I'M GONNA PARTY LIKE ITS 1984!!

But not really! Here's a link I found and read. The title references Orwellian society but after reading the article. I discovered it was just false advertising. The only thing about this article pertaining to our book is the actual year of 1984. Booooo. And to add insult to injury, the article will be of interest to about 1.5 of us since it is about economics. "And there was much rejoicing...... Yea" 🇬🇧 Here's the brief summary: today's 30 year olds get paid the exact same (inflation adjusted) as 30 year olds in 1984. But today's 30 year olds have more education and more debt. 

For the 12.6% of the spirits who want to read it....

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/orwellian-economy-millennials-get-paid-like-its-1984-2016-03-23?mod=MethodeStories

UNBROKEN BOOK DISCUSSION

Happy Spring, Spirits!  Shout out to Diesel, who took much better notes at this meeting than those to which I have become accustomed. ;) We covered a lot of ground in this meeting, so I'll jump right in.

Though we didn't rate the book until the end of the meeting, I'll lead by noting that this book got rave reviews from all Spirits, which means it was truly remarkable.  It earned 5 stars from Baron, Cat, JB, and Deuce, and 4.5 for the rest of the group.  Also, this book made an ideal book club selection because it was well written and chock full of characters/dilemmas/moral issues to discuss.  As many people in the group noted, truth is stranger than fiction, and this was certainly one of those instances. 

Cat posted an interesting article about the author, Laura Hillenbrand, and her struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome.  We discussed how thoroughly researched the book was and how it was even more of a testament to her passion for Zamperini's story that she conducted most of her research and interviews from her home.  Many of us noted that it was interesting to read about the Pacific theater of World War II.  I, for one, have read very little about it.  So, I think we all learned quite a bit from the book.  One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the exploration of the cultural differences between Japan and America and how those differences were a "perfect storm" that led to the brutality suffered by the POW's.

Of course, we all agreed that this was a difficult read, what with all the starvation, beating, humiliation, and suffering endured by Zamperini and the other POW's.  But these atrocities never seemed gratuitous.  Indeed, the author seemed very even-handed in her treatment of American and Japanese individuals featured in the book, and did not portray all Japanese soldiers as villains or all Americans as heroes.  For example, one of the Japanese guards, at great personal risk, helped the American soldiers and treated them with dignity.  A Japanese pilot spared the life of an American who was helplessly parachuting from his plane, and even saluted him.  On the other hand, Mac was unable to control his impulse to eat the chocolate in his panic following the crash.  

In many places, the book waxed philosophical about the importance of human dignity and optimism to survival.  This was a theme during Zamperini's time on the raft, when his and Phil's optimism contrasted with Mac's helplessness.  At the POW camps, small acts of humanity from Japanese guards or the acts of defiance of the guards by the POW's sustained the dignity of the POW's and gave them the will to live under horrific conditions.  

Much of our discussion centered on The Bird.  The most disturbing thing about The Bird, to me, was his utter lack of remorse for his treatment of the POW's.  Although Zamperini came to forgive The Bird, and was thus finally able to live his life after the war in peace, as a reader, it was hard to come to terms with the fact that The Bird never faced any punishment for his crimes.  We discussed why The Bird was so obsessed with Zamperini, and the consensus view was that Zamperini represented everything that The Bird could never attain.  Zamperini was an Olympic athlete and an officer, and he was respected and liked by his fellow soldiers.  The Bird was none of these.      

We also discussed the part of the book that followed the lives of Zamperini and the other soldiers after the war, and we were amazed by both the physical and mental recovery of Zamperini and others, but of course there were those who were not so lucky.  

Another topic of discussion was the use of the atomic bomb by the Americans to end the war.  The book really made it understandable how the war came to the point, given the mentality of the Japanese that they would fight to the last man, woman, and child.  

Indy opined that this book should be required reading for Americans, and I have to say that I think it's not a bad idea.  I know that I am probably leaving out many thoughtful points and discussion topics because this really was one of our most in depth discussions.  Even given the heavy subject matter, I really enjoyed the discussion!  

Looking forward to seeing everyone and going to see 1984 at Barter Theater in a couple of weeks!  I think this will be another deep, thought-provoking discussion.  Hope everyone had a doubleplusgood Easter!

FEBRUARY MEETING NOTES

I think the best way to begin this post is a quote made directly by Diesel: "Baron's pie was discovered in the freezer, and it was enjoyed by all." That should about wrap things up nicely folks. Good talk!

Okay, down to business: meeting notes for our February meeting. Archimedes will be posting the UNBROKEN book discussion shortly. 

Old Business: 

To start us off, Boss read GREEN EGGS & HAM by Dr. Seuss and I think we all enjoyed that. He keeps getting better and better at reading. I'm impressed with Chief's and Boss's bravery in participating in adult book discussions. I would have ran and hid under my bed if ever asked to do something similar when I was younger. Most of the time I want to do that now and I'm a full (physically) grown adult. Well done Chief and Boss.

Shirts: I think Diesel summarized it quite succinctly so I won't try to improve it: "No shirts, waiting to color, (Deuce is slacking), Deuce was chastised." Enough said.

Running events: Diesel continues to conduct research on two things: 1. any local running events that any of us may want to participate in. Specifically any events that support literacy or similar type causes, and 2. To see if it may be feasible for we, the mighty Novel Spirits to organize and execute our own running event to benefit literacy in some shape or form. May the Force be with You Diesel!

Dues: According to the notes, we have two deliquencies in the February dues payments: just remember everyone, Big Brother is always watching! ◉_◉ So I'll give the guilty parties a chance to come clean now and save yourselves being arrested and reconditioned by the Thought Police (ง'̀-'́)ง

You're out of time Cat and JB! How do you answer to your crimes!?!?!?!? So did yall pay dues or what?

