The Pickwick Club discussion

Dear Fellow-Pickwickians,

since there are only some few chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit left, we might well ask ourselves what we are going to read in the remainder of the year.

Now, one of the assumptions I've made so far is that we might probably want to read a Christmas story in December - even if that means annoying Everyman ... This Christmas story would, if we went on chronologically and I am not mistaken, be The Chimes.

Our next major novel would be Dombey and Son, which is quite a chunk of literature - both physically and figuratively. If we want to keep up our newly-acquired habit of reading one instalment per week, this means that it would take us twenty weeks to read the whole novel. I actually enjoyed the one instalment = one week way of reading, and would like to know which ones of you did so, too, and which ones didn't.

Then we were always in the habit of spending the rest of a month reading some Sketches by Boz. If we did that now, it would mean we could start with Dombey in October.

At any rate, if we start reading Dombey soon, we would probably have, for the first time, a parallel read of a Christmas story and a novel. Would you like that? Would you abhor it? Please feel free to give your opinions on this and all other questions I mentioned here, because I don't think we can have reasonable votes without having some sort of discussion before.

Whatever may be the outcome of it all, I'm looking forward to our next group read - like Oliver was looking forward to more.

Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Pickwickians,

since there are only some few chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit left, we might well ask ourselves what we are going to read in the remainder of the year.

Now, one of the ass..."

Did you actually sit there figuring out that if we read so much we'll be done in so many weeks stuff? Wow that's so much like something a teacher would do. As for what I think, I agree with you, Dombey in October, Christmas anytime, whatever you said. :-}

Tristram wrote: "even if that means annoying Everyman"

Which it does, but I'm strong enough to be willing to allow you the pleasure of annoying me.

I'd like to join in with The Chimes.

Jean,

you're most welcome. Also to Dombey, of course!

Kim wrote: "Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Pickwickians,

since there are only some few chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit left, we might well ask ourselves what we are going to read in the remainder of the year.

No..."


Figuring out how many weeks it would take us to read Dombey was not too difficult this time since my edition groups the chapters according to instalments and I just had to count the instalments.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that and taken the credit instead for self-sacrificing, diligent work ;-)

I'll pop in now and then... And absorb your The Old Curiosity Shop thread as I read the novel, of course ;)

Eventually our reading will coincide, but it's a great idea to slot in shorter pieces - works for me anyway :)

Everyman wrote: "Tristram wrote: "even if that means annoying Everyman"

Which it does, but I'm strong enough to be willing to allow you the pleasure of annoying me."

Grump.

Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Pickwickians,

since there are only some few chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit left, we might well ask ourselves what we are going to read in the remainder of the year.

Now, one of the ass..."

I think a Christmas read for Christmas would be just the thing. And, if you weren't such a humbug, you could probably figure out a way to read Dombey before that-even if it meant skipping over your precious sketches. In any case, I'm in for whatever's next.

Hello Jonathan! Great to see you back and posting :)_

I'm rather new and have been lurking so far (joined in the middle of M.C.). I'm looking forward to joining everyone for the next read.

Jonathan wrote: "Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Pickwickians,

since there are only some few chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit left, we might well ask ourselves what we are going to read in the remainder of the year.

No..."

Hey, the third grump is finally heard from!!! You're really falling behind in that contest.

I like the one episode per week schedule. I would even go to a one chapter per week if people wanted to. After all, there's only so much Dickens, and when it's done it's done, so we might as well make it last.

One chapter a week is too little, I think, but it will allow for some heavy discussion. Doesn't really matter to me, I'm in.

"when it's done it's done"? No no no! Dickens is never "done" surely? Who's up for a reread when we complete the novels and short stories? And what about all his letters etc?

Jonathan wrote: "Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Pickwickians,

since there are only some few chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit left, we might well ask ourselves what we are going to read in the remainder of the year.

No..."


Hi Jonathan,

finally the Voice of Reason is back ;-) It was high time indeed!

So from what I gather from your reactions, we might just as well leave the Sketches aside for a while and start with Domby and Son right away? If I remember correctly, we started with the Sketches last year because there was so little time left before Christmas, and we wanted to celebrate Christmas with one of Dickens's masterpieces, the CAROL, which is cherished by ... nearly ... everyone. Unless there is strong objection to reading D&S along with The Chimes, we won't need the Sketches right now.


Anyway, I'll have a poll on it.

Jean wrote: ""when it's done it's done"? No no no! Dickens is never "done" surely? Who's up for a reread when we complete the novels and short stories? And what about all his letters etc?"

I was thinking a biography or some criticism on his work.

