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GAF Book Club (Mar 2011) - "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein
- Thread starter Cyan
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Maklershed
Member
Put my Amazon order in for Afghan Campaign since it looks like its gonna win.
non-fiction is boring
i vote my little pony: the world's biggest tea party
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061234443/?tag=neogaf0e-20
i vote my little pony: the world's biggest tea party
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061234443/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Maklershed
Member
So jealous. ><Cyan said:Putting a hold on Afghan Campaign at my local library.
I want a library near me in the worst way.
Exhibitionism! And 9 out of 10 times, when a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault. At least partly, even.
Um. Given the massive trainwreck of a thread currently on the front page of the OT, I'm not touching that one with a 9 out of 10 foot pole.
Instead I'll jump to Mike's discovery of humor: pain and hurt is at the root of all laughter. Hmm. Nietzsche is peachy, but laughter is more about relief of tension/being surprised.
Laughter is awesome, fuck off if you think there's "a wrongness", fancy-pants Man From Mars!
Um. Given the massive trainwreck of a thread currently on the front page of the OT, I'm not touching that one with a 9 out of 10 foot pole.
Instead I'll jump to Mike's discovery of humor: pain and hurt is at the root of all laughter. Hmm. Nietzsche is peachy, but laughter is more about relief of tension/being surprised.
Laughter is awesome, fuck off if you think there's "a wrongness", fancy-pants Man From Mars!
DesertEater
Member
Can I still vote for the next book ?
If yes, I vote for the Happiness Project. It looks pretty interesting.
If yes, I vote for the Happiness Project. It looks pretty interesting.
Final tally:
Afghan Campaign - 5
Radio Shangri-la - 1
Atlas Shrugged - 2
Happiness Project - 3
Next book club book:
The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield
Amazon Paperback. Kindle Ebook.
Afghan Campaign - 5
Radio Shangri-la - 1
Atlas Shrugged - 2
Happiness Project - 3
Next book club book:
The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield
Amazon Paperback. Kindle Ebook.
Maklershed
Member
Just got my copy today. And cyan - your doing a fantastic job with these threads but if I could just suggest having less milestones and making them occur faster. Maybe so that we're scheduled to be done the book about halfway through the month and then we can have unspoilered discussion for a week or two? Just a thought. Maybe you or others will disagree.
nakedsushi
Member
I'm not in the mood for a military historical fiction, so I may sit this one out and just lurk in the thread.
No, I think it's a good notion. With this upcoming one, I'll work out milestones so we finish in ~three weeks, and we can see how that goes. That's still loads of time to read. And that way we can vote on the next one after we're done with the current one, rather than during.Maklershed said:
Well, out of three book club choices, we're already up to two military historical picks, so I won't blame you if you sit out... but if it's available at a library near you, you could at least take a look!nakedsushi said:
Speaking of which, I suspect that given the demographics here, our current method of choosing books is going to lead to a high proportion of scifi, fantasy, military historical, etc. We've done fine so far on quality, but I'd still rather we didn't get into a rut genre-wise.
If that does happen, then once we've gotten a little more established and have a solid core of regulars, we can experiment with other methods. Have one person pick/run the thread and rotate, choose randomly from a list rather than voting, etc. After all, part of the point of a book club is to read stuff you otherwise wouldn't. Let's stretch ourselves a little!
Attackthebase
Member
I'm going to try to join April's Book Club. The possible problem is some of the gaffers would be quite busy with school (such as me!). I don't know if I'll have the time, but I placed a hold at the library for Afghan Campaign. So, let's hope I can actually have time to join in and discuss!
If I can't do April, I should be able to do May-August, the greatness of summer. I'll certainly need a break from summer school, gaming and working out. A novel is always nice and fluffy! :-D
I grok this was written in the fifties and published in the sixties, but man, the hippie-dippy commune stuff is pretty off-putting. Appealing as it is to walk around naked and not worry at all about money ("take it if you need some, put some in if you don't!") and have sex all day with hot priestesses... it just reminds me of people who irritated me at uni.