New Business:

We discussed going on a club field trip to some sort of literary themed location at some point in time. However, as the clubs's unofficial, amateur, up-and-coming financial advisor, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that we just invested $251 of our (less than) very deep bank account to go see 1984 at the Barter Theater. More on that in a bit. A few suggestions thrown out were: the Thomas Wolffe house (assuming we are all properly recovered from our miserably failed attempts at reading his accounts of the history of life, the world and everything). Which Douglas Adams quite succinctly explained to us was 42. Anyway, Biltmore, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe were suggestions, as well as Cormac McCarthy. Not sure if that is a place or an Irish potato farmer but I'm sure yall will set me straight. 

Also, and this is exciting IMO, we all submitted our "soft" book submissions for our next round of readings. Here is a quick list, without the actual pictures of the books because as always, I am already putting way too many words down here and that would take up far too much space. Hamilton quote: "Why do you write like you're running out of time??" Sorry about that, and no I definitely don't put myself in Hamilton's category. He was about 27 times more intelligent than me, or I. See I rest my case. In Summary, Hamilton is awesome.

Baron: 1984 by George Orwell

Cat: SON OF THE WILDERNESS by Linnie Marsh Wolfe

JB: KINGS MOUNTAIN by Sharon McCrumb

Diesel: THE DUELING NEUROSURGEONS by Sam Kean

Indy: GO SET A WATCHMAN by Harper Lee

Archimedes: CATCH 22 by Joseph Heller

Gilligan: PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov

Deuce: FINDING JAKE by Bryan Reardon

 

JB shared some quotes from Mark Twain and Indy shared some quotes from Twain and Thomas Wolfe. I am ashamed to say that I have fallen away from the habit of collecting quotes from the books we read (or any other source related). I had an easier time back when I was using the Kindle app on my iPhone but Amazon no longer allows me to use my password on its apps. It works fine on my computer but apparently the hoity toity Mr. Godlike smarypants Amazon thinks I am not worthy of using it on my mobile devices. So that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Now look about 1984: sorry that I just jumped line and injected my next round submission (1984) ahead of our two remaining from this round, but there was a mediocre reason. I was strongly considering this book, then I happened to see that the play 1984 was playing at Barter and thought that would be cool for us all to read it then go see it. Our very first club field trip (awwww tear). I wish tear was spelled differently than tear but sadly its not. I know how ridiculous this will read. ANYWAY, But it only plays during the month of April so it was a rather time sensitive issue. So everyone was nice enough to let me jump in line with my next book submission and we'll go see the play after.

So next meeting is at the Barter Theater Stage II Cafe (across the street from the main stage) around maybe 5:00? We can eat there, have our meeting, then watch the show at 8:00. The date is Saturday April 9th. 

I'll end with a completely unrelated quote, just because I think it is awesome: (from Hamilton again) "I'm past patiently waiting, I'm passionately smashing every expectation, every action's an act of creation!"

See yall in a bit, don't forget the Two minutes hate tonight everyone!

TOPGOLF

So the attached link is what Gilligan was telling us about at the meeting I think. And it sounds very fun! I doubt there is something like it in our neck of the woods but it would be a great field trip for the Spirits I think.

Or better yet, maybe we should delve into the world of entrepreneurship and start one up around here. We can make millions!!

At any rate, it sounds like a really fun activity so thanks for sharing Gilligan.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a3573b9e-dca8-11e5-8541-00fb33bdf038.html#axzz42Ov1iNwq

WATCHING TV INSIDE A VIDEO GAME

Hello Spirits, its almost time for our next meeting and UNBROKEN discussion. But I thought I'd give yall another update on a book I just finished. I've been on a rampage lately. Needless to say, several other things that I should have been doing have slipped through the cracks. Oops. But it appears that the world is still spinning, companies are still operating, the stock market hasn't crashed, my Twitter followers still worship me and Chief and Boss are still properly fed. So I guess I haven't messed anything up too badly.

The book I just finished is called READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline. Thankfully, I really enjoyed this one, which was crucial after BRAVE NEW WORLD. However, even though I thought this book was great, I don't think I'd recommend this book to any of the Spirits. I think Chief might enjoy it, maybe Archimedes and possibly Cat, but since its a Science Fiction, the other Spirits probably wouldn't like this.

In a nut shell, it takes place in the year 2045 and the world economy just kept getting worse after the Great Recession of 2008. So the real world is a very bad place: poverty, crime all that stuff. But the technology has continually improved and now there is a virtual reality video game system that everyone plays. It essentially replaces everyone's real life since 1. real life is a bad place and 2. this technology is so great that it feels real. People can live out any possible thing they can think of. Business operates inside "the OASIS" (the virtual world), people go on vacations in the OASIS, even people's real money doesn't matter. They would prefer to make and spend money in the OASIS. So the brilliant designer of this virtual world died and his will left his billions of dollars to the person who wins a very complex treasure hunt/puzzle/game inside the OASIS.

So the entire world begins searching for the "egg" at the end of the puzzle. Good guys, bad guys etc. And excitement and suspense ensue. Very entertaining.

As an added plus (for me but not you), is that this author fills the book chock full of 1980s movie , game, music and pop culture references (since the OASIS designer grew up in the 1980s and was obsessed with that time period). Since that's when I grew up, I really enjoyed that aspect of the book as well.

Not sure its the one for you guys, but wanted to share anyway. You all please feel free to make posts on any books you are reading as well if you want.

See you soon,

Baron