nancylebov (nancylebov) wrote,

Reading group for Gilman's Moonwise

Greer Gilman's Moonwise is a remarkable book. It's dense, poetic, and has devastating puns. When I read the paperback, I was shocked with admiration for Roc, the publisher-- I've never seen anything like it come out for the mass market.

I've only read it once, and haven't worked up the momentum since. It occurs to me that making it a group experience would supply an incentive and a lot of background information. Practically every paragraph has references to other fantasy, poetry, folk dance, and mythology.

So I've started a reading group: reading_moonwise.

I'm pretty good on the other fantasy and not so good on the other references, so what I'd like is notating the references, sorting out the plot, looking for the larger themes, and noticing the puns.

This group is intended to be a refuge from political discussion as well as an enjoyable place. Please do your bit to make it fascinating.

If the group goes well, we can continue with Gilman's other works set in the same (related?) universe(s).

There are two editions: hardcover and paperback. I'd rather make it easy for people to get their reading material than keep everything perfectly in sync, so there's going to be a little slack about what gets covered at each update. The paperback is cheaper and out of print. The hardcover is more expensive, prettier, and has an introduction by Michael Swanwick.

A Cloudish Word-Hoard, a glossary by Michael Swanwick.

Tentative schedule: 2 pages twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.

Monday, October 15 HC: p. 11, 12 PB: p. 3,4
Thursday, October 19 HC: 13, 14 PB: p. 15, 16

Let me know if a posted schedule helps-- I'm not going to do it if it isn't useful for people. It may make more sense to create a conversion system for the two editions.

It's fine to finish a paragraph even if it's on the next page. Everybody is allowed, even encouraged, to write updates about the current pages.

If you have something substantial to say about earlier pages, please do it as a new post. Comments to old posts tend to get lost. If the conversation in an old post is lively, please make the occasional current post about it.

The size and rate of updates is my guess about what would be reasonable. If it turns out to be too fast or too slow, it will be changed.

Ironclad policies: This is intended to be a pleasant group. No matter how strongly you feel that someone else's errors reflect badly on their intellect and/or character, I expect you to pretend you think it was an honest mistake. I'm sincerely hoping not to need to use moderation tools, but I've got them.

Furthermore, this is a group for appreciating a book that I like. If you feel inclined to do an analysis that's primarily about what's wrong with it and how what's wrong with it reflects badly on the author, please do it somewhere else.

Tags: reading_moonwise

  • Post a new comment


    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded