Hey Thomas,

This is a really cool idea, and I'm excited to see it get going. Generally we try to limit the number of threads devoted to a single topic to one, both to keep variety on the front page, and to make it easy to filter out for those who aren't interested. Would this still work if it were contained in one thread?

I feel each book should be it's own thread. This thread is a nice idea, but like SO many things it is actively fought by the spirit of the forum's design. There's a reason I keep the webDipEOG archive in an excel in a tinyurl in my profile rather than in the forum, because a thread must be constantly bumped or locked from contribution for all time, so archives of links like this naturally find themselves in an existential contradiction where they must be contributed to / bumped constantly, which they don't need to be, or allowed to die and never contributed to (which is their purpose, to be contributed to, albeit sparingly).

I highly suggest some person take it upon themselves to be a Keeper of Lore via a profile comment, and/or that previous Literary Club threads be tacked onto opening statements of new ones, much like I do for SOW.

Archival link threads like this are existentially contradictory on contemporary webDip forums unfortunately.

I liked the fav. Sci-Fi book thread. Wanna start a post-grad math&science one?

Gantz (Japanese: ガンツ Hepburn: Gantsu?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. Gantz tells the story of Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato, both whom died in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous "game" in which they and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens armed with a handful of futuristic items, equipment, and weaponry. Both the manga and anime are noted for their heavy violence and sexual content. [MAL]

It encompasses Action, Drama, Ecchi, Horror, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, Psychological, Seinen and A word of warning: Gantz is not for the faint-hearted, but neither is it as simple as it looks. Gore, rape and violence is rampant, as are portrayals of greed, violence, and all the ugliness that one sees in society today [MAL]. This is exclusively for the manga, not the anime adaptation.

I chose this work because of two reasons. I primarily deal in film when it comes to Japanese works, I physically collect and watch and review anime shows. There’s a lot of fascinating aspects to this hobby, as is there is with any hobby / niche, Diplomacy not excluded, and one of them is that many, really most, anime are adaptations of manga that essentially serve as really big advertisements. Among other things this leads to many shows not being particularly artistic or challenging as it doesn’t exist as a work of art or raison d’etre unto itself. The Gantz anime, unfortunately, supposedly, fell to this very very common pitfall. So I put off watching the show, even though I primarily deal with shows and not the manga. However I recently had cause for celebration in my life and found a sale on Gantz manga, and remembering the high praise for the manga and the active lack of praise for the anime adaptation (the medium I would normally consume the story by), I decided to spring for it. Thus I own 31 volumes of the Gantz manga all of the sudden, and would be happy to share the experience if anyone is interested.

Gantz can be found through Barnes and Noble or Amazon just to name two stores. I want to give everyone a head start to acquire copies if they wish to join me. I’m a big believer in owning physical copies of my hobbies, and/or acquiring via legal means. So even if I have access to an anime on Netflix I still get the Blu Rays just to support the company behind the show and for the materialistic collection aspect. I’m more than happy to realize not everyone shares the latter compulsion or means to fuel it, and I also know that not everyone shares the ideals or even means to pay for digital rights or legal access, even if not physical copies. It’s a 37 volume work. Which is about 400 dollars to attain the whole series physically. I don’t know what Thomas Dullan’s philosophy or vision of the Literary Circle is. I also have physical copies of Calhamer On Diplomacy (2nd Edition) and The Gamer’s Guide to Diplomacy and a 1978 The Game of Diplomacy, which would be beyond the means for everyone to acquire but would be of, I would think, great interest among dippers (and the latter being free on Diplomacy Archive site). I don’t think anyone would squirm if those works were accessed without buying copies, so I’ll leave everyone to deal with how they wish to acquire it on their own. If there is one thing the internet can do, it can give you a work of art for free if you ask it. (The first 10 links for a Google search of “where can I read Gantz manga legally” lead to non-licensed websites…).

Right now I plan on a volume a week, consuming during the weekend and posting thoughts on the Monday. If this is too slow, too fast, or too forum-spammy (and/or I’m just talking to myself) I’ll gladly change it. If it’s a hit or there’s more interest in additional other Manga (specifically Neon Genesis Evangelion canonical lines, or Bezerk) I’ll add them in too.

The thread will be started June 15th, 2015

When I worked at IBM, there was a series of classes (outside work hours) called "Alice and Friends." We started with "Alice in Wonderland," but the series went into some fairly heavy duty books like "Godel, Escher and Bach," biographies of Turing, Darwin, and Babbage, polarizations of science like "The Dancing Wu Li Masters." It was an amazing class, students and teacher all very sharp.

I think once a week may be too fast for me. And I think the whole series Valis mentions may be too much. I'm certainly game to read the first one. I might like to see something more diverse.

Stupid spell check. Not "polarizations." "popularizations."

Myself and a few colleagues are reading Don Quixote this summer, might be a good suggestion for the first Literary Circle? I'd like some mechanism to keep me interested and motivated.

Also, I think we can do this without attempting to limit discussion to a single thread. However, this comes with the caveat that if the number of active threads get out of hand, another forum mod or I will step in and start locking threads.

Dylan Thomas: "Under Milk Wood"
http://www.webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?newsendtothread=1265469&viewthread=1265469#postbox

@ghug
No. It wouldn't work. You only have to look at how confused it has become already with postings about Sci-Fi, Gantz and Don Quixote all intermingled.

@2WL
Good idea. When Summer comes and the book is read, just advertise the title, author and thread here and establish a separate thread on your chosen book.

@2WL: count me in for Don Quixote. It has been on my reading list since a while.
I am also ready for any literary classics and new genres like the one Valis suggested.

don quichote is quite boring to be honest

@Uzzy
Well, you have several choices:
[a] when 2WL establishes the Don Quixote thread, you can join and express your opinion; or
[b] when 2WL establishes the thread, you can ignore it; or
[c] you can choose a different book, establish a separate thread, and announce its name, author and thread id here.

I'm game for Don Quixote. Should we settle on a translation/edition?

@ thomas dullan: just saying that ist boring, brother, no need for the sarcasm ;) given you are about to read it and i have read it, thought i give you a heads up.

@Uzzy
No sarcasm intended. I won't be joining the Don Quixote thread either. My reason for suggesting the protocol (see first message) was so that people could choose which book threads they might establish/join.

It is worthwhile discovering if there's any interest before going off and starting a thread. Maybe that's too radical an idea.

@valis: i would actually be very interested in that... I've been meaning to watch/ read gantz for a while and was considering writing something similar. I think a better pace would be 3 volumes a week though. (Actually not very much.) it would turn it from a 7-8 month project to a 2.5 month project. It seems like it wpuld be easier to keep people's interest at that pace.

Yes, ガンツ is gantsu


In order to solve the problem of new threads clogging the forum, we could just go to another site, and post the links here. I know of a really good site called vdiplomacy.net that we could use.