MuseBlog Book Club, 2010 edition
As before, a thread for reading and discussing specific books for extended periods of time.
First, we need a book…
Date: March 21, 2010
Categories: Fiction, poetry, and fanfiction, Things We like
Comments RSS TrackBack 121 comments
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starr
in March 21st, 2010 @ 08:51Thanks, GAPAs…so, how should we start? Does anybody have any suggestions for a book that most Musers on here would like? I would suggest something that’s not too long but would appeal to a lot of different people. That’s sort of hard to cover, seeing as we have a very wide span of readers though…a few that are coming to mind are the classics (Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, etc.) or we could always go for something more modern. Suggestions? (GAPA’s, your ideas are welcome too of course, as you have so much wisdom.)
(Choklit for a semi PoPo *choklit*)
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LittleBasementKitten
in March 21st, 2010 @ 09:12I have lots of good books in my overflowing bookcase. The True Meaning of Smekday; Hurt Go Happy; Lots of Ibbotson books…
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Silver Lining
in March 21st, 2010 @ 09:22I love the book Hurt Go Happy!!!! A really great book…
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Artemis the Huntress
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 17:04I loved The True Meaning of Smekday. It was genius.
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Silver Lining
in March 21st, 2010 @ 09:13I’d love to participate as well, but as I’ve noticed on the Book & Reading threads, it doesn’t appear that I like most “Muserly” books. For example, I can’t sand “classics” (for the most part), and most fantasy. I don’t know… Does anyone else feel like this? But you can choose to ignore this self-absorbed post and continue on with the thread.
Um…A suggestion could be Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, but I don’t know if the male MBers would like it.
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Cat's Meow
in March 26th, 2010 @ 18:21I’ve read that. Why wouldn’t male MBers like it?
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Piggy
in March 21st, 2010 @ 09:43I personally tend to prefer “classics” to more recent books. Mark Twain is always good. As is Arthur Conan Doyle. And any of the dystopian novels. Hm… Tolkien would probably be too long. Some other books would be to inappropriate. What to read, what to read… Oh, Shakespeare would be good.
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Piggy
in March 21st, 2010 @ 09:43Er, wait: Watership Down!
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fireandhemlock1996
in March 21st, 2010 @ 11:53I need to read that.
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Thanks For All the Fish42
in March 21st, 2010 @ 14:18We could do Sherlock Holmes stories. I bought a collection of them, but have yet to start.
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Silverstorm42 (Rainbow*Star trying out a new name - how do you like it?)
in March 21st, 2010 @ 10:06Something by Wendy Mass. A Mango-Shaped Space, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Every Soul A Star ….
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I-Man ((William II, OSW's Secretary))
in March 21st, 2010 @ 10:36I’d like to suggest The Book Thief, but since a lot of MBers seem to have read that, maybe something else by Zusak… I am the Messenger, maybe?
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Clare de Lune (aka The Book Thief)
in March 21st, 2010 @ 13:03I am the Messanger (sorry, don’t know how do italics) might not be deemed appropriate by some of the younger (ie, sixth grade) MBers parents.
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I-Man ((William II, OSW's Secretary))
in March 21st, 2010 @ 17:11Yeah, good point. Bad idea.
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bookgirl_me
in March 21st, 2010 @ 10:46What about something “easy” to start out with; Alice in Wonderland? It doesn’t take that long to read, but there’s plenty of it to discuss.
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Enceladus
in March 21st, 2010 @ 10:52Whoops. Then my suggestion certainly won’t ego first.
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Enceladus
in March 21st, 2010 @ 10:49If I may suggest a very good book: A Thousand Splendid Suns.
It’s about women in Afghanistan before and during when the Taliban took over. It is a bit mature, but not completely inappropriate (i.e. MBers can handle it). And it’s certainly emotionally intense. When I finished it, I cried for a little bit. Have any of the GAPAs read it? It’s by Khaled Hosseini.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in March 21st, 2010 @ 11:25A Thousand Splendid Suns is on my “to read” list, but I haven’t read it yet. I think we could all stand to know more about Afghanistan.
