I've heard that people join "book clubs" where they meet up to "discuss" a book they've supposedly read. They will say things like
Thank you for your consideration.
Ermintrude
“I thought it was very well crafted, tension between the protagonists highlighting how meagre their antitheses’ schemes really were.”
Nisbert
“Eee-ars, but surely that tension was itself the antagonist, counterpointing the surrealism of the underlying methaphor of the author’s (and hence of one’s own) soul.”
Aubrey
“Well really, Nisbert, no comment at all is better than recycling a third hand critique! Did one fail to understand any aspect of the linguistic palette?”
Ermintrude
“oh, That was disappointing, Nisbert..”
Aubrey
“I've been doing some pen & ink drawings, Erm, you might like them. There’s a bott. of champagne at home.”
Ermintrude
“Yes, that sounds nice. Aubrey, would you mind terribly if I came back with you? We could start on next month's novel..”
With novels unavailable from Landover booksellers these clubs, which are nothing more than pickup joints, have very limited opportunities to thrive. Should we also purge The Novel from any lending libraries still operating? Bookclubs are not above rehashing old novels, as you can see from the sorts of comments actually reading the things is superfluous, just so long as there's a volume to clasp "I'm just going to out bookclub meeting.." and it's all downhill from there.“I thought it was very well crafted, tension between the protagonists highlighting how meagre their antitheses’ schemes really were.”
Nisbert
“Eee-ars, but surely that tension was itself the antagonist, counterpointing the surrealism of the underlying methaphor of the author’s (and hence of one’s own) soul.”
Aubrey
“Well really, Nisbert, no comment at all is better than recycling a third hand critique! Did one fail to understand any aspect of the linguistic palette?”
Ermintrude
“oh, That was disappointing, Nisbert..”
Aubrey
“I've been doing some pen & ink drawings, Erm, you might like them. There’s a bott. of champagne at home.”
Ermintrude
“Yes, that sounds nice. Aubrey, would you mind terribly if I came back with you? We could start on next month's novel..”
Thank you for your consideration.
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