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Post by Burfle, Brookfill & Madrigal on May 19, 2015 9:23:01 GMT -5
*You push open the library door, book clutched tightly in paw. A youthful vixen sitting at a desk near the door smiles in greeting and, with a gentle reminder to not be too loud, points you to the corner of the room. You see your friends seated in a small circle and quickly join them, ready to begin.*
Welcome to the official DAB book club! Every two months, we meet to discuss a book of the Redwall series. All are welcome to join, so don't be afraid to share your thoughts and opinions.
In January, we're reading:
Martin the Warrior
See you in February to discuss!
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Post by Isaiah on May 19, 2015 19:48:38 GMT -5
Should we say Friday of next week is the deadlineish?
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Post by Otus Shortwing on May 21, 2015 10:40:35 GMT -5
This is such a wonderful idea, I can't wait to start participating! All my Redwall books are in storage for the move and I won't have them until the end of June or possibly into July.
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Post by Isaiah on May 21, 2015 19:56:45 GMT -5
Aw, that sucks. Actually, my main worry is that we won't have enough people interested or actively involved to keep this going. :/
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Post by Otus Shortwing on May 22, 2015 12:03:35 GMT -5
Well if a few of us do it, maybe more people will join in. I could see about getting a library card! I think I just need a piece of mail with the address I'm living at, even though it's only temporary.
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Post by Aquamarine on May 22, 2015 16:50:47 GMT -5
I'm in! Well, as much as possible. I'll be spending my summer away from home and so won't have access to most of my books. Planning on bringing at least a few along, though. Maybe I'll have to go for a temporary library card myself.
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Zeke Ruffgar
Loyal Dibbun
Right Paw
"Good always wins. Always! Not just in books but in real life."
Posts: 348
Main: Zeke Ruffgar
Alt 1: Tristan
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Post by Zeke Ruffgar on May 23, 2015 22:51:15 GMT -5
I'm game! I need to move my books as well though. But I have a few here!
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Post by Burfle, Brookfill & Madrigal on May 25, 2015 7:39:32 GMT -5
Okay, so do you guys think you'd have the books available to do a chronological run? Going by our plan of one 'sub-book' every ten days.
Also opinions on the timings of the book club meetings would be nice. Should we have a fixed schedule or should we say roughly a week and a bit and tweak it to try and suit everyone?
For this week we'll be doing this on Friday unless there are any objections?
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Post by Otus Shortwing on May 25, 2015 10:58:38 GMT -5
Sounds good Burfs! A chronological reading all together would be so awesome!
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Post by Aquamarine on May 26, 2015 11:43:20 GMT -5
Agreed! Probably don't count on me this week, though. As alluded above, I'm spending the week preparing to move cross-country for the summer and then actually doing so. So things are gonna be a little crazy for this otter. On the bright side, I have found a way to get some ebooks from my library, so I'm hoping I'll be able to read along that way.
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Post by Burfle, Brookfill & Madrigal on May 29, 2015 19:55:03 GMT -5
Well, I don't know about you guys, but I've gotten a decent read through of the first sub-book of Lord Brocktree. Since I'm not exactly sure how this kind of thing is meant to go, I guess I'll just share my opinions on characters, events and maybe my symbolic interpretations.
First of all the prologue. I absolutely adore Russano and his family. He's my favourite Badger Lord, and despite the small amount of character we see from them they give me the sense of a real (if a little ideal) family with their playful interaction.
Next on my list is the conquest of Salamandastron. This has to be the quickest takeover of any major Redwall landmark happening in story, kudos to Ungatt and more on him later. With this almost complete victory I always get a sense of despair mixed with stout resilience from the hares, seen especially in the captured contingent who maintain their military standards through it all. This brings me to my symbolic interpretation. I have seen comparisons made between Ungatt's ideals of the chosen races and the Nazi Aryan ideology (heavy topics for a site about dibbuns, right?) To go with this comparison I also consider the hares of the mountain to perhaps represent the 'home guard' of the second world war: A group of much older soldiers (and in the real case non-soldiers) who are there ready to defend when there is no one else. Similarly the stiff upper lip attitude under the occupation of the mountain brings to mind the original purpose of the 'Keep calm and carry on' posters which were intended to encourage the maintenance of such an attitude were occupation to have actually been the outcome. Perhaps Brian Jacques was thinking back to what he would have known of the war and wondered what things might have been like had the battle of Britain been lost. Of course this may all be unintended and a absolute load of codswallop XD.
