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GeekNights 091008 - Steppenwolf

AprecheApreche
edited October 2009 in GeekNights
Tonight on GeekNights it's the book club, as we discuss Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. The next book club selection is The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
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Comments

  • CremlianCremlian
    Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy!!!! Really? You guys have to have me on for this show....
  • Dr. TimoDr. Timo
    Listening to the mattress section at the beginning (~7min into the show) and my brain started substituting the word girl(friend) immediately after Scott said "you got to lay on it before you buy one"... hilarious yes? Anyone here have audacity skills?
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    my brain started substituting the word girl(friend) immediately
    Don't you mean boy? Amiright?
  • NeitoNeito
    Great, I finally have the time and motivation to dedicate to the book club, and what do they pick? A book I read five times in high school, and twice since.

    (Just kidding. I've been looking for an excuse to re-read Hitchhikers for a while.)
  • ChurbaChurba
    Hey, check this out - the bloke that wrote Artemis fowl is writing the next Hitchhiker's guide book
  • SailSail
    Hey, check this out -the bloke that wrote Artemis fowl is writing the next Hitchhiker's guide book
    I enjoyed the Artemis Fowl stuff as a kid, but I can't conceive of him writing a Hitchhiker's book that could even be in the same ballpark as Adams.
  • NeitoNeito
    Hey, check this out -the bloke that wrote Artemis fowl is writing the next Hitchhiker's guide book
    I enjoyed the Artemis Fowl stuff as a kid, but I can't conceive of him writing a Hitchhiker's book that could even be in the same ballpark as Adams.
    From preview reviews I've read, you're right. He's just not ADAMS enough to pull it off.
  • wryterrawryterra
    Fun trivia fact for you. The radio plays that Rym mentioned, or at least the first two radio plays, are actually the original Hitchhiker's material. The novels started getting written after the primary and secondary phase radio plays. Also the radio plays were originally classified as drama rather than comedy because the BBC had a policy of not wasting stereo recording equipment on comedy but Douglas Adams insisted stereo was required for the show. After Hitchhiker's, all comedy was recorded in stereo at the BBC.
  • AxelAxel
    I can't wait to hear the episode on HHGTTG. I love that book so much. I've read the first three in the series, like, 4-5 years ago. I might need to re-read the first one to remember some small details. I remember a lot though.
  • GeoGeo
    edited October 2009
    I can't wait to hear the episode on HHGTTG. I love that book so much. I've read the first three in the series, like, 4-5 years ago. I might need to re-read the first one to remember some small details. I remember a lot though.
    Beware of the Leopard, fairy cake, and mice.
    Post edited by Geo on
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited October 2009
    I enjoyed the Artemis Fowl stuff as a kid, but I can't conceive of him writing a Hitchhiker's book that could even be in the same ballpark as Adams.
    I'm going to wait and see - that's actually a link to an interview and the way he responded gave me some hope for it, and I think he's in with a chance. And it's not nessassarly a Dent-and-ford book, just "A hitchhiker's book" So, it might still be good, standing on the shoulders of giants etc etc.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • JonTheNiceGuyJonTheNiceGuy
    I've only recently started listening to the show, but I was wondering whether the Book Club plans to read or has read already Little Brother by Cory Doctorow? If not, you should :)

    It's set slightly in the future and deals with privacy, encryption and how these are being linked to Terrorism to encourage us not to use them!... OK, so it's a bit more geeky than your average fiction book, but my non-geeky wife ready it, and she really enjoyed it. She said that it explained a load of technical concepts in a really easy-to-understand way. Considering she doesn't even really know how to reboot our cable modem... (unplug, plug back in)... this was indeed high praise!

    Anyway, back to work!

    Jon "The Nice Guy"
  • ΣπεκωσποκΣπεκωσποκ
    edited October 2009
    Interesting pick... just so happens I've been reading THHGttG in Italian, so this gives me some incentive to actually finish it.

