1, 8, 5, 6, 10, 5, 9

1, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10

average = 6.3

Dedaimia was the sponsor; 
loved the stories in _Axiomatic_, didn't like _Distress_ at all;
rated it 1 of 10.

She likes a lot of his ideas, but thinks Egan is a terrible novelist.
Not much sense of pacing, overall sense of novel, narrative tension ....

PK: Did you have those criticisms of _Quarantine_?

DW: Yes, but she didn't think this was as good as _Quarantine_.

Thinks he's not as brilliant as Gregory says, 'cause he couldn't
write a great novel....

Characters, plot, ... aren't

Sees it as having incredible potential, but failing that potential.

Analogy: Writing a novel is like building a house. Novelist: "I am going
to build you a house." I assume it's going to be a home. If the house
is missing bedroom, bathroom, ... it's a a curiosity, but not a home.

DW feels that characters and plot are *not* ends in themselves, but
tools of the trade, tools in service of a bigger vision.

There's something missing here; it's not a home, it's a house, 
//////
JG: Science isn't integrated into story, just gives potted lectures about
the nature of the world, as in 19th century novel.

Time and time again, characters deliver dialog in the form of essays ....

//////
Gregory points out that he didn't want us to do this one, 

GJER says he's Our Father Who Lives in Australia. He is brilliant. He has a
complete and utter grasp of sophisticated mathematics....

Greg Egan doesn't care whether you care about the characters or not.
Good fiction writer, but not a good novelist.

Math, physics, biology, are three areas Egan has mastered.
A great novel? No.

His metier is short-and-to-the-point fiction, not novels.

GJER objects to JG's characterization of the book as about insanity; it's
about solipsism, as are all Egan's stories ... (especially _Quarantine_
"The Safe-Deposit Box").

GJER tends to prefer quirky, off-beat stories that don't appeal to
mass audiences. Hates being able to predict outcomes of films, etc.

Egan's characters are much like being a hollow shell. _Distress_ is a book in
which the reader sees inside the shell, and it isn't very pretty.

GJER points out that an author's goal is (should be?) to get the reader to
emotionally resonate.

GJER reads what turns his crank: a passage of a _Distress_ victim


//////
Kerri: I have to keep this in a plastic baggie because it smells so bad.

//////
MSullivan: He wrote this to reach people like GJER, Raja, PKuchera,
and myself. People who are interested in cutting-edge bio, csci, physics,
and taking it 50 years beyond ....

//////
PK: Great ideas, ideas that turn on a dime, new ideas in each paragraph.
Great job of explaining theories. It's really hard to write fiction about
hard ideas; this worked well, because it's ideas as ideas.

Surprises, veils pulled out, .... exciting

Disengage, and it's dead air.

Advocating vast diversity: the two 

//////
JGallman objects to the notion of a Keystone; it's BS. 
Book retreated into mysticism, religious fantasy.
Central subject of book is not science, but insanity.

Hard to figure out what the book is about. Insanity, with
scientific eyewash? ("I" wash, as pun).

//////
Beth Gallman liked it; it isn't a great novel, but kept at it, because it
had so many interesting ideas that she wouldn't have been able to get
anywhere else.

It was a feast of ideas, gimmicks, possibilities.

Neuter yourself, and it may be too late.

It's about a 'place' doesn't exist. A presentation of an imaginative
idea. Doesn't have to have verisimilitude, emotional depth.

//////
MS: A novel? This book? Don't bother trying to see it that way.
Full of innovations.
Some people, narrative form is pretty damn important, others
rate ideas higher.
Struck him as a very Buddhist.


//////

Raja:

Greg Egan gets credit for building certain things as mataphors:
Stateless: a metaphor for how the TOE turns out to work; TOE, and Stateless, are built on themselves.
pulling out his organs: Andrew has a vision that for most of his life he's thought he was emotionally tied to his body, but here he can see that he's part of his stinking flesh.

Pacing: "lumpy" was a good description.  
Everybody liked the scene with the dead body's reanimation.  Kerrie was repulsed by the grisly stuff like maggots in the wound.

Beth: Found the novel comforting.  Unlike Dadamia (sp?) -- who wants a novel to be a "house," a comforting place which "has it all" -- Beth says this wasn't a comforting home.  The novel is full of the dangers of technology gone too far; dangers of technology.  Comforting to go with the ideas.  

Raja: Thinks it's unfortunate to describe this as a failure because it's not a home.  It's a different kind of structure all together.
Mike: Frankenscience.  From the beginning, he tells you what it's going to be like.
Kerrie: I first thought he'd written "frankenscence"...

Raja reads the last paragraph of the book.
Peter brings up prozac as a metaphor for talking about Egan's idea of defending every kind of Humanity
(one of the big "H" words) as valid.

PK sees it as a very optimistic, warm book; he sees it as a plea for diversity of every kind, a denouncement of
arguing from "the 'H' words". There are many terrible things, that happen, many ways of being human ... and it's
all survivable.

It's very diverse, and it's very supportive of different ways to be human.
There are *many* ways to be human. Voluntary autism?

//////
MS: "Avoid strenuous bowel movements, or laughter." twice;

//////
PK: agrees with GJER's passage, "It's a dazzle."
MS: felt transported when he read that passage as well.
JG: skipped over that passage, found it boring. To which Raja objected: "Are you complaining about having *ideas*?"
PK: _Amadeus_ "Too many notes" -> "Too many ideas"? "Your majesty, which ideas should I remove?"

//////
PK: Dedaimia, does the artist *have* to have the audience in mind?

DW: Greg Egan has handicapped himself, but wishes she could see what the author could do if he wrote *without*
one hand behind his back.

PK: Is this stuff unique? Does a book like this require a special form? Not standard novel forms?

//////
JG: 

////////////
May 20, _The Steampunk Trilogy_
