historical essay I've been considering about early American schools, I might include a (Content note: Descriptions of violence, corporal punishment), as a fair warning for anyone who wanted to put off reading about those things until they were feeling better, or just appreciated being mentally prepared to read about a lot of sixteen-year-olds getting beat up in various contexts.

The problem is figuring out when to include content notes & how specific to be -- but that can be a subject for discussion. It's fairly easy to do this on a common-sense, your-own-best-judgement basis and fine-tune it as we go.

 What do you think?

Let's begin!

Short Story #1: “The Exiles” by Ray Bradbury. You can find it in the collection The Illustrated Man.

It should be pretty easy to get a hold of, but if you’re having trouble, give me a yell in the comments and I’ll help out. I thought it’d be a great one to start with because it’s fun, but it does have some meat as well. I’d love to hear your thoughts as soon as you have them, I’ll be posting mine in a day or two, and meanwhile, don’t forget the introductions!

Remember that you can either send me an email (cyganeria.milika@gmail.com) to be posted as it's own blogpost, or if you just have tiny bit to say, you can use the comments, that works too. I'm trying to give us a lot of options for actual discussion, so we don't feel all cramped up in the comment's section or bound by only my posts for discussion.

Enjoy!

Introductions

We’re starting this week everyone!

I’ll post the title and author of our first story tomorrow, but first I want to just say “hi” and make sure everything is working here.

The plan is, I get to pick the first story, and we’ve got the next couple weeks to discuss it. Go ahead and send me an email (I can be reached at cyganeria.milika@gmail.com)   with your thoughts anytime in that week, I’ll post it as a blog and discussion can follow. That way, we can delve into different aspects and interpretations of the story without hijacking the comment thread. Sometime in the next week, I’ll draw the name of our next chooser, and whether he or she will be choosing a story or an essay. Anyone is welcome to join, just comment below with a brief introduction and I’ll put your name in the hat!

We are only reading short stories or short essays, because most of us don’t have time to add anything longer to our reading lists, but any topic is acceptable, providing it’s not obscene. We read every two weeks and encourage discussion throughout the reading process, you can also feel free to go back and comment on old topics!

To introduce myself, I’m Masha, I blog at Cyganeria and Piekno. The first is focused primarily on art, beauty, and faith; the second on my daily life in an off-the-gird yurt. I spend most of my time chasing after my daughter, drinking coffee, and fighting chaos. Who are you?