BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Proposal For a Group Re-Reading Of The Invisibles

 
  

Page: 12(3)45

 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
22:47 / 02.02.07
I can't believe Alex's Grandma hacked Zahir's suit. This is apalling.
 
 
matthew.
00:53 / 03.02.07
Did we decide on a time to start? Are we going with the above schedule?

Oh, by the way, I'm in.
 
 
Spaniel
08:32 / 03.02.07
I've already started wanking.

Am I not allowed?
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
09:55 / 03.02.07
I've had a look but can't really see any old Invisibles thread worth resurrecting for this so I suggest that when you start this going someone start a new thread for it.
 
 
Janean Patience
14:22 / 03.02.07
Covering one arc a week, three or four issues, is my preferred pace - plenty of time for everyone to work that around their schedules, their commitments, their lives. Though the hefting and opening of boxes of comics has yet to find me any more issues that the last five of v1.
 
 
Glenn Close But No Cigar
14:32 / 03.02.07
I can't believe Alex's Grandma hacked Zahir's suit. This is apalling.

While I'm sure this post is a regular LOL-orama for veteren 'lithers, can you explain in for the new kids? Thanks.

I've already started wanking. Am I not allowed?

Oh, if it's you wanking, that's ok, as long as you stop when you get 'jester's shoes'.
 
 
calgodot
14:42 / 03.02.07
Decide whether each issue should have its own thread, or whether they should all be lumped together in a glorious, yet slightly wobbly blamanche. I'd go for issue-by-issue threads, contained within a new 'stripe' on the Barbelith front page, in the manner of headshop, temple etc.

I second the notion of the stripe, for what it's worth. While there may have once been a need to resist "becoming so weighted towards GM," it is inescapable that the word BARBELITH is a GM neologism, that this board was originally created for discussing The Invisibles (and related topics), and that many (myself included) continue to be drawn here because of the ubiquitous comic book. (Upon first perusing Barbelith, I was, in fact, quite annoyed with how difficult it was/is to discover old threads about The Invisibles.) I truly do not see how one stripe among several would shift the emphasis of this board toward GM fanboy ravings, especially as the board is rather heavily moderated. But then, I am a newbie, naive and yet to be jaded by local snark, high or low. My vision of robust threads titled "King Mob's Existential Dilemma" may simply be a dream.

Impose some structure to this.

The schedule proposed by Tim Callahan works for me.

if the proposed project is to happen, it needs leadership, and needs it soon.

Without a doubt. Anyone can start a new thread, but a new stripe? That's a L33T task, eh?
 
 
Quantum
14:43 / 03.02.07
GM would want us to have a fiddle. From the wikipedia entry;
The title initially sold well but sales dipped sharply during the first series, leading to worries the series may be cancelled outright. To stop this, Morrison suggested a "wankathon" in order to magically increase sales by a mass of fans masturbating at a set time
 
 
Glenn Close But No Cigar
15:04 / 03.02.07
That was kind of the idea with the 'no wanking' gag...
 
 
Sylvia
18:13 / 03.02.07
Boboss: Well I'd say it depends what you're wanking OVER.

We should probably either let the thread-starter, Oddman, decide the reading pace or agree to put it to a vote and go with the majority. Because otherwise we'll spend all our time figuring out HOW to discuss the Invisibles instead of the actual discussion.

Now that I've said that I have to actually put for a solid opinion.

While I'd like a 1-2 issues per week reading, for tallying purposes put me down as 3-4 issues a week pace. It seems to be the best compromise between everyone's schedules.

Now that I've tried to be firm, perhaps I can backslide with a corollary: How about each issue arc having its own thread? I don't want to push out the other comics discussions but this way latecomers could peruse and resurrect old threads, while others could be free to go on to the next issues without worrying about the discussion becoming too derailed. (It also may be handy years down the road for newcomers who arrive here very interested in threads on the Invisibles. The search for those is what prompted me to come here in the first place)
 
 
penitentvandal
19:05 / 03.02.07
Make sure any contemporary discussions of what is, after all, now a historical work feel contemporary. Yes, there is a Neu-rave / Web 2.0 / culture wars / even fucking Britpop revival going on right now, but that is arguably about a certain nostalgia for 'safer' times (politically, economically, culturally etc.). If we really are advancing towards a super/hyper-context or so on, let's track that advance.

