Hey ladies,
We have decided to get the book club going again!
The book we have chosen is called 'Lullabies for little criminals'
The blurb of the book is as follows:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/winners/2007.html
We have decided to discuss the book in person to add a little bit of motivation.
Some of the dates we have decided to get together are June 29th, and August 10th.
More information will come later and happy reading!
Jax
Saturday, April 13
Sunday, December 5
December Book!
Happy December!!
The snow is starting to fall, its getting colder outside and soon it will be our December get-together!! Now is a great time to curl up with a hot beverage and read a good book by the fire. I would recommend Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro. It is a series of short stories, which is a first for our little book club.
It was great catching up with some of you during the November Wine and Words. For those of you that missed it, you will just have to come out to the December one!! We will make sure you make up for your absence by drinking double the amount. :)
If for whatever reason you find yourself 1 hour before our meeting time, not having read the book, and don't want to be yelled at, then jump to the short story called The Bear Came Over the Mountain. Read that one at the VERY least, and answer very select questions during our discussion to fool the rest of us into believing you read the whole book. Okay? Okay.
See you all soon!!
Monday, October 25
Revival
And after a brief hiatus, Feminism and Robots, is back! And to start off things with a bang, here is our next book:
We should be finishing this novel sometime at the end of November. And as it turns out this classic has recently be made into a film - maybe that will warrant another meeting/outing for our gang :)
We could potentially post a few questions or comments on this site, so that we can keep track of points we can discuss at our next meeting - sound like a plan?
Wednesday, September 2
Birdsong
DISCUSS ME!
I know that Sherry mentioned she already had a post written, just not posted, but as it is already September (gasp!), and she is on holidays, I think this post should suffice for us to share our joys, frustrations (Laine), and insights that arose while reading this book. For now. Because if we don't talk about it now, we may never look at it again. Until the movie comes out of course, then we will have to make it a field trip! But certainly the persistent use of gory details to paint a picture of World War One, is very effective, and worthy of some discussion.
I thought I should share that I checked a lot of the history (ie. locations, battles, timeline) and they are all historically accurate (unless of course the person who authored all the Wikipedia articles, only used this book as a source).
Anyways, hope you can still remember the book. And in the meantime, happy reading of Sedaris!
Thursday, July 9
"Birdsong" Preview Post
So, I finally decided to get off my sorry lazy butt and post up the preview post for our July book "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks. Hopefully you guys have started reading it, so this preview post probably won't be any surprise to you but here it is anyways. And just as a warning, this preview will not be anywhere near as intelligent as Laine's.
"Birdsong" was published in 1993 by British author Sebastian Faulks. Faulks has written two other books set in France that are connected by minor characters including "Charlotte Gray" and "The Girl at the Lion D'Or". He has become one of the most popular writers in England and his stories are often about Modern European and American history. Most of his stories feature similar themes, namely contrasting themes of love/war, violence/peace and how they exist in the same reality for people.
Birdsong tells the story of Stephen Wraysford before, during and after World War I. The story covers three different time periods and is split into seven sections. The first is before the war when Stephen is 20-years-old and traveling in France to learn about the manufacturing business where he ends up having a disastrous affair with the business owner's wife. The story then jumps ahead six years later to his life in the war and also about the life of his granddaughter Elizabeth.
While the story jumps in its timeline, it's largely episodic. While Stephen is the main protagonist, it also features a lot of supporting characters that are fleshed out and given backstories as well. It is told as a third person narrative and focuses largely on the lives, details and experiences of the soldiers in World War I, including the psychological implications the war had on the soldiers as they try to return to a normal life after all they have seen and done.
I'm not particularly a fan of war novels but I've heard great things about the book and hope you guys will enjoy it! Since I've started reading it, the detail in it has made me somewhat uneasy but I suppose that's kind of the point. Faulks doesn't glorify war but instead focuses on the reality of it.
Also, Toby Stephens, who is my new obsession, has done a BBC Radio dramatization of it. Therefore, I will now be spending the next little while obsessively looking for it.
Tune in near the end of the month for the discussion post and enjoy!
Tuesday, June 30
One Month Review
Woah! One more day, and it is already July ... which means a new book to find and read!
That also means you have one day to participate and discuss, discuss, and discuss some more about Murakami's genius and out-of-this-world work! Just kidding! It would be great to continue discussing until there is nothing left to say. + the characters in End of the World won't be going anywhere, they'll exist forever!
Anyways, I thought this might be a good time to reflect on the logistics and process of this adventure, so please comment on what you think works, and what does not work. Is it feasible to read one book a month, and keep up with television shows and the world news while also living, working and playing? Do tell!
