GeekNights 081211 - A Wizard of Earthsea

Apreche

Tonight on GeekNights it's book club time! We talk all about A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. Rym's choice for the next book club is A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.

Scott's Thing - Soft 9-11
Rym's Thing - Inspiration

Koholint

Cool! Finally a book I've already read for the next book club.

Viga

Crap! Why did I give my Ernest Hemingway collection away!

Sail

A Farewell to Armsby Ernest Hemingway.

The answer might be in the episode, but if you're going to choose a Hemingway book, why this one? If people don't already like Hemingway, this isn't the one that's going to make them like Hemingway.

Walker

God damn, this book club is not working out for me. I've put both Snow Crash and A Wizard of Earthsea on hold, but the library has yet to produce either copy. This is honestly the longest I've had to wait for a hold to arrive.

csrjjsmp

The Canterbury Tales is definitely a chore to read in the original Middle English (but certainly not harder than Ulysses, and it sounds like you've read that), but if you can find a good translation into modern English, you may find you will enjoy it. I liked the entire book, especially The Knight's Tale, the Franklin's Tale, and the Nun's Priest's tale, and I know a lot of people like the Miller's and Reeve's tales for their simplicity, humor, and sexual content.
Of course, you may be better off reading Troilus and Cressida, general consensus ranks that as the better of Chaucer's works.

A Farewell to Arms is a fine choice for the next book. I may have missed it in the episode; could you put a reminder as to when the next book club episode will be?

Apreche

I may have missed it in the episode; could you put a reminder as to when the next book club episode will be?

Four Thursdays from now. So there will be three Thursday episodes that are not book clubs. Then the next Thursday episode after that will be it.

jkoellner

"A Farewell to Arms"

Good call on the book Rym.

Rym

Good call on the book Rym.

I'd still rather have done the Odyssey, but I have little faith that enough people would have read it.

Jason

I'd still rather have done the Odyssey, but I have little faith that enough people would have read it.

Did you know Brad Pitt is making a film adaptation? It's set in space. As in outer space. No lie.

...

I'd still rather have done the Odyssey, but I have little faith that enough people would have read it.

That's your reason? The podcast's not going anywhere, neither is the discussion. I for one am still reading The Prince of Nothing: The Darkness that comes Before.

Rym

The podcast's not going anywhere, neither is the discussion.

Well, I don't expect many of our listeners to read it ever...

...

Well, I don't expect many of our listeners to read it ever...

That's certainly a big possibility, but with the amount of media you guys already suggest on the show, can you blame them? People like to check out media you have not recommended also, so won't have time to read/watch/listen to everything you guys talk about. So why not just ignore the length of books when deciding upon a new book for the book club.

Coldguy

Hey there is nothing wrong with reading books, I finished 4 in the past week and some of them ranged from the severely technical to nonfiction stuff you can not make up. I might have to plunder the library to get this one I can almost guarantee they will have some variation of this title.

snipejaeg

I went out and picked up a copy of Farewell to Arms at a used bookstore this afternoon - looking forward to digging in to it. We read The Old Man and The Sea in high school, but that's pretty much all I know about Hemingway. Well, that, and his awesome cats.

mkg12

Ordered the book from Amazon, but haven't received or read it yet. This episode will have to go on hold.

HungryJoe

It was dusk. So this is how it is, this is how it always happens at dusk. Obscenity your dusk. With my last 50 francs I purchased some true and honest 3 Lions Stout; I took a pull from the bottle. It was good. It burned my mouth and felt good and warm going down my esophagus and into my stomach. From there it went to my kidneys and my bladder, and it was good.

I remembered then when I last saw Jason who was still a damn fine writer. It was in Pomplona and we looked out the windows at the dusty street and drank 3 Lions Stout at dusk. It was dusk and had been dusk for some time.

Although the bulls had long cleared the streets, the young men were still sweating and leaping for the amusement of the beautiful Spanish women. Jason walked among them lamenting his own lost youth. He began to speak, but I asked him not to ruin it. We walked along silently as the evening quickly fell into clear night and I thought about gazelles I had seen in Africa leaping like the Spanish youths and how I would like to kill such a gazelle. Jason pushed open the door to the most well lit place and we stood at the door for a moment before going in.

