#The Walled City

[foxfren]

Books I’ve Read in November

Ignore the drastic differences in genres, I’m simply ✨ exploring ✨

The Secret History by Donna Tartt || 5/5

Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones I did not.

Genuinely this book has become one of my favourites. I love rereading this and picking up on new details, especially with how the narrator is unreliable.

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E. B. Hudspeth || 3.5/5

The entire body is the soul, and my knife cuts deep into the flesh; I vow to be always reverent with the edge of my scalpel.

Awesome fictional biography of a doctor spiralling into madness, but it could’ve been executed better. The first portion (the biography) felt too short, and the latter portion (a part of the doctor’s book) felt too long and repetitive. Thoroughly enjoyed the anatomical drawings and prints of newspaper clippings.

What We All Long For by Dionne Brand || 2.5/5

They were born in the city from people born elsewhere.

I liked the concept of the book, and some of the chapters were done well, but the book seemed very disjointed and I had a difficult time figuring out a chronological timeline.

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh || 0.5/5

You’ll see, you’ll see. You will be so happy and free, you’ll sing.

Emotionally scarring and mentally draining, and not in a fun way. I usually don’t mind disturbing themes in books, because there’s always some sort of point about it. Lapvona felt directionless; there was no significance to any of the horrors shown. It felt as if it was grotesque simply to because it could be, to be shocking.

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin || 2/5

There are three rules of survival in the Walled City: Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife

It was difficult to finish, the plot progressed very slowly, and a lot of things just fell flat for me. The premise itself is interesting, but I feel it could’ve been executed a lot better.

[inzidenoblinartz]

[wanologic]

sorry danny, sam will never think you’re cool

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Walled City | Author: Ryan Graudin | Publisher: Little, Brown Books (2015)

[livingfictionsystem]

BOOK REVIEW: 3/5

The story pivots between the three main characters--- Jin, who tries to rescue her sister who was sold off to the Walled City. Mei Yee, who is the sister who dreams of escaping the brothel. And Dai, who has his own agenda, playing with fire on a deadline.

I see a lot of people in the reviews call this 'adrenaline-packed', but I found nothing that happened really all that shocking. Granted, I do read a lot of, 'Homeless kids have to turn to a life of crime to survive and protect each other' fiction, so that may be on me. The Walled City was actually a real place in Hong Kong (Kowloon City), something I found out in the Acknowledgements in the back of the book. This lawless and densely populated area was torn down in 1987, which, given the book's chronological ambiguity, helped me gain context that the narration didn't. The inspiration had a lot of promise that the author fell short of. The characters were fine, but forgettable. Their POV and struggle for survival was interesting, but none of them really stood out as far as personality went. They seemed to simply Be their circumstances, a vessel for the story to continue. We have Good At Running, Has a Secret, and Traumatised. If you can't tell by the names, the book has a vaguely Chinese feel. And I do mean vaguely. It's primarily the names and the fact that pork buns and noodles are referenced so often. (One character even describes emotions as overcooked noodles?) It doesn't really have a lot of specific culture that I could catch. It could easily take place in just about any other country that also has drug problems, human trafficking, crime lords, homeless children, etc. It's also confusing because the characters were not speaking English, the dialogue is just translated for the reader's benefit. But they even had one character with an accent, saying, 'Let's get 'im!' Are we translating a version of English dialect to Cantonese? Is this a cockney version? Is he really skipping over the H's or is this an equivalent? This happens again when it's mentioned that 'Dai' rhymes with 'death', something one of the characters notes from their POV. How do you know that??? These characters do not understand English; there's even a scene where foreigners are in the same room and the character notes that she cannot understand it. So, it definitely has some identity issues. (The hilarious irony is that I, through hilarious coincidence, started reading this about the same time I read Kuang's 'Yellowface', about a white woman writing about Chinese culture so I tried not to linger too much on this. The author did actually live near the inspiration of this for at least a few months, so fair enough.) It's definitely gritty, and I do like that the author took it upon herself to tackle an issue like human trafficking, with even some nuanced nods towards PTSD. But in my opinion, there's more intensity in the setting than in the plot, and especially in the characters, but it wasn't a bad read. The prose and atmosphere make for good reading and the bond between the three does end up wholesome and rather sweet, but that also made for some odd tonal switches. So, yeah, it was a fine book. Not a good one, not a bad one, just fine.