Tuesday, June 23
Murakami Discussion Post
Since this is a book club, this entry will be less of a review and more of a series of discussion launch-pads, chock full of spoilers. So finish reading the book! Think of it like attending tutorial in university :P
- One of the first things that struck me was the alleged conflict between Calcutecs and Semiotecs. Now I don't know if this is deliberate or a by-product of translation, but the term 'Semiotecs' immediately brings my mind to semiotics -- the study of signs and symbols, including how meaning is constructed in language. One of Ferdinand de Saussure's basic linguistic premises is that all information that enters our brains comes to us through language -- be it text, body language, visual information or whatnot. The three major components of delivering information are the sign, signifier and signified. The sign is the object conveying information. A tree is a sign, a stop sign is a sign, a smiley emoticon is a sign, the word 'cat' is a sign. Each sign is constructed of a series of signifiers and contexts, elements that our brains link to specific meanings, or signifieds. For example, in a smiley emoticon, the symbols : and ) have their own meaning in language, but paired together in :) they mean something different. Thus, context changes meaning, and different collections of signifiers have different signifieds. One of the most contentious issues raised in de Saussurian semiotics is that the link between signifier and signified (symbol and meaning) is completely arbitrary. There is no connection, for example, between the letters C-A-T and the meaning it conjures up. There is nothing feline about C, A or T, nothing to do with fur and claws and snooty independence. As such, language is not only a collective body -- a series of meanings agreed upon by everybody who speaks it -- but a changing, flexible and decomposing force.
This decomposition is truly evident in the nature of the Professor's sound cancellation -- when his granddaughter is sound-removed, her language makes no sense to the Calcutec officer. What happens when very fabric of communication breaks down? When the agreed upon symbols and signifiers no longer function to relate the same signifieds?
At first the book seems to pit the logic of numbers against the arbitrary nature of written language, but as the lines between Calcutec and Semiotec are blurred (and later become completely superficial), what does that mean? Yes, numbers are recognizable as a language just as arbitrary as any other. But what does it say when numbers/language; destruction/preservation; force/manipulation are different sides of the same coin -- and, ultimately, the same mind?
- Another thing about signifieds and communication I found fascinating was the complete lack of proper names in the book. None of the characters have names. They are all identifiable (and thoroughly developed) by their relationships to the protagonist and their personality traits. "Big Boy and Junior", for instance, could easily be replaced by their names -- but this way, the reader receives a more complete signified without any of the normal textual signifiers. Which is perhaps more honest, I think, making meaning that exists beyond language (despite the irony of being in a printed book). Throughout text, signifieds grow in our understanding as more and more of the plot is revealed to us, but normally the signifiers would stay static. 'Jane' at the beginning of a text is the same 'Jane' at the end of the text. In HBW, these character tags expand and contract over time. The librarian becomes "my reference desk girlfriend"; the "Professor's granddaughter" becomes "the chubby pink girl" both before her relationship to her grandfather is established and after she has (forcibly) claimed her independence in the protagonist's broken apartment. These tags explain more than 'Jane' could.
This also highlights the contrasting limitations of the End of the World, where one is purely defined by one's profession. There is no wiggle room in identity there; just as 'Jane' summarizes the entirety of Jane's life and personality, 'Librarian' or 'Gatekeeper' does the same. It encompasses a varied personality and reduces it to a title.
(A process which is interesting in and of itself, as that is what the brain does when receiving information -- taking the myriad facets of experience and observation and managing it so that it becomes useful information. After all, we don't spend much time thinking "okay, smooth brown trunk plus 8 feet tall plus wide spread of branches plus green or red palmate leaves equals maple tree.")
- The book, I think, embraces a movement away from simple text and speech as a reliable signifier, forcing the reader to be more analytical in the way they process what's going on. Not everything as it seems, and the complications of communication (like the sound-removed granddaughter, the clouded history of the library books, the puzzles of communication in The End of the World) become commonplace. The failure of communication becomes more accurate -- and more interesting -- than proper communication.
- The lack of music, of art, of creativity in the End of the World is an interesting contrast to the Calcutec officer's life. I suppose it is impossible to know whether this is a by-product of the Professor's tinkering, the Calcutec's mind structure, or simply because in the deep hidden recesses of our minds there is no need for art, music, etc.
But suppose, theoretically, that the subconscious workings of the mind needs no art to regulate itself and keep its perfection. It even goes so far as to reject and prohibit art. Art will ruin its perfection. Does art, then, remind us of, or even facilitate, human imperfection, human struggle? Is that its value?
