Author Topic: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!  (Read 183233 times)

ShadowRaven

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #210 on: 20 February 2014, 17:38:22 »
Oh God, Romeo and Juliette 'the greatest love story ever told' indeed 'a week long fling that ended up in multiple deaths' is not what I want my kids getting in their heads as romantic. Then there are 'Animal Farm' and "lord of the Flies" not bad books in their own right, but mandatory reading in school is not the place for either one.
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Sharpnel

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #211 on: 21 February 2014, 12:14:46 »
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.)
If you are going to put Heinlein in a classroom then I would think "Stranger in a Strange Land' or "Job: A Comedy of Justice" as better choices.
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fltadm

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #212 on: 21 February 2014, 12:54:00 »
I enjoyed doing To Kill a Mocking Bird when I went back to school to upgrade my english. And Night by Elie Wiesel knocked my soxs off.
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Arkansas Warrior

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #213 on: 21 February 2014, 12:56:15 »
If you are going to put Heinlein in a classroom then I would think "Stranger in a Strange Land' or "Job: A Comedy of Justice" as better choices.
I've been meaning to read Stranger in a Strange Land for a while now.  The other one I'm not familiar with.
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Mastergunz

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #214 on: 21 February 2014, 17:03:23 »
Kurt Vonnegut was mandatory reading in my advanced english class my senior year. Slaughterhouse-5, Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions still reside on my bookshelf to this day.  O0

Of course my senior english teacher was a major nutjob, lol.

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Lord Harlock

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #215 on: 21 February 2014, 19:18:28 »
Mrs. Nelson encouraged me in reading Vonnegut, so I understand the feeling. However, I do feel that Starship Troopers is a better book for kids since they were the intended audience, and if it gets kids thinking about mechs, should we prevent them. I say no. We should encourage them in mecha be it Gundams, BattleMechs, or just some random guy piloting a warmachine that looks like a knight. Let us use education to encourage people in healthy habits such as love of giant warmachines.

Strangers in a Strange Land is a great book as well, but in many ways, I find the the truly overzealous fans of it miss the mountain for the mole hill. Then again, I'd rather see kids debate which ending of Podkayne of Mars is better. Then again, I'd probably be tarred and feather for an essay question on whether it is wrong to work full time and have children as well.

Also, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is such a fun book as well why does it have to be always Strangers. Just because a book was beloved by the Flower Children is not a reason to make it the penultimate book of one of the greatest science fiction writers of all times careers.

Bah!

Also, Mastergunz, you really should shift the references to Wolverines. It works on so many more levels with the avatar. You can easily put Wolverines to every conspiracy in Battletech including the Word of Blake.

Charlie 6

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #216 on: 21 February 2014, 20:35:34 »
Please let me pause this literature conversation for a post.

Weirdo, I'd like to commend you for your support, or at least clarification, of a point made in the ~59th iteration of the APC vs. IFV thread up north.  To spare the rest of you:  it doesn't matter, in the 31st/32nd centuries the meaning is lost to history.  You spared me the pain of a northern visit.

Please continue your literature conversation or let us know what you're up to this weekend.

Acolyte

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #217 on: 22 February 2014, 05:18:43 »
Aren't they the same thing? I mean, ah.......

How 'Bout that Steinback? He wrote some stuff....

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Neko_Bijin

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #218 on: 22 February 2014, 08:04:42 »
Trashing the classics has been en vogue at least since Voltaire.  Rather than pile on (but don't let me stop you), here are a few HS classics that I actually enjoyed.

Brave New World, Huxley
Candide, Voltaire
Pygmalion, Shaw
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
Republic, Plato

Some that I missed in HS but found later and really liked:

20,000 Leagues under the Seas, Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days, same
War of the Worlds, Wells

I was excited at first to read Jane Eyre, but it got dull in the middle so I quit. I gather it gets better at the end.  Something to do with a hag in the attic?  Maybe I'll get back to it.
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greatsarcasmo

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #219 on: 22 February 2014, 10:45:39 »
I love reading, just nothing 'good'.

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rebs

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #220 on: 22 February 2014, 12:00:57 »
Kurt Vonnegut was mandatory reading in my advanced english class my senior year. Slaughterhouse-5, Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions still reside on my bookshelf to this day.  O0

Of course my senior english teacher was a major nutjob, lol.

