|
Welcome goonlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2016, refer to archives] 2016: January: Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing of the Dog!) by Jerome K. Jerome February:The March Up Country (The Anabasis) of Xenophon March: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco April: Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling May: Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima June:The Vegetarian by Han Kang July:Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees August: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov September:Siddhartha by Herman Hesse October:Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse November:Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain December: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis 2017: January: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut February: The Plague by Albert Camus March: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin April: The Conference of the Birds (مقامات الطیور) by Farid ud-Din Attar May: I, Claudius by Robert Graves June: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky July: Ficcionies by Jorge Luis Borges August: My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber September: The Peregrine by J.A. Baker October: Blackwater Vol. I: The Flood by Michael McDowell November: Aquarium by David Vann December: Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight [Author Unknown] 2018 January: Njal's Saga [Author Unknown] February: The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle March: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders April: Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio de Maria May: Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov June: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe July: Warlock by Oakley Hall August: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott September: The Magus by John Fowles October: I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara November: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard December: Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens 2019: January: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky February: BEAR by Marian Engel March: V. by Thomas Pynchon April: The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout May: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman June: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann July: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach August: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay  Current: Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay Book available here: https://www.amazon.com/Picnic-Hanging-Rock-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01E6G6GWO (Two dollars!) If it is out of copyright in your country: https://archive.org/details/PicnicAtHangingRockByJoanLindsay About the book: quote:Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction, my readers must decide for themselves. As the fateful picnic took place in the year nineteen hundred, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems important. quote:Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian historical fiction novel by Joan Lindsay. Set in 1900, it is about a group of female students at an Australian girls' boarding school who vanish at Hanging Rock while on a Valentine's Day picnic, and the effects the disappearances have on the school and local community. The novel was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was reprinted by Penguin in 1975. It is widely considered by critics to be one of the best Australian novels. quote:Lindsay claimed to have written the novel based on an idea she had in a dream. In a 2017 article in The Age, it was noted: "The dream had centred on a summer picnic at a place called Hanging Rock, which Joan knew well from her childhood holidays. Joan told Rae [her housekeeper] that the dream had felt so real that when she awoke at 7.30am, she could still feel the hot summer breeze blowing through the gum trees and she could still hear the peals of laughter and conversation of the people she'd imagined, and their gaiety and lightness of spirit as they set out on their joyful picnic expedition."[5] About the Author(s) quote:Joan à Beckett Lindsay (16 November 1896 – 23 December 1984), also known as Lady Lindsay,[2][3] was an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and visual artist. Trained in her youth as a painter, Lindsay published her first literary work in 1936 at age forty under a pseudonym, a satirical novel titled Through Darkest Pondelayo. Her second novel, Time Without Clocks, was published nearly thirty years later, and was a semi-autobiographical account of her early married years to artist Daryl Lindsay. quote:IT WAS the sort of suitably unnerving moment a fan of the book might have expected to transpire when an audience gathered at Melbourne’s State Theatre in 1975 for the Victorian premiere of the film adaptation of Picnic At Hanging Rock. https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/l...a8abb4c6b1fe174 Themes quote:Well, it was written as a mystery and it remains a mystery. If you can draw your own conclusions, that's fine, but I don't think that it matters. I wrote that book as a sort of atmosphere of a place, and it was like dropping a stone into the water. I felt that story, if you call it a story—that the thing that happened on St. Valentine's Day went on spreading, out and out and out, in circles.