The Calcultec officer's conscious life is replete with art: classical music, Bob Dylan, old rock stars, Russian and French literature, wild west movies, fine whisky and delicious food. He relishes in these things as a counterpoint to his seemingly-mundane existence. Even his memories (or false-memories, like water-level rising in the underground temple) are conveyed through a filmic mode of communication.
Is this just a by-product of a mediatized world, or does art then become a way we filter experience?
- The Russian literature and American wild west films are particularly intriguing. Two of Japan's major cultural influences due to proximity and military influence. Their importance is probably (at least in part) because of Murakami's own post-war influences and the opening of Japan's cultural borders. But they also speak of the idea of the benevolent foreign universe: that somewhere outside this place is a world of culture and beauty and progress, and within this (cultural) prison, we can only catch glimpses.
As such, the End of the World could almost be a metaphor of pre-War Japan, closed off from the rest of the world. Idyllic, perhaps, but missing something. (Of course I've only had rudimentary study of Japanese history, so forgive my potential ridiculous statements :P)
- The metaphor of the shadow is an interesting one. One that I haven't quite puzzled through what it means. An integral part of us that we take for granted, whose burden we must bear at every choice. Youth, perhaps. First world status, perhaps. I'm not sure. It's a poignant metaphor nonetheless.
- The passage of time, and its emotional nuances, vary greatly between the two stories. Months pass for the Dreamreader, and Murakami is quick to impress upon his readers the changing seasons and their emotional weight. The sombre solitude and decline of winter feel crisp and deadly in comparison to soft, golden edge of fall. These passages read almost like protracted traditional Japanese haiku, which possesses kireji and kigo: the first, called the "cutting word", represents a turning point at the end of a line that lends structure and meaning; the latter is an (often indirect) allusion to the season in which the haiku occurs. Perhaps the titles of these chapters, less forthright that the chapter titles for the Hard Boiled Wonderland series, can be understood as the kireji.
Two weeks pass for the Calcutec officer, a much more abrupt and hard-boiled (haha) series of chases and escapes. Nearly every moment is documented, and he barely gets any sleep. The weight of the action here is made even heavier by the intellectual complications the Professor presents us with; much different than the moral obligations the Dreamreader bears.
- And, finally, my last question: what happens when you jump through the Whirlpool?
~Laine
- One of the first things that struck me was the alleged conflict between Calcutecs and Semiotecs. Now I don't know if this is deliberate or a by-product of translation, but the term 'Semiotecs' immediately brings my mind to semiotics -- the study of signs and symbols, including how meaning is constructed in language. One of Ferdinand de Saussure's basic linguistic premises is that all information that enters our brains comes to us through language -- be it text, body language, visual information or whatnot. The three major components of delivering information are the sign, signifier and signified. The sign is the object conveying information. A tree is a sign, a stop sign is a sign, a smiley emoticon is a sign, the word 'cat' is a sign. Each sign is constructed of a series of signifiers and contexts, elements that our brains link to specific meanings, or signifieds. For example, in a smiley emoticon, the symbols : and ) have their own meaning in language, but paired together in :) they mean something different. Thus, context changes meaning, and different collections of signifiers have different signifieds. One of the most contentious issues raised in de Saussurian semiotics is that the link between signifier and signified (symbol and meaning) is completely arbitrary. There is no connection, for example, between the letters C-A-T and the meaning it conjures up. There is nothing feline about C, A or T, nothing to do with fur and claws and snooty independence. As such, language is not only a collective body -- a series of meanings agreed upon by everybody who speaks it -- but a changing, flexible and decomposing force.
This decomposition is truly evident in the nature of the Professor's sound cancellation -- when his granddaughter is sound-removed, her language makes no sense to the Calcutec officer. What happens when very fabric of communication breaks down? When the agreed upon symbols and signifiers no longer function to relate the same signifieds?
At first the book seems to pit the logic of numbers against the arbitrary nature of written language, but as the lines between Calcutec and Semiotec are blurred (and later become completely superficial), what does that mean? Yes, numbers are recognizable as a language just as arbitrary as any other. But what does it say when numbers/language; destruction/preservation; force/manipulation are different sides of the same coin -- and, ultimately, the same mind?