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Joskney

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #221 on: 23 February 2014, 16:43:37 »
 I think I have every one of the books listed here somewhere in my house.  As a card carry member of the League of Evil Geniuses, I guess I must be doing something right by these comments.   >:D I am torturing my children with a "Classical" approach to our homeschooling.

Though I must say by homeschooling my children, I have been reading more variety and more often than I have in years. 
I just completed Curious Myths of the Middle Ages: by Sabine Baring-Gould.
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Arkansas Warrior

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #222 on: 23 February 2014, 16:52:48 »
That sounds interesting.  What are some good ones?
Sunrise is Coming.

All Hail First Prince Melissa Davion, the Patron Saint of the Regimental Combat Team, who cowed Dainmar Liao, created the Model Army, and rescued Robinson!  May her light ever guide the sons of the Suns, May our daughters ever endeavour to emulate her!

rebs

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #223 on: 23 February 2014, 17:18:22 »
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.

Can't argue with you about that.  I prefer dramatizations of Shakespeare, there are some really good modern retellings.

I also wasn't a fan of my HS English classes, either.  It wasn't until college (and a string of good professors who loved teaching) that I discovered that I had passion for the subject enough to pursue it for a time.  I've learned to like classics that deserve the description, and to seek them out.  After you know the good stuff and know what you like about it, it's easier to discern the bad and do so definitively, and not impulsively (though maybe I'm the sucker, I've seen my way to the end of a few "classics" I'll not touch again  ;) ).  Alas, it's those bad teachers who conduct bad classes, as people say.  They are part and parcel of the curse on the earth, I concede.
« Last Edit: 23 February 2014, 17:23:20 by rebs »
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Rorke

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #224 on: 24 February 2014, 14:19:02 »
The only Shakespeare I've ever enjoyed, was Ian McKellen's Richard III film.

I guess I'm to some degree allergic to the middle ages in some form or another.  I seem
to recall hating any RPG, that deigned in it's setting to reduce the UK to some fairy tale
Arthurian rubbish. 
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DoctorMonkey

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #225 on: 24 February 2014, 18:17:07 »
I like most of Shakespeare except Twelth Night
I hate that
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BrokenMnemonic

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #226 on: 25 February 2014, 02:56:40 »
I was lucky with my English Lit A-level; of the two teachers who taught my class, the alcoholic was great at teaching exam technique and analysis (nothing prepares you for writing essays under exam conditions like writing an essay under exam conditions every week for two years) while the other was a chap who was good enough at what he did that he edited and wrote forewords for the Oxford University editions of a number of plays and novels, including several Shakespeare plays and a version of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. He was determined to highlight not just the conventional thinking on subjects but also well-argued interpretations that defied conventional wisdom - so when it came to the Canterbury Tales, he worked through the accepted interpretations of the characters and then also worked through other interpretations, such as the interpretation of the Knight advocated by people like Terry Gilliam, who argued that Chaucer was actually talking about one of the robber barons of the era and being deliberately sly with his comments about how perfect the knight was, based on just how many campaigns the Knight had been on and the manner in which various Kings had managed to get rid of difficult members of the nobility for a while by encouraging them to go out looting and pillaging throughout the Crusades rather than causing trouble at home.

It's because of that teacher that rather than having to study Romeo and Juliet a fourth time (partly because I'd changed schools a couple of times) we tackled Troilus and Cressida, partly because it was acknowledged as being the most difficult of the Shakespeare texts available in the exams that year (meaning extra credit just for trying to answer the questions) but also because of how hotly it was being debated academically. I didn't know anything about the play before having to read it, but having read it, I can understand why it underwent a huge revival after World War I, when university graduates who'd fought in the war came back and declared it to be far truer than many of Shakespeare's other plays.

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

Neko_Bijin

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #227 on: 26 February 2014, 19:42:42 »
The only Shakespeare I've ever enjoyed, was Ian McKellen's Richard III film.

I guess I'm to some degree allergic to the middle ages in some form or another.  I seem
to recall hating any RPG, that deigned in it's setting to reduce the UK to some fairy tale
Arthurian rubbish. 

You guys know that Ireland was built by the Walt Disney Co. to be a "Snow White" themed attraction, right?  The project was cancelled when the dwarfs got loose and multiplied, and Walt decided on less ambitious theme parks in California and Florida instead.
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Rorke

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #228 on: 27 February 2014, 08:27:30 »
For some odd reason, that's reminded me of a cracking TV adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm.

