LotR Reading Club

[Mister Underhill]

Look on my posts ye Mighty, and despair!

....Not.

I think the key to success is the right pacing. Too slow, and people read ahead, soon outpacing the discussion; too fast, and people fall behind and give up. One chapter a week sounds waaaaaay too slow to this Ozymandias. If you could pace it out over about three weeks or a month, I think you'd be in business.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Wow. . .and again. . .wow -- what a great response. I genuinely thought that this idea would recieve a scoffing! (Can scoffing be used as a noun? Come to think of it, can it be used as a verb in the present imperfect?)

It seems to me that the success of this venture will rely on three things:

1) getting a good group of committed posters to form a 'core' from the beginning (as Kransha has pointed out) -- I would venture that at the moment it would appear as though we have that

2) getting the pacing right (as Mister Underhill astutely points out)

3) making sure that there is some kind of guidance to the thread, but not in terms of dictating subjects for discussion, only to keep the discussion on topic ("write about this blasted chapter, dol gon it!") and to make sure that the posts are more or less substantive (I had a peek at those earlier book club posts provided by MU and it seems to me that too many of them were of the "I like this chapter, especially the bit when. . " variety -- any book club must have room for this, but I think we all would like to see more substantive stuff come along with that. Perhaps not shockingly, there are some very interesting posts by Saucepan Man of the variey I envision, and at least one very nice one by my friend Alak).

In response to point one, I think that we can rely on the core talent of the Downs to keep the thing going, with an eye to making sure that newcomers to the converation are always welcome. To that end, I think Estel's suggestion to have a new thread in the Books forum for each chapter is a good one: much more welcoming and visible for newbies (or oldies who wish to join in media res). I think that if we come up with a standard "greetings this is what we're doing" first post that we use for each thread, that should allow people to orient themselves fairly quickly.

As to point two, I suppose I'd like to hear your suggestions. Mark 12_30 has floated some concrete ideas about timetables, and MU has weighed in with the opinion that a chapter a week is too slow. I myself think that a chapter a week is just right, as it will give everyone a chance to post at least once, and reply to someone else's post at least once. What is the opinion of the Barrow Downs community?

And for point three, I think that the guidance for the threads could easily be provided by that same core of posters who I refer to in point one above. Would we want to have a more 'formal' arrangement whereby there's a person or people whose 'job' it is to oversee the conversations? I don't like this idea much, but I put it out there for comment. I suspect that there will need to be a small group who take it upon themselves to post the new threads each week (or according to whatever schedule we decide upon) and answer the questions of those who wish to join the discussion but maybe aren't sure what's going on.

At any rate, keep the suggestions coming, and get out there to recruit people you think might be interested in this project!

By The Way -- I've always preferred the Victorians to the Romantics: Tennyson, in particular, just wipes me out:

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Now that's the real thing: words you can eat with a fork.

[Lush]

Count me in, though I doubt I'll be able to post anything interesting until Summer Session I is over and I've gotten over my jet-lag back home (assuming no planes crash). An excellent idea, though.

[HerenIstarion]

Mr. U, can you convert old links (prior to UBB 3)?. Some two years ago, there was similar attempt, and than I have found all five discussed chapters. Starting with chapter 6, the discussion moved on to chat (on Saturday nights, it was, and not only LoTR, but a lot of other things too )


chapter discussions were to be found here in ages past:

chapter 1
chapter 2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5

[davem]

H-I

None of those links worked for me!

As to the project, I think it should start, as suggested, with the Prologue, & I would also suggest we include the appendices - how could we leave out The Tale of Aragorn & Arwen? Or the histories of Gondor, Arnor & Rohan, etc.

I would also like to include the two epilogues to LotR - anyone else agree?

[HerenIstarion]

They were not supposed to - they come from the time prior to our upgrade to UBB3, that's why I asked if moderators were able of finding out modern corresponding ones

[Firefoot]

1. Pacing - I agree that 1 week per chapter sounds good. It gives everybody time to read the chapter and post at least once, and it also gives enough time for a discussion to get going. If, like Mr. U points out, people think that only 1 chpater a week will get slow, the only thing I can think of is that we are always doing two chapters at a time, maybe staggering it, so that you are still giving a week per chapter but you have two chapters a week. I don't like this idea, as I feel it won't be as enjoyable as when you are concentrated on one chapter at a time.

2. I think we should do the prologue, and parts of the appendices might be good. I don't know about doing all of them - The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen I would say we should do, and some of the Histories might be interesting. Maybe we should mostly focus on Appendix A if we should decide to do this? The other thing - what are the two epilogues to LotR? Are they also known under some other name? Because I'm not sure that I've read those.

3. I don't like the idea of a 'formal' arrangement - some individual jobs like you suggested might be a good idea. Maybe in the first post for each discussion we should list some people that newcomers can PM if they have questions. I think just having some dedicated posters will keep the discussion on topic.