I think that much of the discussion's nature in the foreword thread is due to the nature of the foreword -- the misgivings of some here, myself included, that this chapter-by-chapter subforum will become dominated by a few "learned" people (read, perhaps, windbags such as myself) will probably be allayed when we get into the discussion of the story itself.
Those of us who are or who become more regular posters might be able to help this along by attempting to have our first posts for each chapter move toward asking questions and dangling provocative ideas rather than making set arguments. I find that's always the most useful way for me to proceed: I have learned a lot from reading other people's responses to my queries/ramblings/ponderings.
I shall also attempt to expunge from my posts all words derived from critical theory!
EDIT -- as a point of interest, the Foreword thread has had over 1200 views on only 75 posts: so I assume that there are a lot of people following the discussion who have yet to contribute. If we undertake to make the discussion more clearly focused on the story (beginning with the Prologue) that will perhaps draw some of them in(?).