[19] quote:Picnic at Hanging Rock is considered by many critics to be one of the best Australian novels.[26][27] Much of the critical and scholarly interest in the novel has centered on its mysterious conclusion, as well as its depiction of Australia's natural environment in contrast with the Victorian population of the newly established British colony. In 1987, literary scholar Donald Bartlett drew comparisons between Lindsay's treatment of the rock with that of Malabar Hill in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, which has been interpreted as a metaphor for Pan, the Greek god of the wild: "There is more, of course, to A Passage to India than Pan motifs, for example symbols such as the snake, the wasp and the undying worm, not to mention the vast panorama of India's religions. But I believe it probable that Joan Lindsay consciously borrowed the elements [from A Passage to India]."[29] quote:At Hanging Rock we've become obsessed with the myth almost to the point where we sort of tell it as though it is a true story, but we completely ignore the true losses that have happened there. Most of the Aboriginal people living in that area died of smallpox or were murdered by colonists or removed to Coranderrk [Aboriginal Reserve in Healesville] in 1836 ... It's just fascinating to me that we keep choosing to be haunted by a [fictitious] story rather than the real losses that have occurred in that place.[19] Pacing Read as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Please post after you read! Please bookmark the thread to encourage discussion. References and Further Materials quote:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-picnic-at-hanging-rock-1975 quote:It is 43 years since Peter Weir bolstered the emerging Australian new wave with the extraordinary Picnic at Hanging Rock. His cinematic adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s beguiling mystery novel is a gorgeously photographed, unsettling, eerie tale that remains potent today. Its dreamlike mixture of horror, mystery and barely suppressed sapphic love stayed with audiences long after they left theatres. The reboot that begins on BBC Two on Wednesday starring Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer is further evidence it is a story that just won’t die. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jul/10/picnic-at-hanging-rock-a-beguiling-story-that-just-wont-die Link to 1975 film version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBjHkpbCI4s Suggestions for Future Months These threads aren't just for discussing the current BOTM; If you have a suggestion for next month's book, please feel free to post it in the thread below also. Generally what we're looking for in a BotM are works that have 1) accessibility -- either easy to read or easy to download a free copy of, ideally both 2) novelty -- something a significant fraction of the forum hasn't already read 3) discussability -- intellectual merit, controversiality, insight -- a book people will be able to talk about. Final Note: Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book! Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Sep 5, 2019 |
#
?
Sep 5, 2019 17:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2024 08:12 |
|
|
I just started the book but I'm already enjoying it. I'm going in pretty much as blind as possible, so I have no idea what I'm getting myself into
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2019 18:16
|
|
|
Likewise, I'm about halfway through. It's a good read, and I like the occasional digressions to focus on the wealth of animal life existing beyond the attention of the characters. I'm not too fond of Edith, 'the dunce', being a pretty generic clumsy-fat-idiot side character, though. Feels a little played out, even for the sixties.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2019 12:17
|
|
|
The first few pages sure talk a lot more about breasts than I'd normally expect from a straight female author.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2019 12:21
|
|
|
I'm very fond of this book and all its various adaptations. My first encounter with it was at age 5 when I went with my family to Hanging Rock and my sister kept telling me things like "this is where those girls disappeared!" and then "accidentally" leaving me behind. Fun memories! It's a very nice place to visit if you're ever in the region, by the way. I think the book really gets across the sense of dissonance you get in Australia sometimes of living in this very English society, imposing English values and aesthetics on a land that is absolutely hostile to it. Looking forward to reading the discussion!