    By the way, The Road by Cormac McCarthy might be a good future pick for the book club.
    Post edited by Σπεκωσποκ on
  • gomidoggomidog
    edited October 2009
    The Roadby Cormac McCarthy
    I know it won the Pulitzer, but it's unrelentingly grim.
    Post edited by gomidog on
  • AprecheApreche
    I know it won the Pulitzer, but it's unrelentingly grim.
    image
  • FunfetusFunfetus
    I know it won the Pulitzer, but it's unrelentingly grim.
    It really is. I absolutely can't believe it was an Oprah book club choice. SPOILER: Baby cannibalism? It's very good, though. (I may be biased with my postapocalypse fetish.)
  • WindUpBirdWindUpBird
    From preview reviews I've read, you're right. He's just not ADAMS enough to pull it off.
    I've met Eoin Colfer in person, and from what I recall, he's quite the oddball, with a great sense of humor and a wry, sardonic side that comes out even when talking to a gym full of kids (this was back in eighth grade). As such, I'll reserve judgment until the book comes out.
  • ChurbaChurba
    From preview reviews I've read, you're right. He's just not ADAMS enough to pull it off.
    I've met Eoin Colfer in person, and from what I recall, he's quite the oddball, with a great sense of humor and a wry, sardonic side that comes out even when talking to a gym full of kids (this was back in eighth grade). As such, I'll reserve judgment until the book comes out.
    I actually watched an interview on newsnight, not of Eoin Colfer, but of Kevin Smith, Natalie Haynes, and Jeanette Winterson, and they agreed that they have high hopes for his hitchhiker book. Unfortunately, it's on BBC IPlayer, so Americans are somewhat out of luck, but I'm sure there's clips on youtube by now.
  • Admiral HotcakesAdmiral Hotcakes
    Eoin gets his books to sell by making the covers shiny.
  • SailSail
    Eoin gets his books to sell by making the covers shiny.
    Not gonna lie, that's what got me to pick up and look at the first Artemis Fowl book when it came out.
  • WindUpBirdWindUpBird
    I'd just like to submit my vote for Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as a future book club choice. It's an absolutely amazing book, and everyone who cares about Japan, love, humanity, loneliness, or anything in life at all should read it. Seriously, it's a masterpiece of contemporary literature, and is both comedic and heartbreaking.
  • ThaedThaed
    Ah, Hermann Hesse (pronounced Hess-a) one of my all time favorites when I was young. Also Goethe is pronounced Gert-a.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Ah, Hermann Hesse (pronounced Hess-a) one of my all time favorites when I was young. Also Goethe is pronounced Gert-a.
    OMG, who pronounced the names incorrectly? I haven't listened to this episode, and I probably won't be able to listen to it until tomorrow.
  • RymRym
    Also Goethe is pronounced Gert-a.
    To this day, I have never in my life heard a person say Goethe's name aloud in my presence. ^_~
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Also Goethe is pronounced Gert-a.
    To this day, I have never in my life heard a person say Goethe's name aloud in my presence. ^_~
    What do literature professors teach kids these days? Even in a 100- level survey course taken to fill a minimum requirement, you should have at least heard that name? What did they have you read?

    Even if you didn't hear it, though, is it necessary for a couple of guys who like to remind people that they were smarter than all their teachers, too smart to take notes, and too smart to do homework to actually hear a word pronounced before they know how to pronounce it correctly for themselves?
  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    What do literature professors teach kids these days? Even in a 100- level survey course taken to fill a minimum requirement, you should have at least heard that name? What did they have you read?
    I highly doubt that Rym and Scott took more than one or two literature classes (if any).
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    edited October 2009
    What do literature professors teach kids these days? Even in a 100- level survey course taken to fill a minimum requirement, you should have at least heard that name? What did they have you read?
    I highly doubt that Rym and Scott took more than one or two literature classes (if any).
    As I said, I'd expect even a low-level survey course to at least say something about Goethe. Apparently, the lads have trouble pronouncing "fresnel" as well.

    I normally wouldn't say anything about such a trifling matter, but I am amused that the guys too smart for their teachers, too smart to take notes, and too smart for homework to be unable to prounounce names like Hesse and Goethe. Maybe they do have something to learn after all.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • RymRym
    I highly doubt that Rym and Scott took more than one or two literature classes (if any).
    My high school was very stringent, and I earned 5s on both the English Language and Literature AP tests.

    The literature class which I was required to take at RIT was a joke. It was barely high school level.
  • RymRym
    I normally wouldn't say anything about such a trifling matter, but I am amused that the guys too smart for their teachers, too smart to take notes, and too smart for homework to be unable to prounounce names like Hesse and Goethe.
    My teachers (and professors) pronounced Hesse incorrectly. Every single one of them. We read a number of his works in middle and high school. I had no reason to believe that they were incorrect at the time.

    As for Goethe, not everyone decides to read everything. He was just never on my radar, and never mentioned in any of my schooling. I believe I'd come across the name once or twice in my own pursuits, but I never followed that academic thread.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    edited October 2009
    I normally wouldn't say anything about such a trifling matter, but I am amused that the guys too smart for their teachers, too smart to take notes, and too smart for homework to be unable to prounounce names like Hesse and Goethe.
    My teachers (and professors) pronounced Hesse incorrectly. Every single one of them. We read a number of his works in middle and high school. I had no reason to believe that they were incorrect at the time.
    You must have had some poor teachers. I'm sorry. But - I thought you were smarter than all your teachers.
    As for Goethe, not everyone decides to read everything. He was just never on my radar, and never mentioned in any of my schooling.
    Goethe is not some obscure nobody. You're talking about the author of Faust and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He also wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther, which, even if lacking in wide readership today, was HUGE in its time, and mentioned in Frankenstein as one of the books the monster read. That shouldn't be very radar-stealthy. If you said that Ageyev flew under your radar, I'd say, "Fair enough. No one knows who he is.", but Goethe?
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
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