Maureen’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

is that chick on the cover supposed to be the girl with the violet eyes? because i have to tell you that those look like icy blue contacts to me. not one whit of violet in those alien cyborg eyes if you ask me. :)

slow rabbit aka patrick is here!!! hurray!!

and it's wonderful that we are scheming and planning again. when this group decides it's going to do something the energy is so tremendous. :)

(i still owe you an email, my dear!!)

p.s. where would you like to put the poem? should we have a poll? (i know, i'm nuts with the polls :)

HURRAY!!!!!! i love you egret!! we all love you!

you've been so very much missed. :)

mo
xo

two photos no pfl discussion thread should be without. :)

p.s. skipper: i gave you a title but you can change it to anything your pretty little heart desires -- you now have the power. :)

and the skipper too!!! whoooohooooo! moderator status coming up. :)

p.s. anybody who wants moderator status during the test just let us know here. we can start working on polls to make decisions about moderator guidelines and such in a couple of weeks if it's evident that people are showing an interest in maintaining a space here. :)

margaret! i see you margaret! hello!

fantastic idea!

spoilers for chapter 17 dan!!

you'll totally recall (;P) that i was the one who suggested we break it out into 4 chapters of 4. i knew that when i suggested it there was a chapter 17, but it was short. and that made me think there might be a twist to it. it's not like this is his m.o. -- i just had a hunch based on length. when i got there, i had finally finished contorting my mind into understanding all the permutations of reality he was asking me to contend with, and explanations for it -- the last girl's is particularly obtuse.

i think our first clue is the ubik advertisement that begins chapter 17 is very different than the ones that have gone before. i read it and i hear "i am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end" in my head. i'm sure you hear something similar. ubik is god as i know it. of course, this makes me wonder if this is actually god -- then who is dr. sondenberg who is mentioned throughout as the inventor of ubik, and who we never meet. ella seems to work for his company so maybe there is a zoroastrian filter on this one. with more than one creative urge in the universe, opposing the destructive force. dick read theology extensively, and was always toying with Plato's forms, so it could be that too. ultimately, i think this novel is turned shows you the obverse of the coin as it were, at the end. had he stopped where he did in chapter 16, it would have been a satisfying conclusion to a roller coaster ride of shifting reality. with the last chapter he wants you to leave him doing exactly what you did all through the book, which is question what reality you are in.

ben and i were talking about the idea that the dream world is reality, and this life but a construct, and there have been times when this seemed right and proper to me. i suspect you don't need a can of ubik -- you just need to wake up. :)

at least that's what i think. we'll hear what the others have to say. lord knows i enjoyed this book but it doesn't beat my favourite, VALIS, but then again VALIS really affected my mental state. and i'm not as freaked out by it. i do think the sense of humour was clanging out at me throughout. but we'll talk more about the whole thing once dan lets us know he's finished. :)

well, i'm finished too. let's see what dan has to say... but i'd love to continue to talk about the book here.. :)

maybe you could just say spoilers, dan? we're going to talk about the rest of the book?

i was hoping that debbie and connie would say hello here -- it's been a while since i've seen their profile pics in the files. :)

Hi Kerry:

the feeling is entirely mutual. :)

Kerry wrote: "Oh and by the way, if this test group becomes a real group, I have some goodreads friends that are not currently in FF on myspace and I'm sure they would join. So there's some new blood potential ..."

i was hoping somebody would say that. in fact, i'm hoping the skipper likes what he sees, and invites his group over here too. it can't all be people we know! :)

Dan wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "i'm here! do i get a prize? :)"

Absolutely you do!"

Dan is responsible for prizes. ;)

Invitation
If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
-- Shel Silverstein...

Hi Everybody:

This is the latest iteration of the group dubbed the fiction files brought together by jonathan evison, over on myspace, many moons ago.

We are a bunch of readers with eclectic tastes but we have dabbled in many book frontiers, including our pet novel, a prescription for love.

Please have a look around, and feel free to chime in: we don't bite -- most of the time anyway! Have a look at the guidelines i've added below, if you feel you're the type that might want to get nasty -- and not in a good way. Otherwise, we hope that common sense and respect will guide your interactions with the other people here, who are great, and we know you won't regret stumbling onto this group. ;)

********************

Flames, Spam, Personal Attacks

We hope that when people come to post here it's to have a good chat and express an opinion, not to rip somebody else a new one, or to market your wares. we've all got our own stuff, and our own perspectives, so please keep your temper. If the moderators of the group feel your post was malevolent, we will delete it, and we'll email to tell you why. capiche?

if you are frequently malevolent, to the tune of three times, we're going to find you highly suspect and wonder why you're coming here, because it's not to make friends. at which point we're going to suggest you either shape up or ship out. our skipper has many bunnies and they have big teeth.

thanks shel. i do hope that people come over and have a look around, and at least see what the possibilities are. maybe even be stimulated by going through ben's collection and adding all the ones they've read from his list to theirs. first thing i did -- made it much easier to populate my list of stuff ben hasn't read which is much smaller.

great tips about the moderation. at one point we were talking about making everybody a moderator, but you're right, toe-stepping could occur. i guess we could start with goodreads moderator guidelines and go from there. or make an anonymous poll and ask people what power the moderators should have. oh the joy of an anonymous poll. :)

thanks for coming over, and checking it out.

okay, so i'm going to chance the status of this group to public right now in response to jonathan's post on the ff.

Brian wrote: "hey... hope you feel better."

thanks sweet b. i hope so too. :)

hey plutonian certifier brian:

i made ben a moderator to see if the post title would change but it didn't. it may be that he needs a title of his own... hint hint. first one who finds the way to change ben's title will be the first moderator to change ben's title!

Ben wrote: "when it comes to 100 years of solitude.

i just don't want to do it. even though the first sentence is so great!

not sure what the problem is.

such an interesting post!"

i think it is an interesting post actually. book-specfic reader's block? i had underworld for years and gave it away, never reading it. don't know why -- haven't read any delillo..