TW for: Intense animal abuse, human trafficking, drug addiction, homelessness.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:

. . . . . . . . .

Okay, so at the end, when everyone's scrambling for the ledger, it felt like a damn cartoon. You know how in Scooby Doo, you see the endless opening and closing of doors where the characters are both chasing and being chased by something? And the combination is changed up every time? That was this ending. I thought the Benny Hill theme was about to start playing. It also bothered me that apparently Dai and Jin both waited about two years to really put their plans to fruition. The book tried to draw out the suspense for making everything down to the wire, but it almost makes it funny when you sit there and think of Dai twiddling his thumbs or Jin being on the streets and having nothing to show for it. 

-Xanthe

[illustratus]

[hedgehog-moss]

(There is blood pictured at the end of this post) (well, 1 drop) (don't worry it's mine, not some innocent creature's)

I found a dormouse in my kitchen today, just chilling on the ceiling above my head, watching me cook. Maybe even judging my cooking technique like Ratatouille. I only noticed its presence because there's a bunch of dried herbs hanging from the ceiling above the stove and at one point I heard a rustling, then a crunching noise.

It was eating my herbs.

As if they were a little snack I'd placed here for my dormouse friends. None of my other animals can walk on the ceiling, therefore any food that's near the ceiling must be an offering to the dormice. (I admit, that's sound logic.)

A dormouse family has been living in my walls since before I moved here—I should probably call it a dormouse dynasty, by now. Here's the first post I wrote about them, in 2019 ! The cats eat a lot of them (especially Morille, she loves dormice) but apparently not enough to make the key decision makers in this dormouse community decide that living in my house is more trouble than it's worth.

Every year when they hibernate and go quiet for eight months I have the renewed hope that this time the cats got rid of all of them, but the next spring they wake up and start scratching inside my walls in the middle of the night again. (Not only that's creepy, but it's so loud.)

Anyway, this dormouse, let's call him Alfred. I saw immediately which hole between two stones he'd crawled out of and the first thing I did was to stuff a salt shaker in there to block his escape route. Step 2 was to call for backup—I summoned Morille, and she came down from the living-room 2 seconds later (the cats know it's always good news when I call them to the kitchen while cooking.)

Alfred was panicking.

I grabbed a broom and started threatening him with it like an angry old woman in a cartoon. He tried to flee towards the ladder, but Morille was there. He tried to flee towards the door, but Morille was also there. He tried to hide on top of the fridge, and Morille happily lay siege to it, like my fridge was a Gallic oppidum on top of a hill and Morille was Caesar and his entire army.

Morille was having the time of her life.

But my kitchen door was ajar, and Alfred managed a heroic jump from the top of the fridge to the lintel, like a flying squirrel. He scurried out then grabbed hold of the climbing rose right above the door. When I got out and took this photo, he looked fairly stressed and pessimistic.

I didn't want him to climb the wall all the way to the eaves and go right back into my house, so I went back in to get my broom again, either to make him lose his grip and fall straight into Morille's gaping maw (sorry), or make him run away into the woods (inferior solution; they always find their way back, unless you take them very far away.)

(I used to trap dormice humanely then drive them 3km away to release them near the barn of a neighbour I disliked, but this neighbour has since moved. (Not because of my dormouse warfare, I swear.) There's also an abandoned house in the woods where I used to exile my prisoners, but after a while I started feeling silly driving around the countryside with dormice in the backseat, so I stopped trapping them (it really was a hassle) and just let the cats eat them.)

But Alfred is a combative and resourceful rodent. In the half-minute it took me to go back in and grab my broom, he laid a trap for me.

He ran along the stem of my climbing rose in such a way that his weight made it droop jussst enough to be now hanging at face level rather than above the door. So when I ran outside again with my broom, I was slapped in the face by a thorny rose plant. (For a minute I thought I was crying tears of blood, which seemed worrying, but it was just a scratch above my eye.) (I wish it could leave a tiny scar, so people will ask how I got it, and I will tell them about the mighty dormouse wielding a rose sword.)