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2019 01:00
|
|
|
Just finished the first chapter, and I'm really enjoying the writing style so far. It's so charming, and some of the comparisons and characterizations have gotten a genuine laugh out of me. And I just adore the way Lindsay discusses the scenery. It really helps get across the landscape they're in, and keeps reminding me of Australian watercolor landscapes here and there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2019 01:55
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:The first few pages sure talk a lot more about breasts than I'd normally expect from a straight female author. whole book is queer as hell tbh. i think its deliberately ambiguous as to whether sara's feelings towards miranda are on the model of intense homosocial frienships that used to be more of a thing in the victorian era or whether she actually gay chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Sep 10, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2019 10:57
|
|
|
chernobyl kinsman posted:whole book is queer as hell tbh. i think its deliberately ambiguous as to whether sara's feelings towards miranda are on the model of intense homosocial frienships that used to be more of a thing in the victorian era or whether she actually gay Oh good, I wasn't the only one who picked up on that. Every time Sara and Miranda's feelings for each other get brought up it feels super gay, especially compared to the other relationships involving Miranda we see? Albert and Michael's relationship too seems very cozy, though also more just friends? But it's certainly strange seeing compared to how male friendships are depicted now.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2019 15:14
|
|
|
FelicityGS posted:Albert and Michael's relationship too seems very cozy, though also more just friends? But it's certainly strange seeing compared to how male friendships are depicted now. yeah some of this is that our idea of friendship, especially male friendship, has become really impoverished in comparison to previous centuries. just like how in some countries it's still common to see wholly straight dudes holding hands in public, really intense homosocial relations like albert and michael's used to be a lot more common. it was the kind of idea friendship described by plato (literally what platonic friendship means) and it has a very long history; its loss is a phenomenon of the 20th century. unfortunately that makes it really easy to read gayness back into earlier depictions of friendship, because we no longer have a referent for the kind of relationship being portrayed. that being said, i think sara's gay, though i dnt think albert and michael are.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2019 09:23
|
|
|
So I finished this in only a couple of days, but I'm still digesting it. I really liked the nature imagery, and how the reader is constantly reminded that all of these events are going on against a backdrop of teeming Australian bush. It feels like the disappearace is a catalyst for so many awful events because it shatters the illusion of civilised safety, and without that illusion the college is doomed. It was interesting that the book's subtext seems to be about the tension between (privileged, white) society and the environment they inhabit, but there seems to be no Aborinigal presence. If anyone's interested, the book had a secret cut chapter, that reveals what happened, but also is a lot stranger than I anticipated. It was released later, and described on the book's Wikipedia article if you care to look.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2019 12:17
|
|
|
Gertrude Perkins posted:If anyone's interested, the book had a secret cut chapter, that reveals what happened, but also is a lot stranger than I anticipated. It was released later, and described on the book's Wikipedia article if you care to look. I finally looked this up recently because my mum who I watched the movie with growing up was reading the book and had mentioned that the author supposedly having written out what really happened to be published posthumously and yeah, it was... not what I expected at all lmao. The story is better for having had it excised, I think.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2019 03:37
|
|
|
I've just finished the book this afternoon and wow. I agree, I loved the nature imagery a lot. I also loved the wider cast of characters, and seeing the way the events played out among them all. It very much helped it feel like it could be a true story, since there's so many different moving parts in the aftermath. I'm not really interested in the 'what really happened'--I like the book as is and the mystery. And did Mrs. Appleyard really do that to poor Sara? Though I could also see Sara killing herself, but either way. The way Appleyard kept mistreating Sara the more frustrated she got by the college coming undone, then Sara's disappearance, and then when that letter arrived from Sara's guardian I was double upset and worried about what was going to happen. Absolutely awful. chernobyl kinsman posted:yeah some of this is that our idea of friendship, especially male friendship, has become really impoverished in comparison to previous centuries. just like how in some countries it's still common to see wholly straight dudes holding hands in public, really intense homosocial relations like albert and michael's used to be a lot more common. it was the kind of idea friendship described by plato (literally what platonic friendship means) and it has a very long history; its loss is a phenomenon of the 20th century. unfortunately that makes it really easy to read gayness back into earlier depictions of friendship, because we no longer have a referent for the kind of relationship being portrayed. that being said, i think sara's gay, though i dnt think albert and michael are. Yeah, Albert and Mike didn't strike me as gay (I live in South Korea, and while it's not as common, dudes walking arm in arm on a Friday night bar crawl is not uncommon, and same sex skinships are much more acceptable here); it very much was weird to see in an English language context though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 08:32
|
|
|
Need suggestions for next month!
