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Showing posts from October, 2025

Spin List #42 — We Have a Winner!

The spin has spun and hasnae gone agley with: #17, Kidnapped , by Robert Louis Stevenson Och, we'll have a braw time! — EDIT: The best spun plans, as they say. . . . *  *  *  *  *  * A Somber Sonnet of Sunless Things On a dark and dreary night, When all living things lie still,— When awakes cold hollow Death, And Prudence flees in darkened fear, And Sorrow sleeps with one eye op'd, And Slumber w ith a frost-burn torch Slyly mutters  memento mori — Then must all who look on pages bound— Inky companions: even they— Prepare a  c reepy Classics Club Anthology of spinning books, Spelling out their company By number—always twenty! (The hyphens make it Gothic.) Huzzah for another Classics Club Spin ! I have not reviewed #41 , Lyrical Ballads , but needless to say it was a much adored spin.   For a reason which I can only suppose to be Hallowe'en I've written a poem for this one, of dubious clarity and meter. The books I've ended up with are all ones I'd ...

Review: The Time Machine, H. G. Wells

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The Time Machine by H. G. Wells Published 1895 Classics Club Review #6/ 50 IAN:  I'd set the class a problem with A, B, and C as the three dimensions. . . . . [ Flashback ] SUSAN:  It's impossible unless you use D and E! IAN:  D and E? Whatever for? Do the problem that's set, Susan. SUSAN:  I can't, Mr. Chesterton—you can't simply work on three of the dimensions. IAN:  Three of them? Oh, Time being the fourth, I suppose. Then what do you need E for? What do you make the fifth dimension? SUSAN:  Space.     Doctor Who, "An Unearthly Child", 1963 Episode written by Anthony Coburn ("Spoilers!") The opening scene of the novella, in which "the Time Traveller" gives us a lecture on the reality of physics, reminded me of Susan Foreman's frustrated near-breakdown in this first episode of Doctor Who—though I recognize that Susan and the Traveller are saying slightly different things.  Also, the flickering and the rush of wind as the model mac...