I sent these pics to my brother hoping to get some sympathy, and he cropped & desaturated the one with the blood teardrop then sent it back with the comment "you look like an Evanescence song"

By this point I decided Alfred had won this battle. (Not the war, because it's almost autumn aka hibernation time so he probably found another gap between two stones and went right back inside. The war continues.) But this humble dormouse set a Saw trap to poke my eyes out the second I stepped outside my house and I respect that. I admire the way he used his environment to his advantage, and teamed up with my climbing rose to level the playing field (since I had teamed up with my cat first.) He has won the right to spend another winter inside my walls, curled up in my cosy wool insulation, dreaming of dried herbs, thwarted cats, and heroic skydiving from fridgetops.

Well played.

[cartoonbudartz]

Fifteen years ago, the tv animation world was changed forever when a little show about a sailor boy with an adventurous spirit premiered on CN. Although it’s run was short, the series led to a renaissance of animated shows, such as Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, Regular Show, and more. So thanks, Flapjack, for being the godfather of 2010s animation.

[kirain]

Wall of the faithless isn't canon in bg3. They changed alot of things actually. So no Gale isn't "scared" he's just an obsessed asshole who doesn't learn from his mistakes.

Oof...

There's really nothing I can say except: you're wrong. The City of Judgement and the Wall of the Faithless are canon to BG3. If you don't like Gale, that's fine, but you don't have to make things up or completely disregard the lore to do it. Larian Studios literally hired people from Wizards of the Coast—the company responsible for all the canon lore, characters, and campaigns in D&D—to help them with the story. It took them five years, I believe, to fully study and understand the lore. They constantly conferred with the team to double, triple, and quadruple check every slice of content they added to the game, and parts of the game are now considered canon to D&D 5E.

As for Gale "not learning" from his mistakes ... when you first meet him, he literally admits he made a mistake with Mystra. Though personally I don't see it as the "power-hungry" move people seem to think it is. Gale simply wanted to be considered an equal to his partner (really his groomer), which is a perfectly healthy and normal desire for anyone in a relationship. Your partner should treat you like an equal, but Mystra very clearly saw Gale as a pet. A trophy. A worshipper. Subservient. Beneath her. A silly mortal with delusions of grandeur (which she cultivated), which is really rich when you learn she was once mortal herself. Mystra is a hypocrite.

Gale tried to prove himself worthy of equality by trying to bring Mystra what he thought was a piece of her missing Weave. For anyone who doesn't know, the current Mystra was torn to pieces by Cyric and Shar, then put back together by her Chosen. Though back to full power by the events of BG3, she's still technically missing pieces of herself, and Gale mistook the Karsite Weave for one of those pieces. Instead of simply telling Gale it was corrupted Weave, she let him go on believing it was hers. Personally I think that's because she was tired of him (maybe he got too old for her 😒) and was hoping he would do something that, in her mind, would justify abandoning him—but I admit that's full conjecture on my part. What is true is that she knew the orb wasn't hers, but for some reason she let Gale think it was. Even after she abandoned him and left him to die, she never told him. Not until she realised she could use him.

In Act 3, while the argument can certainty be made that he's thirsty for power, Gale ultimately becomes fed up with the gods because, as he knows better than anyone, they treat people like commodities. While I have no intention of ever ascending him myself, it looks like he actually makes good on his word. He doesn't threaten or toy with his followers, he inspires people to walk their own path, he only asks for prayers as payment (as without some form of devotion, gods in D&D cease to be), and if you romance him ... he ascends you into godhood as his equal. Mystra could have done this for him, she just didn't want to. And if you don't want him to ascend, it's genuinely so easy. I don't understand what people are complaining about. It takes one conversation with zero checks to convince him to completely abandon his ambitions. One. If he was truly "power hungry", it wouldn't be that easy.

Again, I would argue that Gale's true goal isn't really power, it's freedom, and divinity gives him that freedom. He has many conversations where he makes it clear he doesn't want to live under the gods' thumbs anymore; which, in a world like Faerûn, is extremely understandable. As I said in my Wall of the Faithless post, he's scared. Eternal torment for a simple mistake, one of which could've been avoided if Mystra told him the truth or treated him like an equal? When your partner is a goddess, how can you not feel inadequate? And if you convince him to give up the crown, he's perfectly content with Mystra's forgiveness. Even in the Early Access, that's all he really wanted.