Jason

I just rode 20 miles on my roflcycle.

Thaed

The older books are a lot less accessible to modern readers because of the language issues. I mean Hyperion is a very good book, but you can't compare Simmons to Homer or Hemingway. He is simply not in the same class.

Walker

I got a copy of A Farewell to Arms at the library today, and I'm really enjoying it. It took me a little while to come to terms with the fact that I would see about five commas every ten pages, but once I did I started to wonder why I hadn't read some Hemingway before now. Thanks for the recommendation.

Schnevets

So, normally I'll skip the Book Club episodes until I read the book (which only happened with Snow Crash), but I decided screw it, I have a backlog of books, I'm just gonna listen to the episode. Now I have to admit, you two really sold the book for me. I don't care if some stuff is spoiled, I'm definitely more interested. I'd suggest not waiting for people to read the book, just doing it when you want to, starting the conversation without spoilers, and then, whenever it seems natural in the episode, saying "okay, spoiler time, if you want to read it, stop right here." It's a format that's successful on the /filmcast, and seems ideal for a podcast that requires some participation.

Don't condescend by compromising your book choices. I really like the episodes, you two already made me rethink Snow Crash. Maybe make it a real book club and have some other readers on the show to discuss it (just a suggestion). Regardless, the episodes are a good addition, and don't be daunted if you think it's been unsuccessful.


Oh, and Rym, have you ever heard of Bad Hemingway? It's a contest that a restaurant offers to writers every year where people write short stories mimicking Hemingway's style and tropes. There's some good humor in there if you're a fan. There are some imitators online, but for the real experience, try to track down the books. There are some penny copies at Amazon.

lunacia

A bit on the late side here, but in the podcast you were wondering of the number of books. There are six novels, as well as some short stories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Le_Guin#The_Earthsea_novels

I've read the four first novels, loved them.

Luke Burrage

I read the Wizard of Earthsea two days ago on account of this book club. I'd read it before, maybe fifteen years ago, so it was quite nostalgic. I've nothing much to add to your discussion though, you pretty much covered everything. I just remember the final "twist" to be blatantly obvious throughout, even when I was 13. It seemed even more obvious this time round, but maybe because I was just waiting for it.

Apreche

I just remember the final "twist" to be blatantly obvious throughout, even when I was 13. It seemed even more obvious this time round, but maybe because I was just waiting for it.

I always have a hard time judging things like that. The twist at the end was only obvious because I have the experiences in my life which make it obvious. I've consumed enough other media, that I am able to expect the ending. I wonder if I would have the same experience if I were reading it as a child in 1968. Was it obvious then? If not, is it fair to criticise it for being obvious now? I really don't know.

Luke Burrage

I'm not really criticising the book as such, mainly the perception that the "twist" is a twist at all. It is spelled out quite clearly earlier on in the book, so I'm not sure how much consuming other media has to do with it. I grew up in a house with no TV, so I watched very few films or other visual media, and I worked out the twist by reading the previous words in the same book.

Apreche

I'm not really criticising the book as such, mainly the perception that the "twist" is a twist at all. It is spelled out quite clearly earlier on in the book, so I'm not sure how much consuming other media has to do with it. I grew up in a house with no TV, so I watched very few films or other visual media, and I worked out the twist by reading the previous words in the same book.

That's the thing with foreshadowing. If you don't foreshadow, then whatever you do seems to come out of nowhere. If you do foreshadow, then smart people will not be surprised. If you foreshadow one thing, but do another, that's also sort of a cliche.

If a surprise or twist is your goal, you really need to go one of two routes. One route is to pull a Hitchcock where your twist is so much more clever than the most clever person. Two is to do a Watchmen or an Utena, where you hide all the answers in plain sight, so that anyone who isn't reading with a fine-toothed comb will be totally shocked. Then upon re-reading with said comb they will be totally amazed at how much they missed.