AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!

[BrokenMnemonic]

That's geology.

But then it can all be kind of rocky.

But deep?

[JadeHellbringer]

Sorry to interrupt all the... um... Davioning? That's a word now.

But I figured this might be a good place to leave this for Fedsuns fans.

[nerd]

Very true!

Davion Guards and Crucis Lancers. Thanks, JHB.

[Arkansas Warrior]

Very nice!

[Rorke]

I approve, that looks as beautiful as it is rousing.

[Lord Harlock]

You know sadly I don't recognize the picture, but it is a good reminder. Thank you for sharing that JadeHellBringer.

[JadeHellbringer]

You know sadly I don't recognize the picture, but it is a good reminder. Thank you for sharing that JadeHellBringer.

ShimmeringSword did it, it's on his DeviantArt page. I tend to mine that site for Battletech/Mechwarrior artwork and set them up as a slide show for a screen saver on my desktop computer at home, and that one struck me as being (even by his standards) an awe-inspiring piece.

[FedSunsBorn]

Nice! Looks like a Falconer and a Sagittaire re-imagined....I think...

Anyway, looks awesome anyway.  O0

[Rorke]

I made the Sag, but was a bit puzzled by the other.  A Falconer of course, I feel a touch daft now.

Recovering from the Flu, with House Of Cards Season 2 and I've a beta key for Titanfall...mmmm

[Arkansas Warrior]

I'm just feeling the beginnings of a sore throat.  Hoping it doesn't portend worse things in the offing.

[ShadowRaven]

tea and honey my friend, tea and honey. Oh and some rest too

[Lord Harlock]

Rest is for the best. You could try something zinc as well such as Zicam or Coldez.

[Sharpnel]

Rest is for the best. You could try something zinc as well such as Zicam or Coldez.

or something with echinacea. It's done wonders for my sore thorat

[foxbat]

tea and honey my friend, tea and honey. Oh and some rest too

This. Keeping warm helps also, what delays the cure is going out in the cold. Which we cannot always avoid for menial things such as work.... ;)

[Arkansas Warrior]

It was like 75F here today.  I love living in the south.

[Rorke]

Let's not even go there, it's February here and a mere -1c.

It's been an unusually short and wet winter, the winter sports mafia will have been having
kittens about the lack/type of snow.  I find myself unmoved by their pain.

In other news returning to Swedish Course today, and nobody was there.  So msg'd my
teacher, who's on a training day and forgot to tell me.  She was most apologetic, but honestly
I can't be mad.  I'm so forgetful, it'd be poor form to be angry at someone else for it.  Also a
shorter week, no bad thing.

[Arkansas Warrior]

A query, good people (and the rest of you): Why is The Great Gatsby considered a literary classic?  It's less than 200 pages of morally bankrupt rich folks partying and having affairs.  I mean, it's like a Roaring 20s "Jersey Shore" or "Real Housewives", except that it makes no pretense of being factual.

[BrokenMnemonic]

From what I remember of my English Literature A-Level (which was more than 20 years ago, so I may be wrong) I think it's considered to be a classic because of how evocatively and accurately it captured the nouveau-riche society of the 1920s in the US; how, at the same time, it both questions the morals of the typical American Dream and the effect it had in producing a class of people who were short-sighted and decadent in their pursuits while also highlighting how easy it was to become swept up in that same culture.

[ShadowRaven]

why is 'Of Mice and Men' a classic? Because a whole bunch of people decided it, without bothering to ask me of course. I think it's crap. Much the same as Gatsby, and any number of pieces of 'great classics'

[DoctorMonkey]

I hate Dickens as a novelist but as a social commentary (and the stories as serials rather than a novel) they hold up much better


What a pity that I had to study his stuff as novels

[Rorke]

I failed O Level English Literature on Julius Caesar, I was bored insensitive by it.  Well I say failed,
I actually mean invited to not continue onwards to examinations with it.

Have to agree with the matter of many classics being dull, I swear I've read many and seem to have
seen countless adaptations on TV.  To the point in fact that I cannot now, watch anything with anyone
wearing any sort of Regency or mid 19th Century garb.  British Telly, especially the BBC seems to think we
need a fresh Bronte or Dickens adaptation every few years.   The ruin of way too many Sunday evenings
imho.

I'll stick to what I enjoy, rather than being told what is good for me to read.

