Current Events > Reading Thread: Number Unknown

(+) Yeah! (+)

Antiyonder posted...

Waiting for my next comic store visit before I post recent additions to my collection, but one thing I got was The Art of Amphibia.

Not going to post a lot from it, but an in-universe game they did a box art drawing for:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a704824a.jpg

Based off the cover art for the original Famicom release of Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line.

Oh wow that's really cool!!

Forgot if I posted them in the previous threads, but got these from some cereal last decade:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/0/AAQfvwAAB57S.jpg

Got these last decade:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/5/8/AAQfvwAAB8A2.jpg

And from it, we see the father of Jimmy & Bimmy:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/8/6/AAQfvwAAEXRO.jpg

https://i.vgy.me/zdKQ8w.gif

https://i.vgy.me/aYXAEB.gif
Lol 10/10

A minor read I got last decade and give how I organized it in picture, here's two pics:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/5/5/AAQfvwAAB7QX.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/5/6/AAQfvwAAB7QY.jpg

Use to look at the book when I was just looking at the kid sections in our grocery store wayyyy back in the 90s when I wasn't legally an adult.

So as it was barely costing anything, I bought a used copy last decade. Nothing big, just a little nostalgia. Fun fact is that even though the main Zord was the Ninja Megazord and the movie designed it differently, a picture representing it was of the Shogun Megazord.

Or basically Ninja Gattai Muteki Shogun from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.

Oh and another bit from the Double Dragon comic:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/9/AAQfvwAAB8CH.jpg

ROBBAN posted...

gonna continue my Old Classics run with H.G. Wells "the Timemachine" instead

alright. took a while to actually get started but once i did i couldn't put it down, and finished withing just a few hours
i really liked that one
i wonder if the movie holds up

Ughh almost done with WWI paper for WWI...three pages left
>original topic was going to compare soldiers in trench warfare
>captivated by "Destroy This Mad Brute!" I decided to move towards a topic of "humanizing the enemy", finding similarities between German war memoirs and those of Allied soldiers
>ended up writing seven pages about the eradication of German culture in America during WWI instead, haven't yet touched on the soldier experience
Tomorrow I'll get to that part <_< then I just have one more paper to fix up and I'll be done with bachelor's, hopefully

ROBBAN posted...

alright. took a while to actually get started but once i did i couldn't put it down, and finished withing just a few hours
i really liked that one
i wonder if the movie holds up

That's usually how Wells gets me too, he was a very captivating author. There's this extra bit that sometimes gets lopped off, too:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Grey_Man
As the story goes:

It was drafted at the suggestion of Wells's editor, William Ernest Henley, who wanted Wells to "oblige your editor" by lengthening the text with, among other things, an illustration of "the ultimate degeneracy" of humanity. "There was a slight struggle," Wells later recalled, "between the writer and W. E. Henley who wanted, he said, to put a little 'writing' into the tale. But the writer was in reaction from that sort of thing, the Henley interpolations were cut out again, and he had his own way with his text."

I recommend checking it out.

neat
also i was not expecting Weena to be so unceremoniously killed off. it just goes against every modern instinct i have of expecting either a Heroic Sacrifice or a Happily Ever After,

Wells is one of my favorite authors. You can just read his stuff as pulp stories with fun handwaved science but there's lots of layers. Most of his stories end with some crazy existential question that sticks with you. The implications at the ending of Food of the Gods really got me.

specialkid8 posted...

Wells is one of my favorite authors. You can just read his stuff as pulp stories with fun handwaved science but there's lots of layers. Most of his stories end with some crazy existential question that sticks with you. The implications at the ending of Food of the Gods really got me.

Perfectly described; looking at my reading list it's been half a decade since I last read War of the Worlds or The First Men in the Moon but I certainly think about them frequently. I think hand waving the finer details away and focusing on simple imagery actually makes his works feel more tangible in our everyday lives - who hasn't daydreamed what they'd do if they turned invisible, or had a time machine, or had to deal with aliens on the moon or from Mars?

ROBBAN posted...

neat
also i was not expecting Weena to be so unceremoniously killed off. it just goes against every modern instinct i have of expecting either a Heroic Sacrifice or a Happily Ever After,

Oof, oh yeah. I always felt bad for her. We can always headcanon that he went back to save her and just never returned, I guess... <_<

Juhanor posted...

I think hand waving the finer details away and focusing on simple imagery actually makes his works feel more tangible in our everyday lives

I really like the way he handles the science part of science fiction. It can age really terribly when someone writes with the current leading science or knowledge of the time. It works super well when it's left vague. "How'd you build an anti-gravity machine?" "Anti-gravity stuff." "How'd you build a time machine?" "Time stuff."

okay, i liked Time Machine enough that i looked through the app i use to listen to them for every Wells book i could find
unfortunately, only Invisible Man and War of the Worlds are easily available

specialkid8 posted...

I really like the way he handles the science part of science fiction. It can age really terribly when someone writes with the current leading science or knowledge of the time. It works super well when it's left vague. "How'd you build an anti-gravity machine?" "Anti-gravity stuff." "How'd you build a time machine?" "Time stuff."

Exactly!!! It has a universal/timeless appeal.

ROBBAN posted...

okay, i liked Time Machine enough that i looked through the app i use to listen to them for every Wells book i could find
unfortunately, only Invisible Man and War of the Worlds are easily available

IMO War of the Worlds is the better story than Invisible Man so maybe go for IM first.

Just finishing up a couple of Macanudo collections - I realized today I don't really have any more college reading to do!

I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora. It was good, quite good.

Some new graphic novel checkouts:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5bb951ec.jpg

https://i.vgy.me/FYj26u.jpg
This made me chuckle

cuh posted... Happy Spring Break, cuh!
I think mine starts in about a week, then graduation after that? Just have one paper left to fix up, then graduation, then figuring out what the heck my next life goal is lol.