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shadowfire
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 23:39I’ve read it. It was definitely intense, but I think MBers can handle it.
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Cat's Meow
in March 26th, 2010 @ 18:22My English class read The Kite Runner earlier this year (same author, also set in Afghanistan) and several of my classmates were reading A Thousand Splendid Suns as well. I haven’t, thoughTKR was good enough that I would definitely like to.
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Cat's Eye
in March 21st, 2010 @ 11:20A fantastic book: The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. However, given that a lot of us seem to be Gaiman fan-types, so we may have read it…?
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bubbles
in March 21st, 2010 @ 21:43I love The Graveyard Book! Coraline and M is for Magic are awesome too! (I’m sorry I don’t know how to do italics, I really should learn them if I want to post on this thread…)
Umm, people don’t always seem to know about his short stories, and those are good, although maybe those are a bit too…short.
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Vendaval
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 06:37Surrounding text with <i> and </i> will create italics.
Thanks for caring!
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starr
in March 21st, 2010 @ 11:37Three Cups of Tea? I haven’t read it, so I can’t say, but I’ve heard it’s good.
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fireandhemlock1996
in March 21st, 2010 @ 11:52I’ve got the Young Readers edition, and Mum won’t let me get the original. Phooey.
But it’s a great book. Very eye-opening.
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starr
in March 21st, 2010 @ 12:23Yeah, my younger sister read the Young Readers edition, but then they returned it to the library before I could get a chance to read it. *pout* My mom is sort of strict, and I heard that the original might be a little bit mature, but I’ll see.
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Kokopelli52
in April 5th, 2010 @ 06:34The original is a bit mature, but in my opinion it’s whole lot better. I can’t read with bolded glossary words jumping out at me.
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KaiYves- Unity, Destiny, Tranquility!
in March 21st, 2010 @ 13:52Oooh, I’ve wanted to read that for a while!
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SilverLeopard
in March 24th, 2010 @ 08:59I read the adult one because my mom had it because we were doing a Pennies For Peace program at my church.
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speller73
in March 21st, 2010 @ 12:12Alice in Wonderland sounds great. I suggest that we pick something in the public domain so that people can find the book online if their library doesn’t have the book or something.
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Enceladus
in March 21st, 2010 @ 14:24Wikisource has Alice in Wonderland, I know that.
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Thanks For All The Fish42
in March 21st, 2010 @ 12:25Books that I’ve seen as suggestions and also suggest:
1) Alice In Wonderland
2) The Book Thief (I have it sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read)
3) I Am the Messenger (Love this book)
4) The Graveyard Book (I’ve also been meaning to read this one.)
5) Wicked, anyone? I am reading it now (very slowly!), and I think it would be great to discuss.
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speller73
in March 21st, 2010 @ 14:20Wicked might be a tad too risque for some bloggers, I think.
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Thanks For All the Fish42
in March 21st, 2010 @ 14:35I suppose… Although, I think anyone on here can handle it. It’s not that bad, but I’m not finished… So I can’t say much.
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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 19:49It gets a lot worse toward the end. A. lot. Trust us.
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Enceladus
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 19:57Wicked…. *shudders*
I’m still a bit scared from reading that book in 6th grade.
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Cskia The Nythora
in March 21st, 2010 @ 12:45Alice in Wonderland is a wonderous book. And it is classical. Not to mention, not too hard to find. So that shall be nice.
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Loreena Chatheng (AP)
in March 21st, 2010 @ 13:28I suggest Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, if people haven’t read that yet. I recently started reading it, and it’s quite interesting.
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Thanks For All the Fish42
in March 21st, 2010 @ 14:16Alright, how about we propose five books (this will be a task to select. Maybe the five most mentioned so far, and if that’s not enough, we’ll just take the earliest ones), and then we vote on those. Then, the one with the least votes gets knocked out. We then do the same thing four times.
Then, we’ll decide a date, when everyone should start. We could make a deadline or the amount of pages per day (so we’re on the same page. PUN).