Gale's far from perfect. He's arrogant and overconfident and insecure and he can be prone to emotional outbursts (most of which he apologises for, however), but he's nowhere near the heartless, power-hungry monster the haters seem to think he is. He is, in fact, one of the most compassionate companions in the entire camp, to the point that he accepts everyone, including Minthara. He votes for Astarion to stay when you find out he's a vampire. He gets mad at you if you surrender him to the Gur. He's one of the only companions who will openly marry/stay with you if you become a mindflayer. He's willing to sacrifice himself to save the world, and willing to damn himself to be with you. He loves every act of kindness, while hating every act of cruelty. I understand that the bugs from launch ruined a lot of people's perception of him ... and unfortunately some of those glitches are still present even now, but he is a good man.

[10bendog]

HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY CN CITY!!! <3

This was my favorite era from the channel's history and I needed to commemorate my love for it for this occasion. I wish we'd see the city bumpers return, updated with more characters from all the shows that have aired since, but until then, I'll be doing it myself.

Speaking of, stay tuned next week, because I have two more of these prepared to post for the rest of June.

Here's also the full-scale drawings. It hurt a little to shrink and compress them on the city screenshot, so I'm posting them separately. :)

"This is Cartoon Network."

[nestedneons]

By Peter Trapasso

[dunkinbublin]

forever bitter that the sonic ova home isnt used in any sonic media

if sonic is gonna settle anywhere its gonna be where nature has reclaimed itself.

[incorrectbatfam]

You're in Gotham. A bunch of petty robbers are holding up the bank. You're huddled under the counter, sipping the iced coffee your work bestie had brought you.

You're in Gotham. The subway tunnel just blew up. The conductor cracks jokes as he takes you through the detour and you share your jacket with the woman next to you.

You're in Gotham. Carnivorous plants cover the road leading to the dentist's office. You glance at the car next to you and see a puppy sticking its head out the window.

You're in Gotham. The wind carries a cloud of deadly toxins downtown. You're baking chocolate chip cookies while your kids play in the living room.

You're in Gotham. Classes are delayed because of an extraterrestrial threat. You take the extra time in the morning to chat with your neighbor about the upcoming holiday.

You're in Gotham. The Wayne family is plastered all over the tabloids again. Your dad turns the page and asks you for a seven-letter word describing fruits and vegetables.

You're in Gotham. Except you're not. You're in London and you're waiting to pick your sister up from school. You're in Manila and your cat just had kittens. You're in Lagos and your brothers are helping you move into your new apartment. You're in São Paulo and your crush just texted you back. You're in Istanbul and you just discovered your new favorite sandwich. You're in Mumbai and your cousin calls you to fangirl over a band. You're in Sydney and you just got your driver's license. You're in Boston and you're writing this because it's what you need in this moment.

You're at the end of the post. You realize it was never about comics at all.

[centrally-unplanned]

Though actually, cute thing: there are "standard" photos of the Kowloon Walled City that are always passed around, and they tend to be the most modern ones due to quality & availability reasons:

But these are from a unique period in its history, namely the end of its history - right before it was demolished. However, it wasn't the only thing to go; its removal was part of a much wider project to level and redevelop the entire area of the Kowloon City District. It just happened to be the last part to go due to its size and legal complexity. That "island of concrete in a desert" look is essentially a fiction:

It was really the heart of a dense urban ecology of low-income development that had emerged over 30+ years in the postwar era.

And you can see how integrated it was with its surroundings, the "walls" were after all purely a legal concept:

The common photos imo are also popular because they heighten the dystopian aspects of the city, making it appear like a tumor infecting the area. Once you see it in its proper context its place as an organic part of the city is much more clear.

[valtsv]

saw bird spikes on a roof today and got mad about it

[shouyuus]

was thinking about it this morning as i was making tea and i think there's a fundamental gap in the advice we give to writers/creators to "first and foremost create for ourselves", bc yes. in the beginning, i am almost always writing for myself. i write all the time, and im sure that artists doodle and paint all the time too. there are things i've written that will never see the light of day and are truly just for me.

and then there are things that i choose to share, because i want to share them. because i'm proud of a story, and want to put it into the world. the act of sharing it is, above all, an invitation.

its me inviting you into a corner of my mind/heart/soul, opening the window and throwing open the curtains and waving, holding up a sign that says "hi! do you like this too? let's talk about it!"

what im asking for is a connection, a conversation. a shared space. digital or otherwise. and the so-called "harm" of "ghost consumption" is not that artists will stop creating art or that writers will stop writing -- no, that's not quite how creativity works (thankfully, and sometimes unfortunately). we will always create.

we just might not be inspired to share it anymore.