Absolutely! There are so any that I've changed my "Dickens plan" to alternate novels with some of these. But whenever I write my reviews, I realise just how key his letters are too.

Jean wrote: ""when it's done it's done"? No no no! Dickens is never "done" surely? Who's up for a reread when we complete the novels and short stories? And what about all his letters etc?"

Like!

:) Pip - there should be a tab!

If we go to only one chapter a week some of you really really old members will be in nursing homes or not even with of anymore by the time we finish. You know who you are.

LOL!

Tristram wrote: "So from what I gather from your reactions, we might just as well leave the Sketches aside for a while and start with Domby and Son right away? If I remember correctly, we started with the Sketches ..."

As long as we read more than one chapter a week whatever you want to do is fine with me. One chapter a week, I'll let you know my thoughts next year when I read it all at one time so I remember what I thought. :-}

Everyman wrote: "I like the one episode per week schedule. I would even go to a one chapter per week if people wanted to. After all, there's only so much Dickens, and when it's done it's done, so we might as well ..."

Someone good at math should figure out how many years it would take us to read all the Dickens books at one chapter a week. I'm guessing 100 years.

I think I might join you guys in reading the next selection - Dombey and Son. I joined your group just as Martin Chuzzlewit was starting up, but I had already committed to reading Bleak House with another group at the time. I think one installment per week looks great! This will only be my third Dickens, so I'm looking forward to it.

Linda wrote: "I think I might join you guys in reading the next selection - Dombey and Son. I joined your group just as Martin Chuzzlewit was starting up, but I had already committed to reading Bleak House with..."

Did you like Bleak House? That's one of my favorites.

Kim wrote: "Did you like Bleak House? That's one of my favorites."

Loved it! Took me awhile to keep all the characters straight, though. I'm halfway through watching the most recent BBC mini-series of it, although of course it's not as good as the book.

Linda wrote: "Kim wrote: "Did you like Bleak House? That's one of my favorites."

Loved it! Took me awhile to keep all the characters straight, though. I'm halfway through watching the most recent BBC mini-ser..."

Nothing's ever as good as the book. :o}

Kim wrote: "If we go to only one chapter a week some of you really really old members will be in nursing homes or not even with of anymore by the time we finish."

Speak for yourself.

Oh, wait. You were.

Kim wrote: "Someone good at math should figure out how many years it would take us to read all the Dickens books at one chapter a week. I'm guessing 100 years. "

Thank goodness you aren't trying to teach mathematics or statistics. And aren't an engineer designing bridges -- they would fall down!

You aren't remotely close. After all, most of Dickens's works were published in monthly installments of less than four chapters, so they would take less time to read at a chapter a week than they took for the original readers to read at the monthly a week installments. We would read them more quickly, then, than his original audiences did.

Everyman wrote: "Kim wrote: "Someone good at math should figure out how many years it would take us to read all the Dickens books at one chapter a week. I'm guessing 100 years. "

Thank goodness you aren't trying t..."

Unless you can give my an exact number of years it would take, with witnesses to back you up, I'm sticking to 100 years. Oh, by the way I hate math. Despise it. I would rather sit through a trial - watching not part of it - with you as the defense attorney than walk into a math class ever again. I would rather have Tristram teach me German than have one single math class again. The only reason I passed every stupid math class I ever had was because my last name began with Z so I always was in the back of the class and never called on, that way I could just copy what everyone else was saying.

Everyman wrote: "Kim wrote: "If we go to only one chapter a week some of you really really old members will be in nursing homes or not even with of anymore by the time we finish."

Speak for yourself.

Oh, wait. Y..."

That was funny I admit it. You're still a grump.

Kim wrote: "Unless you can give my an exact number of years it would take, with witnesses to back you up, I'm sticking to 100 years. "

The classic "my mind's made up; don't confuse me with the facts."

Kim wrote: "Tristram wrote: "So from what I gather from your reactions, we might just as well leave the Sketches aside for a while and start with Domby and Son right away? If I remember correctly, we started w..."

Hi Kim,

I thought that it was agreed on by everybody who took part in our discussions that reading one instalment per week was actually a principle to be maintained. Not only does it give you enough leisure to read, but it also gives you an impression of how Dickens used cliffhanger endings to encourage the reader to buy next month's instalment. There also seems to be a certain unity in some of these instalments.

So I daresay that reading one chapter per week is not an option for us.

Kim wrote: "Everyman wrote: "Kim wrote: "Someone good at math should figure out how many years it would take us to read all the Dickens books at one chapter a week. I'm guessing 100 years. "

Thank goodness yo..."