Aight all done with Macanudo, not a bad strip. Witches were probably the part that made me chuckle the most.

Juhanor posted...

IMO War of the Worlds is the better story than Invisible Man so maybe go for IM first.

yeah, you were right
Invisible Man was alright, but not as interesting as Time Machine

ROBBAN posted...

yeah, you were right
Invisible Man was alright, but not as interesting as Time Machine

Yeah, neat concept but not much going on plot wise. A lot of his works explore concepts of "otherworldliness", even the ones set on Earth - I think IM might have been a bit more fetching if like, the Invisible Man had discovered an invisible/intangible to regular people world, instead of just committing crimes and getting killed by the mob.

Continuing with H.G. Wells with War of the Worlds

Got these trades the other day:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/68c47dad.jpg

specialkid8 posted...

Been reading the Hyperion Cantos. On Endymion now. The books don't have the best writing but the story and world building are fantastic. It feels like the golden age of scifi with the constant silly technobabble and weird mixture of archaic culture, but it's a hard R rating. The first one is definitely the best so far. Basically a scifi version of Canterbury Tales, and the diversity of genres the different stories tell is fun. And the way it weaves questions and answers together keeps you hooked. Once the second book gets into timey wimey stuff my eyes kind of glazed over, but still great all around.

Only just started Endymion but I like that the heroes call to adventure is the Gandalf character randomly showing up and saying "You wanna be a hero? Here's my list of impossible tasks for you to save the universe. Now hit the road fuckstick."

Finally finished. Pretty much feel the same way after finishing the series. Each book isn't quite as good as the last. The Endymion books get a bit old because it just keeps recycling "oh no, this is a completely and utterly inescapable situation! How are we ever gonna get out of- oh nvm, we escaped". And the questions left unanswered at the end don't really feel satisfying. Still a pretty solid series overall.

Picked up The Grapes of Wrath last week but haven't read much of it yet. It's nice not having a schedule for the first time in two years lol.

cuh posted... good work!!!!

alright. i finished War of the Worlds.
i really liked that one. i wonder if the artillery-man who talked about living in the sewers while everyone else becomes cattle ever got back to normal afterwards.
he seemed to have gone completely off his rocker

cuh posted...

When is graduation? Im guessing you have Spring Break nowis it just one week?

I believe - last submissions due yesterday (I had finished everything last week), semester ends on the 25th, faculty no appointment 27th-May 2nd, Spring Break April 28th-May 9th, graduation May 1st, grades due May 2nd. Not exactly sure how the last two are gonna work if anyone drags their heels in finalizing grades buuut the other graduation date wasn't until September so I guess we'll just wait and see lol.

ROBBAN posted...

alright. i finished War of the Worlds.
i really liked that one. i wonder if the artillery-man who talked about living in the sewers while everyone else becomes cattle ever got back to normal afterwards.
he seemed to have gone completely off his rocker

Heck yeah! My favorite part is Thunderchild. Definitely gotta feel for the artillery-man, best case scenario he'd probably end up in some kind of convalescent home...
I recommend checking out Jeff Wayne's musical version of WotW, he takes some liberties with the plot but it's an interesting adaptation and has some catchy tunes.

Juhanor posted...

Definitely gotta feel for the artillery-man, best case scenario he'd probably end up in some kind of convalescent home...

Maybe i'm reading too much into it, but the way he talked about everyone else being the aliens cattle, and him being better than them, and something about "saving the race", it kinda felt like he was a proto-"Alpha male" ass

The recent buzz / controversy around Onyx Storm made me decide to get into the series starting with the first book and I just finished them all.

They were ok I guess. The biggest problem is the two main characters are stupid as fuck and are generally terrible people. The supporting cast is awesome but ugh I really don't like Violet / Xaden.

ImAMarvel posted...

Oh and TC is graduating soon?

Indeed; IIRC you're working on your degree as well, how far in are you?

ROBBAN posted...

Maybe i'm reading too much into it, but the way he talked about everyone else being the aliens cattle, and him being better than them, and something about "saving the race", it kinda felt like he was a proto-"Alpha male" ass

I can't say definitively but I think that's an interpretation with merit. Keeping in mind, late 19th/early 20th century, eugenics was a very popular concept. From his wiki page, Wells "doubted whether human knowledge had advanced sufficiently for eugenics to be successful" (which we can kinda see in Time Machine), at first contemplating that sterilization of "negative" attributes would be more likely than reinforcement of positive; by 1940 he was against the concept entirely and considered it a violation of human rights. So maybe the artillery-man was him airing some thoughts or portraying the negatives of the concept.

ROBBAN posted...

Maybe i'm reading too much into it, but the way he talked about everyone else being the aliens cattle, and him being better than them, and something about "saving the race", it kinda felt like he was a proto-"Alpha male" ass

And the protagonist of another one of his stories is basically an incel. I guess he was ahead of his time.

ImAMarvel posted...

I've got another 2 years. ;_;

I believe in you, stay strong!
Looking back I can't believe my last two years went by so fast - I feel like I just had my "first" (technically fifth overall, this was to hit bachelor's) semester yesterday but it was back in Fall '23

Library checkouts from last week:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/056d80ab.jpg

Hopefully can read some Grapes and get some grades tomorrow...

ImAMarvel posted...

Well I'm terrified I won't be able to finish due to external situations so I'm looking into transferring to a blue state or finishing it in another country or something.

I feel you, America is in dire straits right now.

taking a short break from my H.G. Wells run, as i found "the collected public domain works of H.P Lovecraft"
i didn't realise his stuff was mostly short stories