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starr
in March 21st, 2010 @ 16:21That sounds like a good idea. Alice in Wonderland should probably be one of the five, seeing as a lot of people have already mentioned it. Does that sound good?
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I-Man ((William II, OSW's Secretary))
in March 21st, 2010 @ 17:12This isn’t exactly a single book, but it’s a good series – Keys to the Kingdom?
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Beetles and Drakon ( ^_^ ) and Four eye (%_%) and Thorn (20 wung points)
in March 21st, 2010 @ 19:25I love “The True Meaning of Smekday”
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muselover
in March 21st, 2010 @ 20:34Everything by David Lubar is awesome. But, as he isn’t in the public domain, I suggest Holmes. There is actually a free app for iDevices that has the complete Sherlock Holmes. I’m working my way through The Memoirs right now.
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Piggy
in March 21st, 2010 @ 20:41Hm, yes, I think something in the public domain could allow more people to participate.
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Silver Lining
in March 21st, 2010 @ 20:42Alive in Wonderland and The Book Thief are both on my “To Read” list, and I’d be happy to read either (I’d prefer Alice in Wonderland, personally, but whatever)!
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The Man For Aeiou
in March 21st, 2010 @ 21:04I’m going to to make a “Long list”. Add to it, and then we can narrow it down.
1)Alice in wonderland (I think we should stick Looking glass here as well)
2) Holmes (Need to narrow this down, a Novel or some Short stories)
3)The True Meaning of Smekday
4) Three cups of tea
5)Hurt goes Happy
6)Life as we knew it
7)Watership down
8)The Book thief
9)I am the messenger
10)A Thousand Speldend Suns
11)The Graveyard Book
12)Wicked
13)Martian Chronicles
14)Litte Brother (This is Creative Commons, which is like PD)
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bubbles
in March 21st, 2010 @ 21:49A novel I really liked was “The Doom Machine,” by Mark Teague. It’s set in the 1950s and it’s about aliens planning to take over the universe, basically. It’s much better than it may sound… Anybody else read it?
I’m reading What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by the author of Wicked, Gregory what’s-his-face. I can’t seem to remember his last name. I like the book so far, though.
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Alice
in March 21st, 2010 @ 22:27Books that I would like to suggest:
•Mansfield Park
•Emma
•Catch 22
•The Last Unicorn
•Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
•The Death ShipThese are all books that I have been meaning to read/am already partway into. I think I’ll have to participate sporadically in this activity, though, because I don’t have much time to read and my book list is already so long…
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Errata
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 08:06Oh, I’ll second Mansfield Park and Emma! I already read Emma, but I adore rereading books, so…
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was weird. Just plain weird.
I haven’t read Catch 22, The Last Unicorn, or The Death Ship, though the last two have intriguing names.
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speller73
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 08:26Jane Austen is always good. I’ve been planning to read Emma anyways, so I’d be happy with that.
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Vendaval
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 07:07These are all great books, and I have a number of them on my own reading list!
Seeing as how this is the reincarnation of a popular but often troubled thread, I’d like to make some suggestions.
The book must not be too long. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, while it’s an excellent book I do suggest to all of you, it’s also too long to be discussed at this stage in the club. As previously suggested, works in the Public Domain, or under a sympathetic Creative Commons licence are very accessible. The book must not be horrifying. Moving, that’s different. But nothing too tragic, please. Also remember that there is an age issue present.
Spoilers: Necessary for posts that reveal Important Things. Necessary, yes? I think this would work well: MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB SPOILER. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB SPOILER. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB SPOILERS.Now, onto further business. Perusing the last Book Club thread, it becomes apparent that it’s hard to have a good book discussion while everyone is absent writing their own. I’ve never really been too comfortable with the idea of a book club, actually, perhaps because I’m not altogether familiar with them. I’m also not too comfortable with book discussion questions, but that could be due to some sort of ego thing. Does anyone meet with a book club of their own? Do you usually just discuss reactions, or go into lit. theory, or is there something else?
I think that starting with a short work would be best, to iron out the mechanics of the club. Alice in Wonderland is found here:
http : // en . wikisource . org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland
Yay/Nay? A Read-By date?