I've noted a recent spike of interest in the 2012 meme - there is the aforementioned Pinchbeck book, the shop I work in has another book coming in shortly which rejoices in the title 2012 - Apocalypse!, and the Klaxons album is absolutely dripping with allusions to magic, hermeticism and the eschaton, if the song titles are anything to go by. It's kind of interesting to see such an upsurge of attention being paid to what I thought was perhaps a bit of a played-ut idea, and it kind of has me wondering if this is the start of some realignment of the culture in a more interesting direction.

Perhaps it's about time 'Destination Eschaton' was re-adopted as the theme tune for the culture; after six years or so, even 'America - Fuck Yeah!' gets pretty boring.
 
 
Mario
21:16 / 03.02.07
I vote for an arc a week. That's usually 4-6 issues, right?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
22:50 / 03.02.07
Although no longer a Comics moderator, I would probably suggest that if we were to get to a stage where there were sixty or so threads bouncing around the Comics forum, each one dedicated to a single issue of the Invisibles, some fairly serious pruning would have to be taken in hand. Done by collection, say, would cause less of an issue, I imagine. If you want a different thread per issue, I think one would indeed have to create a new forum - "The Fanservice", or something to that effect. I'm not sure that is likely to happen, though, and unless it is very easy to do indeed I'd rather see the time spent doing things which will improve the user experience for all members, such as admissions.

Zahir - as regular viewers know, Alex's grandma, like poor young Alex, is not a serious person. In part, this manifests by apparently reasonable beginnings spiraling into frankly inspiring rants involving the need for strong leadership in the face of sinister cabals of "long-time" posters, "high-profile members" and, of course, the General. She's been under a lot of stress, lately.
 
 
PatrickMM
06:46 / 04.02.07
If we're doing an arc a week, we could probably do a thread per arc. I would agree that each issue is excessive, but one for each arc should work pretty well, and make it a lot easier for people who want to use it as a resource in the future.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
14:21 / 04.02.07
And make it a lot easier for people who want to use it as a resource in the future.

Well I suppose ... But it seems to me that Barbelith as a community has an opportunity to put together what's possibly going to be the go-to reference point for anything to do with 'The Invisibles' for some years to come.

Accordingly, I don't think we should try to scrimp and save when it comes to bandwidth.

My vote is for a thread per issue.

And I am a serious person. In a kind of crazy, discordian, trickster-ish sort of a way.

But not about this.

When it comes to 'The Invisibles', I am deadly serious.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
16:11 / 04.02.07
OK, if you want to do it, this is what I suggest.

Thread One: Issues #1 to #12. This makes sense as it begins and ends with King Mob shooting someone in their brainparts. If anyone really wants to discuss 'Hexy' they do it in this thread.

Thread Two: Issues #13 to #25. The events of 13 to 24 are supposed to take place over a period of a day or two (how this fits in with Dane getting up to and back from Liverpool in what must be an afternoon I don't know, this could be one of the many exciting things we discuss).

Thread Three: Volume 2, Issues #1 to #10. Ideally at twenty-two issues we should be able to split in 11/11, but issue 10 is the end of the 'Sensitive Criminals' arc, so poo.

Thread Four: Volume 2, Issues #11 to #22. Thrill! As Grant suddenly loses interest in the character of Boy! Discuss! Is there actually some story missing between KM and Robin's adventure in the church and the next issue?

Thread Five: Volume 3, Issues #12 to #2/#1. I personally don't think the last issue is worth it's own thread but you might think differently.

We may need a Thread Six for discussion outwith specific sections, a 'what do you think of blah over the course of the series?' type thing to avoid bogging the last thread with discussions.

If people want to do it by trades then bear in mind that the first trade for series 2 is missing pages from the end.
 
 
Jake, Colossus of Clout
16:38 / 04.02.07
If people want to do it by trades then bear in mind that the first trade for series 2 is missing pages from the end.

Say what? Is there a link to the missing pages?
 