- Another thing about signifieds and communication I found fascinating was the complete lack of proper names in the book. None of the characters have names. They are all identifiable (and thoroughly developed) by their relationships to the protagonist and their personality traits. "Big Boy and Junior", for instance, could easily be replaced by their names -- but this way, the reader receives a more complete signified without any of the normal textual signifiers. Which is perhaps more honest, I think, making meaning that exists beyond language (despite the irony of being in a printed book). Throughout text, signifieds grow in our understanding as more and more of the plot is revealed to us, but normally the signifiers would stay static. 'Jane' at the beginning of a text is the same 'Jane' at the end of the text. In HBW, these character tags expand and contract over time. The librarian becomes "my reference desk girlfriend"; the "Professor's granddaughter" becomes "the chubby pink girl" both before her relationship to her grandfather is established and after she has (forcibly) claimed her independence in the protagonist's broken apartment. These tags explain more than 'Jane' could.
This also highlights the contrasting limitations of the End of the World, where one is purely defined by one's profession. There is no wiggle room in identity there; just as 'Jane' summarizes the entirety of Jane's life and personality, 'Librarian' or 'Gatekeeper' does the same. It encompasses a varied personality and reduces it to a title.
(A process which is interesting in and of itself, as that is what the brain does when receiving information -- taking the myriad facets of experience and observation and managing it so that it becomes useful information. After all, we don't spend much time thinking "okay, smooth brown trunk plus 8 feet tall plus wide spread of branches plus green or red palmate leaves equals maple tree.")
- The book, I think, embraces a movement away from simple text and speech as a reliable signifier, forcing the reader to be more analytical in the way they process what's going on. Not everything as it seems, and the complications of communication (like the sound-removed granddaughter, the clouded history of the library books, the puzzles of communication in The End of the World) become commonplace. The failure of communication becomes more accurate -- and more interesting -- than proper communication.
- The lack of music, of art, of creativity in the End of the World is an interesting contrast to the Calcutec officer's life. I suppose it is impossible to know whether this is a by-product of the Professor's tinkering, the Calcutec's mind structure, or simply because in the deep hidden recesses of our minds there is no need for art, music, etc.
But suppose, theoretically, that the subconscious workings of the mind needs no art to regulate itself and keep its perfection. It even goes so far as to reject and prohibit art. Art will ruin its perfection. Does art, then, remind us of, or even facilitate, human imperfection, human struggle? Is that its value?
The Calcultec officer's conscious life is replete with art: classical music, Bob Dylan, old rock stars, Russian and French literature, wild west movies, fine whisky and delicious food. He relishes in these things as a counterpoint to his seemingly-mundane existence. Even his memories (or false-memories, like water-level rising in the underground temple) are conveyed through a filmic mode of communication.
Is this just a by-product of a mediatized world, or does art then become a way we filter experience?
- The Russian literature and American wild west films are particularly intriguing. Two of Japan's major cultural influences due to proximity and military influence. Their importance is probably (at least in part) because of Murakami's own post-war influences and the opening of Japan's cultural borders. But they also speak of the idea of the benevolent foreign universe: that somewhere outside this place is a world of culture and beauty and progress, and within this (cultural) prison, we can only catch glimpses.
As such, the End of the World could almost be a metaphor of pre-War Japan, closed off from the rest of the world. Idyllic, perhaps, but missing something. (Of course I've only had rudimentary study of Japanese history, so forgive my potential ridiculous statements :P)
- The metaphor of the shadow is an interesting one. One that I haven't quite puzzled through what it means. An integral part of us that we take for granted, whose burden we must bear at every choice. Youth, perhaps. First world status, perhaps. I'm not sure. It's a poignant metaphor nonetheless.
- The passage of time, and its emotional nuances, vary greatly between the two stories. Months pass for the Dreamreader, and Murakami is quick to impress upon his readers the changing seasons and their emotional weight. The sombre solitude and decline of winter feel crisp and deadly in comparison to soft, golden edge of fall. These passages read almost like protracted traditional Japanese haiku, which possesses kireji and kigo: the first, called the "cutting word", represents a turning point at the end of a line that lends structure and meaning; the latter is an (often indirect) allusion to the season in which the haiku occurs. Perhaps the titles of these chapters, less forthright that the chapter titles for the Hard Boiled Wonderland series, can be understood as the kireji.
Two weeks pass for the Calcutec officer, a much more abrupt and hard-boiled (haha) series of chases and escapes. Nearly every moment is documented, and he barely gets any sleep. The weight of the action here is made even heavier by the intellectual complications the Professor presents us with; much different than the moral obligations the Dreamreader bears.
- And, finally, my last question: what happens when you jump through the Whirlpool?
~Laine
Sunday, May 24
Murakami Preview Post
Greetings!