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starr
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 08:09All of your points you make are good ones, so I pretty much agree with all of them:
1. Not too long
2. Not too horrifying
3. Preferably in the public domain
4. Spoiler warnings, please
5. Keep the age group in mind (I would say that the book should be age appropriate, or at least to a reasonable degree, for anyone as young as 11/12 but still enjoyable for anyone as “old” as 20. That being said, this could be debatable, but I’ve always felt like most MBers on here a more mature than the “average” 11 year old. Of course, a lot of this would depend on the individual book.)Also, I am a part of a book club, and the way we are organized is that the person who picks the book leads the discussion. This really only means that the leader has the responsibility to come up with between 8-10 questions, but these are only used as guides. Most of the time we actually only cover 3 or 4 questions during an hour or so period because most questions prompt us to get off into random tangents on other sections of the book, and that’s really the only purpose of our questions. We’re not a very structured or serious club, so the questions could be about anything – overall development of the book, plot, characters, etc. Sometimes one of us even prints out an info page on the author and we discuss that too. But every book club is different and operates differently, so you’ll find different opinions all around.
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Errata
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 08:14I don’t know. I don’t mind Alice in Wonderland, but since I heard the guy was on drugs while writing it…
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 08:23He wasn’t.
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Errata
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 08:37Ah…
Sorry, I’m just wondering how some of the things in those books made it in if he wasn’t on drugs, or something.
I suppose it’s possible he was just really good at writing as if it’s a dream, but if you look at it…
That’s not all I heard about him, but the other stuff is much more unverifiable.
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speller73
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 08:58Apparently, some of the stuff was actually based on math… Like the Mad Hatter’s tea party is supposed to represent a form of non-Euclidean geometry.
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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 11:34He was British and a mathematician, what other drug did he need? He also had migraines, though their effect on his work is subject to debate.
In any case, I find it hard to believe that anyone who has spent a fair amount of time on MuseBlog would doubt the power of imagination.
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Alice
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 12:09I don’t understand why no one seems able to believe that you can come up with weird things without being on drugs.
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LittleBasementKitten
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 14:57Yeah. I mean, just look at some random threads. Some people, I bet, would think we had, like, five cases of marijuana before writing some of the posts. Like the garlic-vampire war.
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Piggy
in March 22nd, 2010 @ 20:14Or that we were just spritely children. Which we are.
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LittleBasementKitten
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 05:16
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bookgirl_me
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 10:24Of course we are. We’re completely innocent, nice and sweet little (pink) bundles of cuteness.
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Enceladus
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 14:04No, we’re just mostly harmless. Emphasis on Mostly.
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Artemis the Huntress
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 17:08Mostly Harmless seems to describe all of MB pretty well.
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cromwell
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 11:25Conrad. Please. Maybe Heart of Darkness-it’s short, so anyone can read it. Or the Secret Sharer or the Shadow-Line. Just not Nostromo, Victory, Lord Jim, or any of those long ones.
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Vendaval
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 22:21Haha, I read that and freaked out a little, as my name is also Conrad!
I think that while Heart of Darkness is an excellent book, it’s too gut-wrenchingly horrifying for these purposes.
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Piggy
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 22:48Ha, that’s what I thought cromwell meant as well. Only now do I realize he meant the author by that name.
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speller73
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 12:01Something on top 100 NAQT literature would be good… I need to study for Scholastic Bowl. (More proof for the “Scholastic Bowl has eaten my life theory.”)
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Vendaval
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 22:40Allllllllllrighty then, I am going to say some things and sound authoritative!
(Everything I say is up for debate, but I think what’s needed now is some direction. Especially the date, which I chose by guessing.)The book: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Available on Wikisource, as previously mentioned.
The date: April 12th
That’s about a half a chapter a day. I know it can be read much faster, but I think a careful reading will be necessary.I’ll have some discussion points ready, but I’m looking forward to see what happens!
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speller73
in March 23rd, 2010 @ 22:56Cool. It’s also available from Gutenberg. *likes Gutenberg*
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starr
in March 27th, 2010 @ 12:11That sounds good to me. Who else is in? Can some people please come on here and post so that we can make sure we have enough people who are interested and aware of the deadline?