When are you enlisting for your German course? Put yourself into my shoes: I'm not too keen on maths myself, and so you can imagine my dismay when I went to a campus festival two weeks ago and found that my son was actually fascinated by all the riddles and tasks put up by the Math Department, which made him - a 6-year old - even spend 2 1/2 hours doing maths, really coming up with the solutions and later telling me that he was going to study maths ...

My own flesh and blood ...

Linda wrote: "I think I might join you guys in reading the next selection - Dombey and Son. I joined your group just as Martin Chuzzlewit was starting up, but I had already committed to reading Bleak House with..."

Welcome aboard, Linda!

Tristram wrote: "Kim wrote: "Tristram wrote: "So from what I gather from your reactions, we might just as well leave the Sketches aside for a while and start with Domby and Son right away? If I remember correctly, ..."


It's not one installment per week I object to but one chapter per week. Of course I object to anything Everyman says until he changes his mind about Christmas. :o}

Everyman wrote: "Kim wrote: "Unless you can give my an exact number of years it would take, with witnesses to back you up, I'm sticking to 100 years. "

The classic "my mind's made up; don't confuse me with the fac..."

Darn right.

Tristram wrote: "I'm not too keen on maths myself, and so you can imagine my dismay when I went to a campus festival two weeks ago and found that my son was actually fascinated...."

That reminded me of the days when my daughter was in school. Like me she not only hated math but had no idea what was going on during the class or how to do the homework, so I had to spend many, many hours sitting figuring it out myself then trying to explain it to her. I once had a parent-teacher conference and the teacher told me she was doing fine with everything but math and I told him if I had realized I would be doing math all over again I wouldn't have had kids. :o}

Tristram wrote: "Welcome aboard, Linda!"

Thanks! I'm looking forward to it. You guys seem like a fun bunch! :)

Tristram wrote: "My own flesh and blood ...
"

Are you sure? Remember your Odyssey:

"My mother," answered Telemachus, "tells me I am son to Ulysses, but it is a wise child that knows his own father" .

Just kidding. But I couldn't resist bring Homer into a Dickens group.

Tristram wrote: "so you can imagine my dismay when I went to a campus festival two weeks ago and found that my son was actually fascinated by all the riddles and tasks put up by the Math Department, which made him - a 6-year old - even spend 2 1/2 hours doing maths, "

Take heart. I loved maths in school, and can perfectly understand him. They're fascinating, and they have real answers (unlike literature). But I also love literature, and taught English (and math!) at the high school level, so don't lose hope.

Everyman wrote: "Take heart. I loved maths in school,"

That's a big surprise.

Kim wrote: "Everyman wrote: "Take heart. I loved maths in school,"

That's a big surprise."

For me too, but what surprised me was the British English "maths" combined with the US English "in" rather than "at" school ;-)

Pip wrote: " what surprised me was the British English "maths" combined with the US English "in" rather than "at" school."

Shouldn't surprise you. I was educated mostly in the US but partly in England, and was raised by an English father (Kings College, Cambridge) so was more exposed to English English than most American students. Plus I read English poets and writers far more than American.

O Everyman, there's so much of me in that boy that I cannot but adore him ;-)

What with Maths, however, I was stunned when I heard it and even more when I saw that he is quite good at it. He is also strictly logical when it comes to language, so when you ask him, "Don't you want the last piece of chocolate there?" he will answer No and then eat it. I have one colleague at school who would answer the same way, and guess what he is teaching: Maths and physics, and computer stuff.

The other day I read one of Grimms's fairy tales to my son, "The Seven Ravens". In it a girl is on a quest for her seven brothers, who were turned into ravens and are now living in a mountain of glass. The stars gave the girl a chicken bone to unlock the glass mountain. [Okay, you have to switch off your world experience here] When the girl arrives at the mountain she realizes that she has lost the chicken bone, and she cuts off one of her fingers to successfully unlock the door with.

My son looked at me full of astonishment and then he said, "What a stupid thing to do. Why did she not just have some roast chicken at an inn and then take the bones with her?"

Well, why not indeed?

Could we please stop talking about math,
maths
arithmetic
algebra
geometry
trigonometry
calculus
linear algebra
combinatorics
differential equations
real analysis
complex analysis
abstract algebra (includes group theory, ring theory, field theory, and module theory)
topology
number theory
logic
probability
statistics
game theory
functional analysis
algebraic geometry
differential geometry
dynamical systems (includes "chaos theory")
numerical analysis
set theory
category theory
model theory

I'm getting a headache. And no I have no idea what almost any of these are I just looked up different kinds of math. :-}

Riemann geometry
fourth dimension geometry
Brouer-Hilbert
incompleteness theory

headache worse yet, or should I go on?

I can't see tens and units on the list....