[rebs]

I used to think that so-called "classics" are another generation's favorites nostalgically pushed on the younger generations.  Thing was, this point of view was endemic of the culture and the counter-culture I grew up between, as I realize now, but it kept my weekends open when I was young, so I wasn't going to argue.  ;)

Then I found a few of these revered novels (and short stories) that I liked after reading them anyway to form my own opinion, and not simply brush it off rule of cool style.  I've enjoyed quite a few of the great literary classics; conversely, I have happily sold many others to the used bookstore for in-store credit.

[ShadowRaven]

The best dickens I have ever experienced was "David Coperfield" animated with anthromorphic animal characters, and a few minor changes to the story to make it more suitable for a younger audience. It was great. I think they where kinda trying to ride th coattails of 'Oliver and Company' but imho made a better movie for it. Wish I could find a copy of it.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I couldn't get into Oliver Twist, never finished it.  Read A Tale of Two Cities in school and though it was pretty decent, if not something I'll go out of my way to read again.  A Christmas Carol, on the other hand, is my favorite piece of Christmas fiction.  I'd much rather see a good adaptation of it than any other Christmas movie.  If I read any other Dickens, I don't recall it.

[Lord Harlock]

Personally, I believe English Teachers of the American Variety to be a curse upon the Earth except for a few. (Mrs. Nelson, you were one of the good ones. God took you too soon.) Regardless, they have mostly forced the dredges of literature on the American children for far too long. The "Red Badge of Courage"! Baa! A short story to detail the use of color as a metaphor. If it was Shakespeare , the cackling conspiracy forced that dreadful play about those two idiot teenagers in Verona who murdered each other for a brief fling until I was Sophomore in High School. That is probably why I love "Julius Caesar" so much because it wasn't that dreadful play about teenagers.

That and I got to be Julius Caesar as we acted it out.

Regardless if I had my way, there would be removal of dreadful pieces of literature from requirements such as anything by Thomas Hardy. Also, Thomas Hardy should just be forgotten by humanity in general. Dickens would be toned down except for Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol which I like.  There would be more Arthurian literature in there with the Once and Future King and possibly some excerpt of Le Morte D'Arthur for comparison. And by the grace of God, his son, and all of the choirs of angels, the science-fiction part of any literature course will not have "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" by Ray Bradbury. That story still freaks me out. There are better Ray Bradbury stories by a thousandfold than that one, and I'd rather be something that inspires the children's dreams instead of their nightmares.

As for classics, I'd argue that if they had an impact on the culture they get the title. Gatsby did, but I'd argue other than giving us the name of the Princess Zelda in the Legend of Zelda series, the impact has been for the worse than the better. The characters are awful people, and nothing is really wasted in life if you don't read the book.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I'd like to sen more classic sci-fi in American Lit.  My choice would be Starship Troopers, but there's plenty more by Heinlein, Asimov, Philip Dick, and so forth that are as worthy of consideration as anything I read in school growing up.  (Well, I was very fond of Twain and liked the Bard more than most teenagers, but they're exceptions that prove the rule.)

[rebs]

For the record, as someone who once taught those who would listen, I thought it was the average American student that was the curse up[on the Earth.  Not all of them, but just the ones that think TV is a higher authority than teachers.

[Weirdo]

Oh, absolutely. But modern literature curriculums are not helping, and are probably part of the cause of that phenomenon. Students would likely have a much greater appreciation for literature if the stories they read were actually more interesting as the drek on TV. Instead, they get the most boring jumbles of words ever imposed upon paper this side of a phone book, and moreover, are rarely(if ever) taught what even these stories are trying to say. I was probably denied some serious cultural insight when my class's section on Julius Caesar was simply reading it aloud and having to remember who stabbed whom(the major test afterwards called for no critical thinking at all, simply a word-for-word memorization and retelling of Marc Anthony's famous monologue). I would likely have LOVED the play if they'd tried to give even a cursory explanation of the political intrigues and cultural forces that were behind all the olde englishe mumbo-jumbo that was simply presented to us in the form of fellow students reading in the most bored voices possible.

And Romeo and Juliet would likely have actually been tolerable if there'd been the slightest mention of how many of the characters were thundering idiots.

[fltadm]

I also think part of the problem might be that English is taught in High School. I sucked at English in high school, but when I redid it a few years ago It all made a lot more sense. (Spell Check on the computer helped as well)

[nerd]

I've enjoyed reading some of Shakespeare's plays, but performance is what it needs.

Olivier as Henry V in the 1940's one is still fun to watch.