(Psst…a reminder on the Random Thread might not hurt, either. I might post something later in case some people aren’t checking this thread often now.)
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speller73
in March 27th, 2010 @ 14:08I’m definitely in? And also, for people who are doing this, what format are you reading the book in (and are there illustrations)? I’m reading it in book format with what I think are the original illustrations.
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Tesseract
in March 28th, 2010 @ 07:03I’m in.
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Rosebud2
in March 31st, 2010 @ 18:44I’ll join.
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Thanks For All The Fish42
in March 27th, 2010 @ 13:14I’ve already read it, and I think many of us have. Perhaps I’m wrong. I could always read it again.
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Cskia
in March 27th, 2010 @ 13:31It’s the type of book that people can read over and over and over again without being bored, so I suppose it’s a wonderful choice.
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Thanks For All The Fis42
in March 28th, 2010 @ 09:48Alright. I’m in. Should we have periods of time in which we should finish a certain amount of pages? That way I can read it on the side as if it was a book assignment in school.
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Luna the Lovely
in March 28th, 2010 @ 19:33Sure, I’m in. I’ll try and see if I can get it done by the “deadline”. ((Technically that should be easy, but you know, school and all))
I read it once awhile ago, but….Yeah, that was awhile ago. And I’m babbling.
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SilverLeopard
in March 29th, 2010 @ 18:49Sure, I’ll try it.
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Thanks For All The Fish42
in March 27th, 2010 @ 13:21SFTDP
I would also like to suggest The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I have been meaning to re-read it, and I think more people on MB should experience the froodiness.
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starr
in March 27th, 2010 @ 17:18I’ve already read it, but it was awhile ago and I’ve been meaning to pick it up again too, so that would also be a good choice if not Alice in Wonderland. (Which I’ve never read before.)
And, of course, to any MBer who hasn’t read it, of course the froodiness must be spread.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in March 27th, 2010 @ 18:44Anyone who has the option should definitely read The Annotated Alice, with notes by the inimitable Martin Gardiner.
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speller73
in March 27th, 2010 @ 23:23Ooh, I really want to read that. But I don’t think I have a copy (although I wouldn’t be surprised if my family does have a copy somewhere in the house). I do know that if I get the English class I want next year, we’ll be reading it.
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Jadestone
in March 27th, 2010 @ 20:22Alice in Wonderland sounds perfect! Especially since I’ve been spending the past few weeks reading it bit by bit (aloud in study hall, with voices of course)
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Thanks For All The Fis42
in March 28th, 2010 @ 09:50SFTDP (Man I am getting a bunch of these lately… *pies himself*)
Since Alice in Wonderland is about 120 pages long (at least, my copy is), we could read ten pages a day, or the equivalent in separate books.
P.S. I have the Barnes&Noble Classics edition.
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speller73
in March 28th, 2010 @ 10:12Not sure how long my copy (which has Through the Looking Glass in the same book) is, but I know that it’s been a very fast read for me. I started yesterday, and I’m halfway done already.
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Kittymine, OSW, with various characters on BA
in March 28th, 2010 @ 11:09May I join in here?
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starr
in March 28th, 2010 @ 12:30Of course!
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Kittymine, OSW, with various characters on BA
in March 28th, 2010 @ 13:12Okay, just to make sure I’m reading this right: The plan is to read Alice and Wonderland and Though the Looking Glass or just one of them?
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speller73
in March 28th, 2010 @ 13:27Just the first one, I think. Personally, I’m planning on reading both, but I think we’re just discussing the first one.
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Kittymine, OSW, with various characters on BA
in March 28th, 2010 @ 15:4233.1 – Thanks!
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Beetles and Drakon ( ^_^ ) and Four-Eye (%_%) and Thorn (20 wung points)
in March 31st, 2010 @ 14:2929- Hey, that’s the copy I read! I also saw the movie a few days ago.