 
PatrickMM
00:36 / 05.02.07
I believe it's only the final page of issue 2.4, and it is available at this site, run by a Lither. In terms of making the final call on threads, I'm going to say go for the compromise of having one per arc. I could even see one per issue, but I think that would make it difficult to do general discussion on something like Arcadia. One for every ten issues is just too vast an amount of material for one thread to handle, particularly if we're going as in depth as I'd hope we do.

I'm not sure who's going to make the final call, but if the one per arc format works, someone should make a thread for #1-4, and we should start reading.
 
 
Jake, Colossus of Clout
00:56 / 05.02.07
Yeah, I support one thread per arc, too. One per issue is way too much clutter for the comics forum, and too many issues per thread would just confuse things.

I'm in for this, BTW. My partner is about to read The Invisibles for the first time, and I could use a refresher.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
01:39 / 05.02.07
Funnily enough, my partner is about to read The Invisibles for the first time too!

Whether ze likes it or not!

Perhaps especially if ze doesn't, it might be very beautiful.
 
 
matthew.
15:28 / 05.02.07
Okay I've started on the first trade. Three issues in already. I'm trying to take it slow so I can try and pick out things I may have missed the first or second time around.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
15:43 / 05.02.07
'd go for issue-by-issue threads, contained within a new 'stripe' on the Barbelith front page, in the manner of headshop, temple etc.

Nay, nay, and thrice nay.

Though I'm up for a reread, if the pace is such that it allows me to buy a new copy of the last volume before we get there (fuck only knows what happened to mine).
 
 
Tim Tempest
17:03 / 05.02.07
Ok lets go with a new thread for each arc. Does one arc per week sound doable for everyone?

And lets start soon. As in, tonight.
 
 
Triplets
17:25 / 05.02.07
SERIOUS hats on.

 
 
gridley
17:40 / 05.02.07
So we're doing "Down and Out in Heaven and Hell" (plus "Dead Beatles") this week and "Arcadia" next week?
 
 
PatrickMM
17:56 / 05.02.07
Sounds good to me, someone should sign up for thread starting duty for each arc. Perhaps Oddman, as he did present the idea.
 
 
Tim Tempest
19:23 / 05.02.07
I'll take on the burden of beginning a new thread for each arc.

Its quite a task, but I think I, and I alone, am capable of doing it.
 
 
Tim Tempest
19:24 / 05.02.07
Oh, Benny you filthy swine! You beat me to it.

Dibs on the Arcadia thread then..

Bastard.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
19:32 / 05.02.07
Well then, so be it, I'd just like to apologise to everyone who isn't taking part in the grand reread that navigating through the comics forum to find their threads will be taking just that little bit longer, but by the time we get to series three the entire front page of the Comics should be entirely Invisibles threads and everyone else can just go straight to page two...
 
 
Mark Parsons
19:51 / 05.02.07
Would it be totally uncool to just start up another Barbelith Forum Heading for Invisibles related threads? Bring in comics, magic, politics as they relate to the book (and how other GM series tie in: Filth, SSoV)?
 
 
Spaniel
20:03 / 05.02.07
Not sure it would get a lot of traffic and probably entirely impractical. We can't even get functionality we need.
 
 
Sylvia
20:18 / 05.02.07
Its quite a task, but I think I, and I alone, am capable of doing it.

Godspeed Oddman!

(How many issues is the first arc we've agreed on? Someone post the numbers (perhaps in the new thread) or I'll end up going past them, I just know it)
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
20:53 / 05.02.07
Also, do we really need to add yet more weight to the widely-held and erroneous assumption that Barbelith is created by, with, and for fans of GM's oveure in general and The Invisibles in particular?
 
 
Tim Tempest
00:39 / 06.02.07
Mordant, do you think this is a bad idea?
 
 
calgodot
01:11 / 06.02.07
I'll take on the burden of beginning a new thread for each arc.

Good man, you. The subtitle of the thread title should IMHO carry the arc title as well as issues numbers concerned.

Now let us dispense with this thread, and discuss said seminal work.
 
  

Page: 12(3)45

 
  
Add Your Reply