I think the sign on the beach “No help needed” or whatever it was is a pretty deep commentary on anti immigrant feelings from earlier immigrants

@oliverbyrne So they are riding the trolley with a skull in the basket. This story is strange on so many different levels.

What's the commission rate to get your wife Elizabeth to sing it using her English chimney sweep accent?

I would like to be able to say I am unspoiled about this book, which was true when I started chapter 1, but I spoiled it for myself looking up where it appears in Wolfe's bibliography. I thought it was mentioned that this was the first story he wrote, I may have miss heard that, and was interested in what a reader of the 1970's would have read of Wolfe when they got to this. This post does a great job of expressing my thoughts on chapter 1. It does it better than my own post on this. I regret not getting this in book format. I have come to realize that the convenience of the ebook experience is much less useful than the tactile experience of a physical copy. When I started listening to the Gene Wolfe podcast I bought paperback copies of any Gene Wolfe book with the word Sun in the title from my local used book store, figuring I would get to them eventually. They didn't seem that lengthy compared to say the Dune series. When I started reading one it is in 9 point font, unlike my Dune copy which is in 12 point font. Being confronted with that wall of small text changes the reading experience.

@G.L. McDorman Why can I only give one ❤ for this news? ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Columbo..... Columbo...... Loved those TV movies.

I just think he was eating some chips and watching a Columbo TV movie and wondered what that would look like in space.

The Sanford Prison Experiment can’t be replicated because it’s junk science. Some of the researchers involved admitted to influencing the guard subjects to behave the way they did. I don’t know about the other experiments mentioned but I am dubious of the validity of most of the conclusions reached in science these days. There is a large issue with nonreplicatability of many scientific studies being done now.

Good story. I like how they are all happy to replace all of the workers with automation and are then shocked when they are replaced.

@ktvician To steal a quote from Adam Savage of Mythbusters “ I reject your reality and substitute my own.” 😂😂😂😂

The western that King was watching when he thought this up had to be High Plains Drifter. That’s my take and I’m sticking to it, Lol. When I first read this I thought it was a post apocalyptic story until it went all fantasy with portals to our reality and stuff in the next books. There were a bunch of movies and stories from the 70s that this cues off of. It was the pessimism of the times that made this into a marketable story. I think Glenn and Brandon commented about this in reference to Gene Wolfe stories from this period. ‘’I haven’t read many of the later King books but all of the early ones I have read treat religion the way it was done here. King has religion as where evil and corruption hides, also where it spreads. I think The Stand is the only King book where religion is used as a positive force at all, but I am probably missing other examples. In the discussion podcast the topic of first and third person narrator in the various frame stories isn’t something that I ever noticed before. I agree with the idea that King didn’t want the reader to spend time in the gunslinger’s head. In my opinion though, King avoided it because the gunslinger doesn’t justify what he is doing, the gunslinger was just doing his work. Later in the books, stories that came out in the 80s, the gunslinger is compared to the Terminator, which was probably what King was going for when he started writing this story.

@G.L. McDorman As someone who prefers classic Trek I'm 100% in support of your change in Lower Decks format. Best wishes to your family with your baby.

I think the idea that the ‘hero’ of this story is quite flawed and not particularly likable is in keeping with the times it was written. There is a lot of movies from the 50’s with quite a hard and dark cynical edge to them. Coming out of ww2 many people realized that they good guys’ also behaved just as badly the opposition they fought. The idea that everything in the 50’s were all Leave it to Beaver is a lie of the counter culture revolution of the late 60’s to make themselves feel superior. As to his motivation in wanting to make vat women it seems to be the same as for any technological advancement, because he can. Many people were beginning to feel apprehensive about unchecked technology in the new atomic bomb World. It has been along time since I read this. I’m due for a reread.

This is a great podcast about Star Trek. They were very upbeat about what Discovery was showing us. Pointing out plot problems and odd writing choices isn’t being “negative”, it’s applying critical thinking skills to piece of entertainment. I find the podcasts super interesting, because of Glen and Valerie’s academic credentials in medieval and ancient literature they pull out great reference and analysis of when the show is referring to literary history. I really enjoy the cocktails they create and the Kiss, Marry, Kill game is fun ending to an episode. If all you want is slavish praise that has no intelligence behind it but the “feels“ I’m sure there are plenty of podcasts that will fit your requirement, you should run a search in you podcasting app.

When I wrote this post initially I had binge watched the first 9 episodes and was still in a initial viewing high. Having seen the final episode and having time to consider the whole season my opinion has come down somewhat. Spoilers for whole season ahead I think that Picard’s death scene shouldn‘t have been done once they introduced the idea of mind transfer. It made a beautifully done scene cheap and pointless. If Picard had died and his last thoughts are the conversation with Data it would have been the most beautiful ending to a show possible. The motivation of the mind meld android baffles me still. I am also confused that none of the other androids have an opinion? Aren’t they all children of Data? I expected more from them. I agree about the 2 stories going on. I don’t think the writers had confidence in the Picard story so they added some action. To me the classic Trek version of this story is the Picard crew and Bruce Maddox questing and finding the system with 8 Stars and the planet there. Dealing with what they find there and the Romulans. They could have ditched shitty Romulan boyfriend and I wouldn’t have minded. They glossed over the fact that it seemed the Federation was creating a slave race of the synthetics until the Mars attack. Data the unique individual and a species of Datas is an interesting question to explore. I enjoyed this series while I watched it, but like most old people I don’t consider it own Trek. I don’t mind this state of affairs, I’m going to add some scenes of this series to great Trek moments in my memory and let the rest go as not for me.

I could have done without 2 episodes of time travel alien Nazis for 3 episodes of this story. The C plot was way underused and Trip / Tpol on Vulcan could have used more time.

@G.L. McDorman April 13, 2020 will be hundred year anniversary of the opening of New York’s first suicide center. I hope Claytemple media is hosting a “go kill yourself” party. I’m awaiting my invite.😜😜

I purchased this version on Amazon also for $5.00. Thanks for the info it was very helpful.

The review I read about the ”deluxe“ edition made it sound pretty not deluxe or even readable so buyer beware especially in this case.

Examining a play or a story with an eye for weird aspects is interesting in its own regard. The shift in prospective is always a good way to learn more about a story. How weird it ends up being isn't always lways the most important thing.