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 13:14
|
|
|
Mike and Albert reminded me a lot of Wodehouse's Mike and Psmith more than anything: getting into and out of scrapes (of which marriage is but the last Big Scrape, after which there can be hijinks no more). I also enjoyed how Appleyard's devotion to lying to maintain propriety extended even to trivial things, like the repeated insistence that there just might be a little brandy left from when the Bishop of Bendigo came to lunch.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 16:31
|
|
|
Tree Goat posted:I also enjoyed how Appleyard's devotion to lying to maintain propriety extended even to trivial things, like the repeated insistence that there just might be a little brandy left from when the Bishop of Bendigo came to lunch. The way Lindsay described the very straight-laced characters was all very good, and I definitely laughed out loud at some of her descriptions. Right from the start she makes it clear Mrs. Appleyard is all appearance and not really much actual substance--"...the stately stranger looked precisely what the parents expected of an English Head-mistress.And as looking the part is well known to be more than half the battle in any form of business enterprise from Punch and Judy to floating a loan on the Stock Exchange, the College, from the very first day, was a success;" The more things change, the more they stay the same.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 05:33
|
|
|
I read this a few months ago? Based on the wikipedia summary and my knowledge of it (which I think was from the leftovers, which is why I read it) I was expecting it to be really similar to Blair Witch Project. It wasn't, it was much more character based and funny than I expected it. I really enjoyed it. My edition had the last chapter (it was a digital version from my library), which I didn't like. Also I briefly read that the point IRL has significance for Aboriginal people, but now its a tourist site due to the book/movie. Is that true/anyone have much info on that? I saw this article which was interesting.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 20:30
|
|
|
Gertrude Perkins posted:It was interesting that the book's subtext seems to be about the tension between (privileged, white) society and the environment they inhabit, but there seems to be no Aborinigal presence. yea that was part of the point re: that tension. we see the country only through the white aussie's eyes, so we see it as they do - as devoid of history before the brits came, and as devoid of real inhabitants. the only time i can recall an aboriginal being mentioned was when the cops get a "black tracker" and a bloodhound to look for the girls. he's mentioned in the same breath as an animal, never given a name, and - like the animal - is being used entirely as a means to an end. the aboriginals just don't have any place in these people's world. they don't exist for them. they've been physically removed and their memory extirpated. that perceived lack of history is, i think, why what's her name, the fat girl, freaks out at the others for talking about the rock's having stood their for millions and millions of years. part of it her reaction is just sheer existential terror - that depth of time dwarfs her culture's claim to self-importance - and similarly stresses that this land was here long before the brits came and (by implication) will be there long after they're gone. Fritzler posted:Also I briefly read that the point IRL has significance for Aboriginal people, but now its a tourist site due to the book/movie. Is that true/anyone have much info on that? I saw this article which was interesting. lol im sure the locals were thrilled about the privileged white academic twentysomething trying to destroy a major prop to the local economy chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Sep 24, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2019 00:48
|
|
|
It's always been a tourist site, that's not something necessarily brought about by the book. I mean, it was literally a tourist site already in the book. That campaign seemed a bit misguided to me when it was ongoing since it's still centring Miranda and the story even when its saying we should focus on the Indigenous history. I went there a little while ago, and the info centre/museum is pretty small, but I remember there's a bit on the geology of the area, a bit on the indigenous history, some on the colonial history, and some on the book and film. The most recent adaptation of the book, the one with Natalie Dormer, is interesting as it reimagined one of the girls as an illegitimate Aboriginal daughter of a wealthy gentleman, who had sent her to the school as part of the "civilisation" of mixed Aboriginal children (look into the Stolen Generation for more about this). I never actually finished the TV series, but it made a lot of interesting adaptation choices. fake edit: do NOT click on the link to the website for mirandamustgo because she clearly lapsed paying for it and now it's porn.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2019 03:38
|
|
|
Unless there's a rebellion the plan is to do Maltese Falcon next month. Miraculously, we've never done it, and it's in the public domain in Canada!
