At Stardate 20030604.2251, Martin Malmkvist wrote:
Sounds like a great idea. Only problem is, I only read the Startide Rising trilogy, so I'm not much fun in such a debate.
That's not what I meant. The idea behind the proposed analysis is this:
1. We decide which book to tackle. 2. We all read the first chapter. 3. One of us writes and posts an extensive chapter summary. 4. We discuss the summary into every nitty-gritty detail. 5. We repeat steps #3 and #4 for all other chapters as well. 6. Someone rewrites the various summaries into one big summary.
For convenient access, all material (chapter summaries and ensuing dicussions) will be made available on-line at www.brin-l.com. Once the complete book summary has been finished, previously posted material will be replaced with the final summary.
To give you some idea of what I'm talking about, I've put the material from the discussions of the first chapter of both _The Practice Effect_ and _Glory Season_ on my website. Please keep in mind that those are only drafts, not final versions.
The Practice Effect: http://www.brin-l.com/practice_effect.html Glory Season: http://www.brin-l.com/glory_season.html
Quote from the first one: "We review the style, the content, the ideas and the technology. Try and identify the in-jokes, figure out the occasional infuriatingly obtuse word the Brin throws in. See what it all means and why he done it. Finally understand what-in-hell the chapter titles mean, that sort of stuff. Maybe even get the author to justify ers."
The biggest problem will be discipline: this kind of work takes TIME, and lots of it, especially for whoever writes the initial summary of a chapter. In fact, the discussion of _Glory Season_ was never finished because the person who had volunteered to write those initial summaries didn't keep up his end of the agreement.
So you see, Martin, it's not a problem if you haven't read a particular book -- now you have a good excuse to read it! :-)
Jeroen van Baardwijk
_________________________________________________________________________ Wonderful-World-of-Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com
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