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Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

Started by Thurnez Isa, December 03, 2006, 04:11:35 PM

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dontblameyoko

BBBBP
PPBLL ~Ted Kennedy as a baby (http://beatonna.livejournal.com/116931.html)
"ty7h hg uh nmcx,m cv8t gygj jg" ~another baby

Rococo Modem Basilisk

Starting on Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. It's been collected along with some fragments in a volume with a nice introduction from Neil Gaiman.


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

wlfjstr

Just finished a collection of the Sagas of Icelanders.

Don Coyote

Finished Elric of Melinbone by that Moorcock bloke. I rather liked it.

Rococo Modem Basilisk

Finished the Dream Cycle. Working through the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, but I'm having a hard time getting past 3.333 wherein he tries to solve Russel's paradox by claiming that no predicate that takes another predicate as an arg can take itself as an arg without becoming an entirely different predicate. I have absolutely no idea why Wittgenstein would think this is necessary, nor why he would think it could solve Russel's paradox. Everything prior to that borders on common sense (there are things that exist and things that don't exist; logic should be capable of representing all relationships that can exist between things that can exist and should not try to represent incomprehensible nonsense; we should try to give everything exactly one name; no logical assertion of a relationship between non-predicates should depend upon any other predicate given known values of the atomics involved)


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

Cain

Cainad, I finished The Prince of Nothing Trilogy.  My response is: wat

Seriously, I'm happy to have discovered that the trilogy is not, in fact, the end of the series, because the end of book three is, well, unsatisfactory at the very least.

I also didn't realise until I had finished the entire series that I had read Bakker before - a few years back, I read Neuropath, which was both scary and quite good.  I knew I recognised that name from somewhere.

Based on the ending to Neuropath, I predict a terrible ending for the Second Apocalypse.

Kellhus is....interesting.  In some ways he reminds me of HPMoR's Harry Potter, minus the sense of humour.  Which of course, one would expect.  He is Dunyain, Conditioned a student of the Logos, which is the Shortest Path.  Everyone and everything is a chess piece towards his goals, which remain unknown.

Logos is of course contrasted with Achaiman's Gnosis - when taken literally especially.  Logos is the principle of rationality, whereas gnosis is the principle of spiritual enlightenment through direct knowledge of the metaphysical world. 

The Prophecy, whatever that might be, is clearly fucked up and incorrect.  Achaiman is missing a vital piece of knowledge - Kellhus' father is an Anasurimbor as well, and preceded his journey to the south.  Either the Second Apocalypse takes a really long fucking time to materialize, or the Prophecy itself highly misguided.  The Mandate seem correct about most other things, but they clearly missed the mark on that.

I also couldn't help but notice similarities between this series and Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself trilogy.  I don't know if there was a definite level of inspiration there, but the Empire is similar to the Union, and the Cishaurim with the Eaters, and a few other things besides.

It could also just be me, but the No-God does not seem to be the principle threat here.  Well, it's existence is a threat to everyone, of course, but the No-God is nothing more than a weapon in the hands of the Inchoroi and the Consult.  Speaking of which, I'm surprised Kellhus hasn't already figured out that the Chishaurim need to be brought on board if he intends to counter the Consult - that they are working behind the scenes to ensure the success of the Holy War should be troubling, at the very least, as well as their manipulation of the Red Spires to go to war.

Cainad (dec.)

Nice breakdown! I'll give a more full response once I get home and can type on something other than a phone. It's been a long time since I read the first trilogy, and I just recently finished the second book of the second trilogy.

I will say that's an interesting point about the Cishaurim; could it be that Khellus disregards them because he thinks that they are only a tool of his father, whom he has bested? I'll admit I didn't think much about that when I read it.

And "wut" is totally an appropriate reaction to this series.

Cainad (dec.)

I'll definitely check out Neuropath and The Blade Itself at some point.


Khellus really is interesting...you'd almost think he was a Mary Sue character if I'd tried to describe him out of context. He becomes more of a background character in the second trilogy; you stop getting narration from his perspective.

Mog-Pharau the No-God as a weapon rather than as the principal threat is an interesting way to put it, and I think you're right about that. I completely forget if the origin and goals of the Inchoroi and Consult are revealed at all in the first trilogy, so I'll hold back to avoid the risk of spoilers, but considering what they want to accomplish it shows that the No-God is really a means to an end. It cannot come into the world by itself anyway; the Consult has to bring it into the world.


There's a lot of things that appeal to me about the setting and how Bakker presents his fantasy 'verse. When Achamian teaches Khellus about magic, the whole trope of "arcane magic requires intellect" totally makes sense; you have to speak one set of incantations while thinking a completely different one. Talk about a brain-bending exercise, especially under stressful circumstances.

The whole idea of the Nonmen is excellently creepy. They got immortality, but lost the ability to reproduce and didn't account for the fact that their brains only have so much room for memory, so the only things they remember in the long term are the most painful memories. No wonder they're batshit.