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2019 00:39
|
|
|
I'm a little late to the party, but I wanted to post to document to the world that I did, indeed, read this book. On the topic of Sara and same-sex friendship, I saw that wikipedia has an interesting bit about romantic friendships being fairly common in women's boarding schools before the 1920s. So that's a possible interpretation of her closeness to Miranda.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2019 23:53
|
|
|
No time to do a poll, but someone suggested Lovecraft Country as a botm. Anyone read it? Is it good? Hrm. Maybe Her Body and Other Parties Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 11:32 on Oct 1, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2019 11:20
|
|
|
I read Maltese Falcon ages ago in university, and it's alright enough. I haven't read Lovecraft Country, but a quick skim of the summary it sounds great. So does Her Body and Other Parties, so I lean a little more towards either of the latter.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2019 12:03
|
|
|
Finished Picnic last night. I read it as a story about the repression of society and social norms, especially as it applies to women and young girls. While nature and the rock play a prominent role, it is mostly as a contrast to the 'tamed' women and 'tamed' nature. The gardens at the boarding school and Lake View get more description than the rock itself. When Irma is found it's noted that she no longer has a corsett on, a symbol of the repression and confines of society for women. Appleyard goes to increasingly extreme ends to maintain control at the boarding school, banning talking and fun. And when Irma returns the rest of the girls lash out at her, as the one who has been freed from the school and its repression. And Sara definitely was killed for being in love with Miranda (again societal repression). Appleyard finds and destroys a love note, and destroys Sara. Appleyard returns to the bedroom to try and find evidence that Miranda reciprocated Sara's love. In Appleyards eyes this would justify her disappearance, but she cannot find proof. The story of the gardener finding Sara's body is a good metaphor. He is so proud of his well maintained and proper dahlias, especially the tallest ones at the back (the seniors), but he notices a rank smell and that something has disturbed them. His garden is ruined by Sara's death, who was murdered for not fitting in. And of course the less repressed, lower class folks in the book who have already been excluded from society or don't worry about trying to conform all turn out better off by the end. Happier, more confident, and free from the boarding school. Appleyard has the greatest fall, as the representative of societal repression (but not before she kills the most 'free' girl). There was also one passage that struck me as being exceedingly full of colour. I believe it was a description of Lake View one of the first times we see it, the gardens the sky etc. I thought I would notice colour throughout the rest of the book in the descriptions of the outdoors, but none seemed to reach quite that extent. I also felt that the narrator became more casual throughout the book. She began to directly talk to the reader, and reference the book itself ("In the last chapter..."). Maybe the narrator becoming less proper as society in the story came undone?
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2019 12:03
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:No time to do a poll, but someone suggested Lovecraft Country as a botm. Anyone read it? Is it good? it really sucks bad. its hamfisted handling of race is actually painful to read
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2019 15:19
|
|
|
chernobyl kinsman posted:it really sucks bad. its hamfisted handling of race is actually painful to read e: Maltese Falcon would be cool to revisit too. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Oct 1, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2019 20:40
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Yeah. Good idea, poorly handled even for fantasy. If you want something spooky for October, how about Kwaidan? It's a compilation of Japanese ghost stories recorded and retold by a 19th century journalist. Plus it's free. I would be strongly in favor of Kwaidan, or really any decent collection of spooky stories.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2019 20:51
|
|
|
kwaidan owns and the film adaptation is a masterpiece of japanese cinema
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2019 20:58
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I would be strongly in favor of Kwaidan, or really any decent collection of spooky stories. I didn't see the Kwaidan discussion but I'll keep it in mind for future months. Next month's selection will be Her Body and Other Parties, which is a short story collection, has been popular in recent polls, and apparently has some horror themes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2019 00:27
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I didn't see the Kwaidan discussion but I'll keep it in mind for future months. I doubt I'll reread it but I may jump into the discussion. I'm excited to see what people think about the Law & Order SVU story.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2019 04:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2024 08:12 |
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I doubt I'll reread it but I may jump into the discussion. I'm excited to see what people think about the Law & Order SVU story. me too
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2019 05:50
|
|