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Cat's Eye
in March 31st, 2010 @ 23:17I realize this is a bit late, but I’m in to discuss. I love Alice in Wonderland! And of course, all various spinoffs, esp. the one featured in my avatar. Oh, Hatter… *sighs*
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starr
in April 2nd, 2010 @ 16:40It’s in the public domain, right? I haven’t even started yet…oh yeah, sorry, now I see the link.
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Adeia
in April 5th, 2010 @ 20:20May I reccomend “Elsewhere” for your next book? I’ll poof in when it’s time for disscusion….
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Adeia
in April 5th, 2010 @ 20:23oh… sorry… I just realized that it say you are to have finished it by the 12th….. In that case I will pick up a copy….
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Adeia
in April 6th, 2010 @ 18:24Wow that was a quick read…. And I think I understood it pretty well…
Are we reading “through the looking glass” as well? I am planing to read it anyway but still….
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Vendaval
in April 6th, 2010 @ 22:41I think a few of us have, or will read Looking Glass, we’ll see if the conversation eventually ends up there.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in April 12th, 2010 @ 10:25I’m glad that Carroll didn’t stop with AiW. Without Through the Looking-Glass, there would be no Jabberwock, no Tweedledee and Tweedledum, no Walrus and Carpenter, no Humpty-Dumpty, and no White Knight.
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39.1
cromwell
in April 12th, 2010 @ 14:48Ahem. Here I will debunk any myths anyone might have picked up from A View From Saturday. *glares at E.L. Konigsburg* Humpty Dumpty came from a nursery rhyme. Look it up on Wikipedia. And yes, there would be no White Knight, but what about the Black Knight?
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40
speller73
in April 12th, 2010 @ 10:37*still needs to finish Through the looking Glass* So today is the deadline, is it not? Shall the discussion commence?
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40.1
Luna the Lovely
in April 12th, 2010 @ 12:04o.0 Luna must confess she fell massively behind, and only got the first two chapters read….And although she read the book ages ago in whole, she doesn’t remember it well enough to still contribute.
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40.1.1
starr
in April 12th, 2010 @ 16:21I’m afraid I’m only at about the same place, maybe three or four chapters in though.
Ugh, now I feel awful, because I’m in a book club and I know how annoying it is when other people don’t finish the book. Sorry, all. I’ll try to catch up.
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40.2
Rosebud2
in April 12th, 2010 @ 15:54Wait, we needed to read Through The Looking Glass?
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40.2.1
Vendaval
in April 12th, 2010 @ 16:44Nope, reading Through The Looking Glass is optional.
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41
Vendaval
in April 12th, 2010 @ 16:01Gah, I meant to post something last night, or atleast have something ready, but I’m behind again. More later!
I did have the pleasure of reading Alice’s Adventures; I see a few of us are still finishing up. That’s fine, you might just not want to check back here until you’re done. Speaking of spoilers:MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILER. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILER. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS.
Now, I wonder, is the book really nonsensical?
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41.1
Pseudonym
in April 12th, 2010 @ 19:56I don’t think it’s nonsensical. Well, if you try to make sense of it it becomes nonsensical. But otherwise, it makes perfect sense.
By the way, is Alice in Wonderland a satire on the English government? That’s what my social studies teacher told me, but I didn’t believe her. It sounded like one of those theories made up by people who can’t find the sense in things.
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41.1.1
speller73
in April 12th, 2010 @ 20:32Some of it… Most of it is a satire on the society of Victorian England… It helps if you read a copy that has the occasional footnote explaining some of the references.
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41.2
Cat's Eye
in April 12th, 2010 @ 21:55MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILER. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILER. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS.
I felt like Lewis Carroll was one of those people who believed in the childlike wonder, innocence, and simple happiness of childhood. Being closer to childhood myself, I tend to disagree. I didn’t feel like I was happier when I was a kid, just that I swore less, if that makes sense. My level of happiness was the same, but I had less important things to be unhappy and happy about.
But yeah, it seems pretty nonsensical to me. It’s a dream, though, so one might expect it to be.
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42
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in April 13th, 2010 @ 07:03MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS.
