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Book Club wub wub

#1 User is offline   Abyss 

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Posted 31 October 2019 - 07:19 PM

Book Club moved to its own subforum.

https://forum.malaza.../142-book-club/

You are welcome.

...to send whiskey, baked goods, cash.
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#2 User is offline   Macros 

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Posted 31 October 2019 - 08:39 PM

We have our own forum!!
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#3 User is offline   worry 

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Posted 31 October 2019 - 08:47 PM

Congrats, book clubbers!
They came with white hands and left with red hands.
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#4 User is offline   Whisperzzzzzzz 

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Posted 01 November 2019 - 06:12 AM

Where's the S Club 7 forum?
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#5 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 01 November 2019 - 06:52 AM

In our hearts.
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#6 User is offline   Tiste Simeon 

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Posted 01 November 2019 - 05:32 PM

View PostAptorian, on 01 November 2019 - 06:52 AM, said:

In our hearts.

Neva 4get
A Haunting Poem
I Scream
You Scream
We all Scream
For I Scream.
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#7 User is offline   Gorefest 

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Posted 22 November 2022 - 12:25 AM

Well, yeah, this is probably not the right thread for it but I wasn't sure where to post this otherwise.

As someone who grew up with a native tongue that was not at all English (my tongue in fact being particularly bestowed with an undeniably prominent Dutch inflection), I realise I still have lots of great English works of literature to explore. With its vast wealth of authors, playwrights, bards, poets and other eloquent dabblers in wordplay and penmanship spanning multiple centuries, it is a daunting yet exhilarating prospect that would be great to share with a wider audience of likeminded connaisseurs of the written word. Enter the Malazan forum.

While pondering my options, my eye immediately fell upon one of the seminal pieces of English literature that everyone keeps raving about but I have only had a passing acquaintance with. I speak, of course, of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It is a work that keeps cropping up in many lists, but its title is provocatively vague. What I am still unsure about and could use your input on is whether it would work better as a book club topic or more as an 'Abyss-style' read along comment thread. If the latter, I figure I could do an initial read-through with a first impressions angle filled with naive innocence that may provide an endearing giggle from the seasoned English literature afficionados here present, then wait a few months and subsequently attempt a re-read with more in depth and considered commentary and analysis.

What is denting my resolve thus far is the daunting prospect of the sizeable time commitment this will require, especially if I want to forge ahead with a reread in due course. From doing some cursory background study, I have discovered that this series currently comprises of a whopping 15 (!) books, a number that puts even our beloved Malazan universe to shame. There is The very hungry caterpillar (1969), The very hungry caterpillar's birthday party (2019) - incidentally, note the huge time gap between the first and second novel, which does make me worry slightly about a change in quality of writing and potential retcons or timeline infractions -, The very hungry caterpillar's Christmas eve (2019), The very hungry caterpillar's hide and seek (2020), The very hungry caterpillar's creepy-crawly Halloween (2020), The very hungry caterpillar's 8 nights of Chanukah (2020), The very hungry caterpillar's Easter egg hunt (2021), Thank you teacher from the very hungry caterpillar (2021), The very hungry caterpillar's wild animal hide-and-seek (2021), Can you guess? Sounds with the very hungry caterpillar (2021; contrary to popular myth, this appears to be just a normal novel, not an audiobook. Who knew? And how does that actually work? The mind boggles), The very hungry caterpillar's trick or treat (2021), The very hungry caterpillar and father Christmas (2021), The very hungry caterpillar eats breakfast: a counting book (2021), The very hungry caterpillar's first winter (2021) and How does a caterpillar change?: Life cycles with the very hungry caterpillar's (2022).

Clearly we are dealing here with an author who has used the Covid-19 pandemic to hone their craft to perfection; either that, or they went stark raving mad. Either way, it is an intriguing prospect with a lot of modern reflections and twists on an age-old classic. But it also means that, in addition to the query about whether this should be a book club thread or a read-along, I will need some input about the book order. Should I read these in publication order, or would it work better narratively in a different order? I have seen on other forums that some people recommended adopting an in-character chronological order, which would mean for instance that 'The very hungry caterpillar's Easter egg hunt' should be set before the Halloween, trick or treat and Christmas novels. However, this opens up its own Pandora's box of discussions on books like 'The very hungry caterpillar's first winter' and 'The very hungry caterpillar's birthday party'. For one would need to understand the caterpillar's life cycle in order to know whether its first winter is the first of many (in which case it sits early in the reading order) or its only one prior to the transformation into a butterfly (which also ties in with the birthday party book conundrum). But the novel that deals with the life cycle mystery is publication-wise the last one in the series, which raises the question whether the author deliberately wanted this to remain a cliff hanger until the very end and thus the books should be read in publication order after all to avoid spoilers.

It is questions like these that occasionally lead me to reconsider this epic endeavour and to maybe plump for something less complex, like Finnegan's Wake or The Sound and the Fury. But I do feel I need this literary experience to better integrate myself into English society. And some part of me will never truly be at peace with itself until I can come to terms with that ultimate question haunting me about life, the universe and, perhaps, everything really: why is this caterpillar so very hungry? All help in facilitating this reading quest is appreciated.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 22 November 2022 - 12:39 AM

Yesterday, upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. Oh, how I wish he'd go away.
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#8 User is offline   JPK 

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Posted 22 November 2022 - 02:03 AM

Gorefest, the only problem I have with your post is that I have but one upvote to give.
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#9 User is offline   Abyss 

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Posted 22 November 2022 - 03:00 AM

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THIS IS YOUR REMINDER THAT THERE IS A
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#10 User is offline   worry 

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Posted 22 November 2022 - 04:45 AM

Why do I feel like that final book about "change" is gonna be a heartbreaker?
They came with white hands and left with red hands.
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