The structure is weird for this portion, as well.
Ah well. Hopefully shyster/high priest/xenu Mike will still be enjoyable to read about.
The structure is weird for this portion, as well.
Ah well. Hopefully shyster/high priest/xenu Mike will still be enjoyable to read about.
Jubal's ruminations on human sexuality and suppression are interesting... but rather lengthy. I'll bet large chunks of this were cut for the original version.
The bet at the end of the chapter cracked me up, but it was a rather sudden resolution for Ben's confusion/jealousy. Not so much character development as being beaten over the head by John Galt and caving to the endless oratory.
Edit:
Forgot I also wanted to note that it's interesting how Mike thinks it's "a wrongness" to call the po-po on someone, but has no problem straight-up murdering them.
A little incongruency there?
The bet at the end of the chapter cracked me up, but it was a rather sudden resolution for Ben's confusion/jealousy. Not so much character development as being beaten over the head by John Galt and caving to the endless oratory.
Edit:
Forgot I also wanted to note that it's interesting how Mike thinks it's "a wrongness" to call the po-po on someone, but has no problem straight-up murdering them.
A little incongruency there?
Buckethead
Banned
Anyone?
Also; Pressfield.
April thread up: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=425565
Anyone still following the milestones, or shall I close up shop? Finished the book yesterday myself.
Anyone still following the milestones, or shall I close up shop? Finished the book yesterday myself.
Ok then, closing up shop. Final review:
I'm sorry to say it, but I don't grok.
Stranger was, I think, very much a book of its time. And at the time it must have been shocking, revolutionary, incredible and zeitgeist-capturing. Now it's just another old story that gives us a fifties near-future, that frequently slows down for philosophical detours and that is rather full of itself.
Seriously, the book feels more like an excuse for Galtian expositioning than an actual story. It starts off well, but suddenly stalls and loses momentum maybe 1/3 of the way through as all potential difficulty and conflict is eliminated. And from then on it's mostly just characters explaining to each other why they are so obviously correct about everything. Almost every character in the book either starts off as a monologuing know-it-all (Hi Jubal!), or becomes one after being converted to Martianism. Gets a little old.
Frankly, I liked Mike much better when he was a wide-eyed child. He redeemed himself in the end by revealing to Jubal that there were still cracks in his certainty, behind the facade. But it was too little too late, for me.
As has been pointed out often, there are some problems with attitudes towards women, gays, and so on. Problems which aren't present to the same degree in other Heinlein, if you're wondering.
I enjoy Heinlein, even though I didn't care so much for this one. I hope this book won't put people off from reading his other works.
I'm sorry to say it, but I don't grok.
Stranger was, I think, very much a book of its time. And at the time it must have been shocking, revolutionary, incredible and zeitgeist-capturing. Now it's just another old story that gives us a fifties near-future, that frequently slows down for philosophical detours and that is rather full of itself.
Seriously, the book feels more like an excuse for Galtian expositioning than an actual story. It starts off well, but suddenly stalls and loses momentum maybe 1/3 of the way through as all potential difficulty and conflict is eliminated. And from then on it's mostly just characters explaining to each other why they are so obviously correct about everything. Almost every character in the book either starts off as a monologuing know-it-all (Hi Jubal!), or becomes one after being converted to Martianism. Gets a little old.
Frankly, I liked Mike much better when he was a wide-eyed child. He redeemed himself in the end by revealing to Jubal that there were still cracks in his certainty, behind the facade. But it was too little too late, for me.
As has been pointed out often, there are some problems with attitudes towards women, gays, and so on. Problems which aren't present to the same degree in other Heinlein, if you're wondering.
I enjoy Heinlein, even though I didn't care so much for this one. I hope this book won't put people off from reading his other works.
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