It’s not simple nonsense, though. For example, the poems in the book are all parodies of poems or songs that Victorian children were expected to know and recite. (The original lyrics are in The Annotated Alice; I can post them here, if you like.) The “dry” passage in the “Caucus-Race” chapter was taken from one of their actual textbooks.
It’s also full of private jokes. There was a real Alice, who had an elder sister named Lorina and a younger sister named Edith. The book was inspired by afternoon boating trips the author took with Alice and her family, his relatives, and a friend of his named Robinson Duckworth. In Chapters 2 and 3, the Lory is Lorina; the Eaglet is Edith; the Duck is Duckworth; and the Dodo is Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson. (The story of the three sisters in the treacle well in the “Mad Tea-Party” chapter is similar: “Lacie” is an anagram of Alice.)
So a lot of the nonsense isn’t random but developed as a sort of game among people who knew one another. I don’t think it spoils the fun to know a little about that.
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43
bookgirl_me
in April 13th, 2010 @ 10:17SPOILER SPOILER AIW SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER… (and on and on)
42- That does make sense. On one hand, it reads like nonsense, but you always have the feeling he’s talking about something.
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44
Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)
in April 13th, 2010 @ 12:21MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS.
To me the nonsense aspect always seemed very much in keeping with the way a young child sees much of the grown-up world — illogical, contrary, inexplicable, and unfair.
I must have been about Alice’s age or even younger when I first read the books, and they immediately took deep hold of me, probably because that internal psychology resonated so strongly. The fact that waistcoats and orange marmalade seemed just as mysterious and outlandish to me as any croquet game played with flamingoes only made the stories more wonderful and Alice’s heroism more impressive.
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45
Beetles
in April 13th, 2010 @ 16:19I quite liked Alice In Wonderland. I can see reasons why some people wouldn’t like it, though…
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46
Jadestone
in April 14th, 2010 @ 20:44ALice! I will post about it soon when I have time and it is not the night before opening night! I promise!
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47
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in April 17th, 2010 @ 20:46(41.2) Cat’s Eye:
Many Victorians did sentimentalize childhood, but Wonderland and the looking-glass land certainly aren’t all sweetness and light. For one thing, the characters there are very rude, always insulting one another and making personal remarks. To a child brought up to be soft-spoken and well-mannered — “seen but not heard” — all the chaos and rule-breaking in the story must have been appealing.
Also, some of the jokes that Carroll breezes through are a bit dark, when you think about them. In Chapter 1, for example:
“Well!” thought Alice to herself, “after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! … Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!” (which was very likely true.)
Later, in Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty tells Alice that her age — seven years and six months — is “uncomfortable” and that she should have stopped at seven. Alice replies that “one can’t help growing older.” Humpty Dumpty says: “One can’t, perhaps, … but two can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.” Brrr… and there are many more.
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47.1
muselover
in July 31st, 2010 @ 15:09Ooh…Fridge Horror.
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48
Jadestone
in April 17th, 2010 @ 23:17MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS. MUSEBLOG BOOK CLUB AiW SPOILERS.
47- Yes, that second joke is chilling indeed.
I am a big fan of AiW, as I’ve said. There’s just something about it. The content isn’t logical, but it makes sense, in a way.
(I have to go. Bein yelled at to get off the computer, because I don’t “contribute enough to the household.” Well no I don’t I was gone for 10 hours today, it’s rather hard to do things when one’s not around. But I shall have to finish this later, again)
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49
Ambystoma Maculatum and Joolb (~)_+) (10 wung points)
in July 18th, 2010 @ 09:00This needs revival. What should we read next?
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50
Alice
in July 18th, 2010 @ 11:0349- Player Piano? Little, Big? David Copperfield?
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51
Cat's Eye
in July 18th, 2010 @ 23:15Howsabout Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow? (Yes, the Cory Doctorow of xkcd fame.) It’s pretty fantastic, and good discussion material.
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52
muselover
in July 31st, 2010 @ 15:08We should read the original Sherlock Holmes. They’re all in the public domain. If not, Ender’s Game is a good choice. That, however, is not in the public domain.
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