Kate Beckinsdale in 20s-30s period dress, rather fetching.
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Mastergunz

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #229 on: 27 February 2014, 13:12:08 »
For some odd reason, that's reminded me of a cracking TV adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm.

Kate Beckinsdale in 20s-30s period dress, rather fetching.

Mmmmmmmmmm...tasty.

Back on topic (sort of...);

William C. Dietz and Larry Correia are two of my favorite modern authors for their ability to keep a good story flowing smoothly and in very vivid detail without boring you by explaining how light reflects off a bullet leaving a barrel as some authors are prone to do. It's realy quite remarkable.

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Joskney

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #230 on: 27 February 2014, 18:46:02 »
That sounds interesting.  What are some good ones?

/EXmod looks around nervously knowing the rules....  Let's see what can be said; Sabine Baring-Gould  (28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) was an English Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar.  So the book was less a bunch of myths and more a treatise on how the ancient myths mixed with forming Christianity in the Medieval world and how the myths work into the ancient world.  My favorites were how Jack and Jill were part of a Viking Myth about the moon, the Dog Gellert & Llewellyn coming from as far back as Egypt, how William Tell was based on earlier Norse myths and pagan legends, The Seven Sleepers, persecuted by a non-Christian emperor hid in a cave and slept for 350 years until their town was again Christian, or the story of a Christian named Tanhauser that found the Mountain of Venus and his trials. 

All written in Victorian age English. 
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Arkansas Warrior

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #231 on: 04 March 2014, 15:19:01 »
Its been a suckfest down here the last few days.  March 1st its 65F outside, the since Sunday around lunch we've barely cracked the freezing mark.  I think March decided to come in like a jotun instead of a lion this year.  Where's Thor when you need him?
Sunrise is Coming.

All Hail First Prince Melissa Davion, the Patron Saint of the Regimental Combat Team, who cowed Dainmar Liao, created the Model Army, and rescued Robinson!  May her light ever guide the sons of the Suns, May our daughters ever endeavour to emulate her!

ShadowRaven

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #232 on: 04 March 2014, 15:23:30 »
we've only just broken the 0° f mark today, with snow today, and tomorrow according to the weather guess. Whatever march is coming in like, It's not very nice.
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Weirdo

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #233 on: 04 March 2014, 15:25:02 »
Its been a suckfest down here the last few days.  March 1st its 65F outside, the since Sunday around lunch we've barely cracked the freezing mark.  I think March decided to come in like a jotun instead of a lion this year.  Where's Thor when you need him?

He'll be here in two days. ;)

But yeah, it's been crazy down here too. Saturday morning we had the heater off and windows open. Saturday afternoon and evening we closed the windows and turned on the AC because it was too warm out. Sunday morning? Snow and ice, cold enough that nothing's melting. What the hell, Texas?! >:(
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ShadowRaven

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #234 on: 04 March 2014, 16:53:03 »
just make sure you warm up before April. I don't want to see winter when I get to Texas
We are Clan Snow Raven. Masters of the void, and reapers of your souls

befriend (v.): to use mecha-class beam weaponry to inflict grievous bodily harm on a target in the process of proving the validity of your belief system.
— From a post on rpg.net

nerd

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #235 on: 04 March 2014, 21:21:54 »
I've got street corners I can't see around because of how high the snow is stacked.   >:D
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Arkansas Warrior

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #236 on: 04 March 2014, 21:45:05 »
Hey, you chose to live in the cold north lands.  Some of us don't live in a country-sized icebox, and aren't used to this sort of thing.  Can't you bridle a moose and still get to school?  We have no such arctic mammals in these parts. :)
Sunrise is Coming.

All Hail First Prince Melissa Davion, the Patron Saint of the Regimental Combat Team, who cowed Dainmar Liao, created the Model Army, and rescued Robinson!  May her light ever guide the sons of the Suns, May our daughters ever endeavour to emulate her!

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #237 on: 05 March 2014, 07:54:38 »
Sure we do: The Unshorn Walmarter.
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nerd

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #238 on: 05 March 2014, 17:36:50 »
Well, those country types who drive trucks actually have a purpose around here, they clear the streets so people who drive small cars (like my Focus) can get around.  :D

And it's almost 32F around me, so it's time to get ice cream. 8)
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DoctorMonkey

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Re: AFFS High Command, Suns Transcendent!
« Reply #239 on: 05 March 2014, 17:39:34 »
I'm travelling to Glasgow tomorrow - I expect Polar Bears travelling that far north
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