I do have more thoughts but it's getting towards 2am, I have places to be tomorrow and I'm running out of patience trying to work with my phone's deadly autocorrect and wacky keyboard combination.
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Zeke Ruffgar
Loyal Dibbun
Right Paw
"Good always wins. Always! Not just in books but in real life."
Posts: 348
Main: Zeke Ruffgar
Alt 1: Tristan
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Post by Zeke Ruffgar on Jun 6, 2015 0:10:01 GMT -5
So in your allegory is Salamandastron representative of the French occupation? The Bark Crew are the anti-Vichy French resistance? I like it, but it starts to come apart when we remain so locally focused-Ungatt Trunn could be construed to have an end-goal of global domination, but he lands so permanently at Salamandastron. The scope is just to focused for me to entirely buy in. It definitely could have colored Jacques' concept, though.
When rereading, I find there is a weird stratification in my mind - I subdivide the books into pre-Abbey and post-Abbey, and while I almost always find post-Abbey highly rereadable, I struggle with some pre-Abbey books - the pacing is much more variable, I find. Not in this book, however. Brocktree has always seemed to be one of the best written in the series - I think Dottie is one of the most complete, beautiful, flawed, funny, and (ironically) human characters that he ever wrote. Can't wait for Part 2...
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Post by Burfle, Brookfill & Madrigal on Jun 7, 2015 17:57:02 GMT -5
Terribly sorry for not sticking to the weekly schedule, although I don't think it was ever really set in stone to begin with. Now that we've arrived I book two I've had a thought about how we go about this thread, and wether it shall remain just a single thread. As there is potential for points to be discussed further, past deadlines for sections of books, then I was thinking that perhaps a thread could be made for each book proper (I was originally considering the idea for each sub-book but decided that would be too many threads for what might be too little content). That way I feel that we could continue any discussions, without confusing it amidst the content of a different book or limiting our discussions to a single week. Feedback on/alternatives to this suggestion would certainly be appreciated In response to your first point Zeke: I was actually talking about the British war effort of the home guard, affectionately called Dad's Army due to the old age of the majority of it's members, and the imagined situation of what would have happened had the Nazi war machine actually made it across the channel. In a way I suppose a comparison to the French resistance would be apt, perhaps the idea being that the British citizens might have taken a similar approach to occupation. Of course the idea doesn't hold too well through the book, and is flimsy at best, but it was something that I thought a bit about with a little help from someone else's comparison of the Blue hordes superior races ideal to the Nazi aryan propaganda. I see your points about the pre and post-Abbey books. Personally, Lord Brocktree is possibly one of my absolute favourite books. I like the fact that it is nicely paced, but I also like the fact that it isn't bound to the abbey at all, although I cannot explain why I like it so.
Onto the next section according to my nonexistant schedule! As of June 7th: Current discussion: Lord Brocktree - part twoLord Brocktree - part one (remnants of discussion) This week we are reading: Lord Brocktree - part threeI will post my own thoughts soon(ish), it's just a little bit busy for the next day so I'll take the time to reflect a little. Feel free to talk away about the second part, or to continue observations about the first.
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Post by Otus Shortwing on Jul 6, 2015 11:37:25 GMT -5
Okay, I have my books all nicely laid out on my shelf...I'm ready for anything! Burfle, where do you think we are with the reading? Still in Lord Brocktree?
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Post by Burfle, Brookfill & Madrigal on Jul 6, 2015 21:25:56 GMT -5
Yeah, I reckon we're on to the third part now. I am having thoughts about tweaking the way Book club works. Since it seems even I can't keep to any sort of schedule, then maybe the 'parts' system isn't the best thing to use. Perhaps we heave about a month to read and discuss a whole book instead? Anyone else have thoughts on the matter?
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