For anyone who has stumbled across this site from the wide world of intertubes, this is an online book club of the read-a-book-and-talk-about-it variety (not the columbia-house-buy-ten-for-one-dollar variety). Every month we'll be reading a book and generating online discussion and debate.
Let's get things started in style: post-modern Japanese fiction! Woo. First up, we have Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I'm reading the Vintage copy, translated by Alfred Birnbaum. Written in 1985, this book contains two intertwining narratives: that of the Hard-Boiled Wonderland and, of course, that of The End of the World. Although belonging more to magic realism than science fiction, HBW&TEW does employ many elements of "dystopic future" sci-fi and creates for us a new world (or worlds) with which we must familiarize ourselves. In the first chapter we are immediately hit with some of Murakami's most prominent themes: magic realism, the everyman narrator, sexuality, (un)spoken language, and the physicality of communication.
Murakami writes in what the internet calls a "post-war mindset", using narrators that question and subvert established orders, critiquing (seemingly omnipresent) societal norms. In many of his works, the different modes of communication used -- varying through combinations of spoken, heard, written, read, electronic, past or live -- carry different emphases and different nuances that he uses to rework our expectations of human interaction.
What I love about his writing is the honesty of it. His narrators take things as they come; they act, react and respond. They don't spend a lot of time whining about what could be, or wishing "if only x, y, z" hadn't happened. They are curious, and often go to great lengths to observe things, but they are still ultimately realistic.
I also appreciate his rather dry sense of humour as well. "A hallway as long as Marcel Proust?" (10).
All right folks!
Tune in mid-way through June for the my discussion topics, but feel free to leave comments/thoughts/questions before then.
~Laine
For anyone who has stumbled across this site from the wide world of intertubes, this is an online book club of the read-a-book-and-talk-about-it variety (not the columbia-house-buy-ten-for-one-dollar variety). Every month we'll be reading a book and generating online discussion and debate.
Let's get things started in style: post-modern Japanese fiction! Woo. First up, we have Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I'm reading the Vintage copy, translated by Alfred Birnbaum. Written in 1985, this book contains two intertwining narratives: that of the Hard-Boiled Wonderland and, of course, that of The End of the World. Although belonging more to magic realism than science fiction, HBW&TEW does employ many elements of "dystopic future" sci-fi and creates for us a new world (or worlds) with which we must familiarize ourselves. In the first chapter we are immediately hit with some of Murakami's most prominent themes: magic realism, the everyman narrator, sexuality, (un)spoken language, and the physicality of communication.
Murakami writes in what the internet calls a "post-war mindset", using narrators that question and subvert established orders, critiquing (seemingly omnipresent) societal norms. In many of his works, the different modes of communication used -- varying through combinations of spoken, heard, written, read, electronic, past or live -- carry different emphases and different nuances that he uses to rework our expectations of human interaction.
What I love about his writing is the honesty of it. His narrators take things as they come; they act, react and respond. They don't spend a lot of time whining about what could be, or wishing "if only x, y, z" hadn't happened. They are curious, and often go to great lengths to observe things, but they are still ultimately realistic.
I also appreciate his rather dry sense of humour as well. "A hallway as long as Marcel Proust?" (10).
All right folks!
Tune in mid-way through June for the my discussion topics, but feel free to leave comments/thoughts/questions before then.
~Laine
Tuesday, May 19
Summer Picks
Here is your list of summer readings (which one my roommates picked out of a hat):
JUNE
Meet Your New Library
After some serious brain crunching we have gathered a list of books that we will be reading over the next year and beyond (in no particular order):
- Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
- The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland
- At Swim- Two-Birds - Flann o'Brien
- The Cave - Tim Krabbe
- When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro
- When You Are Engulfed in Flames -David Sedaris
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
- Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
- The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton
- Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder- Evelyn Waugh
- Black Hole - Charles Burns
- Travesties - Tom Stoppard
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
- The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseni
- Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
- Still Alice - Lisa Genova
Other suggestions
- The Accidental - Ali Smith
- Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
- Men at Arms (first book of the Sword of Honour trilogy) - Evelyn Waugh
- Cambodian Odyssey - Haing Ngor
- My sister's keeper - Jodi Picoult
- Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature - Jan Lars Jensen
Saturday, May 9
Do Not Disturb: Thinking in Progress
Essentially I feel as if I should start this new journey off with either some wise or some witty words, but I can't force either of those. So, instead I will just keep it to a simple WELCOME!
Now that you are here, it is just a matter of getting this show on the road!
Now that you are here, it is just a matter of getting this show on the road!
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