Cain

I would say The Blade Itself is somewhat inferior to The Prince of Nothing.  The major difference is there is no Kellhus like character and the plot - while not terrible - is not as complex.  Essentially Union = Empire, the North = Scalvendi, the Fanim = Gurkhul Empire, Cnauir = Logen Ninefingers, Sranc = Shanka and the Consult = Eaters.

Speaking of which, what a character Cnauir was.  Complete and utter badass, and sharp to boot.  He was my favourite in the series by far.

Kellhus is something of a Mary Sue, it's true.  In a way, at least.  On the other hand, it is justified, not only by the Logos and Dunyain Conditioning, but also by Cnauir's suspicions about the Dunyain breeding program, and given he's no longer a protagonist in the story, but possibly even an antagonist, it might make things much more interesting.  I mean, Achaiman's no slouch, all appearances and self-doubt to the contrary, but I don't see him walking away from a fight with Kellhus - either one on one, or at a larger level.  Equally, the Consult's skin-spies are no match for him.  They may have some tricks hidden up their sleeve though, I doubt I've seen anything near the full extent of their power as of yet.

The other thing of interest about the magic system is...well, have you noticed the three most powerful forms of magic?  Logos, Tekne and Gnosis.  All Greek words for different applications of intelligence and knowledge.  It could be argued Logos is not so much magic as something that can make magic more powerful to grasp - The Shortest Way - but I still suspect this will have something to do with how everything gets resolved.

I don't believe the goals of the Inchoroi and Consult have been expanded upon, no.  The way in which Bakker described their psychology though, briefly, at the end of the third book, is very reminsicent of some of the themes of Neuropath though - the equation of sexuality and violence in particular.

It is possible the Chishaurim are disregarded for that reason, yes.  Also, given Kellhus had to usurp the Holy War to further his plan, making nice with them could threaten his position as Aspect-Emperor.  On the other hand, it could be that he is keeping them in reserve, for a future use - to use the Malazan term, they are his "shaved knuckle in the hole", his last gamble should things not go according to plan.  On the one hand, having no eyes does make them fairly visible, but on the other hand, especially in a battlefield scenario, where they can hide among troop formations, they would be utterly deadly.

Cainad (dec.)

Oh yeah, Cnaiur was definitely the chief badass of them all. The only one to resist Khellus's charm by deliberately making himself too insane to read. And his decision to reveal what he knew about the Dunyain to Achamian is a cornerstone of the development of the plot.


That's a good point about the forms of magic all being words for intellect and knowledge, and it possibly sheds light on why Khellus seems to disregard the Cishaurim. In his conversation with Moenghus, it is revealed that the Fanim sorcerer-priests' magic is rooted in passion and emotion. Dunyain emotional faculties are practically atrophied in comparison to their intellectual capacity, which is part of why Khellus easily overcomes him. (That may also be why Moenghus didn't seem to trigger the prophecy; he might have just plain fucked up and picked the wrong form of magic to pursue, and lost his eyes in the process.)

If this is all accurate, then Khellus may simply try to squash the Cishaurim rather than bring them to heel. Their invisibility to the magical sight of the Few and his inability to grasp their form of magic makes them a variable that he might simply not want to deal with in his future plans. Seems almost too crude for Khellus, but after winning a Holy War and bringing half the world under his theocratic control he might think he has the ability to pull it off.

Prelate Diogenes Shandor

I've been rereading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series over the past few months. I just finished rereading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

I've also become addicted to reading Wikipedia articles, and furthermore I also have a backlog of several thousand (no exaggeration) additional articles that I'd like to read saved to my computer.
Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.


a plague on both your houses -Mercutio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8


It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzsche


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q


You are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -Deteriorata


Don't use the email address in my profile, I lost the password years ago

Bu🤠ns

Narrative of the life of frederick douglass (autobiography) starting it .... .NOW

Juana

Re-reading Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey.

-style protagonist + Kabbalah-influenced setting + an interesting twist on zombies + a professional zombie killer Roma porn star = the book.
"I dispose of obsolete meat machines.  Not because I hate them (I do) and not because they deserve it (they do), but because they are in the way and those older ones don't meet emissions codes.  They emit too much.  You don't like them and I don't like them, so spare me the hysteria."

Bu🤠ns

Quote from: Secret Agent GARBO on May 20, 2012, 01:18:18 AM
Re-reading Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey.

-style protagonist + Kabbalah-influenced setting + an interesting twist on zombies + a professional zombie killer Roma porn star = the book.

woah...wait...how can...all those things.....together?  REALLY?

Anna Mae Bollocks

Quote from: Placid Dingo on April 19, 2012, 12:41:44 AM
Finished 'Think and Grow Rich', 'Game of Thrones' and 'Sense and Sensibility' recently.

Loved Thrones. TAGR was good but a bit new-agey at points. S&S was a bit painful at points but was decent for a Jane Austin work (unlike say, Emma.)

IMHO Austen's ok for orchestrating amusing clusterfucks, but her characters have a stick up their asses.
Scantily-Clad Inspector of Gigantic and Unnecessary Cashews, Texas Division