#e reads qjj

[bronanlynch]

don't have my hands on volume 4 yet though so I can't read more yet :( instead going to start qjj and hopefully get further than the same like 20 chapters that I've reread multiple times bc everything after that was locked in the tl I was reading

I don't usually post very much abt whatever I'm reading as my 1-2 chapters per night to unwind my brain book bc the idea there is to Not look at a screen but I just finished the 3rd volume of yuwu and man. ximang huh

[dangermousie]

What did you think of the latest QJJ chapters? For me it seemed to definitely lean more towards the non-con side and is the first time the novel made me feel a bit uncomfortable. but it was treated more as a joke so idk if I’m reading too much into it - just felt that SZC was definitely not wanting that and XCY was definitely being cruel and over-controlling. Please don’t publish if this makes you uncomfortable or is something you don’t want to talk about! Just felt like I had to ask someone for thoughts and you’re keeping up on the advanced chapters!

Do you mean the scene in the bath in 176?

I mean, MMV, but (aside from the fact that they didn’t have sex in the bath - since I agree actions other than sex can be sexual), it felt like they were both playing around with an underpinning of XC still being freaked out about SZC near miss with death and angry about SZC's disregard for his own safety and SZC going along with it as a sort of "I am sorry I made you freak out" thing - he didn’t particularly care for it but put up with it as an apology which - eh, common enough in relationships about all sorts of things and interactions. Didn't read nonconsensual to me. I mean, let's face it, XC can refuse SZC nothing so all SZC had to do was flail in a way to threaten to reinjure his fingers or w/e and XC would freak. The novel even makes sure to mention right before it that they are freakishly attuned to each other in bed and right after that SZC got a good night's sleep for once. (And if SZC was really genuinely pissed, you know he could freeze the room afterwards, too.)

This said, I think it's always a danger to import modern notions of consent into a period story during which a way to resolve disagreements is usually murder, people eat living donkeys, and hereditary absolute monarchy is the only way to govern. Their morals aren't really our own, especially when you take into account that while XC and SZC are soft with each other, they are terrifying people capable of great violence - I mean, XC literally kills people for a living and SZC is not far behind. To me all their bed scenes, including the bath scene, read as consensual, but I don't think they are innately devoted to consent or anything the way a modern person should hopefully be - it's because they love the other and, more importantly, cherish the other and want to please the other that they seek and receive consent - tho sometimes push at it. It's not an absolute moral value in that society, per se.

PS SZC doesn’t exactly ask XC permission when he goes down on him in the middle of convo the latter is having with Tantai Hu and then they have a good and kinky time (if that’s the one you thought, that one didn’t read noncon at all to me btw - hell SZC started it and kept going.) To me it all just reads like couple stuff, between two hot blooded, A-type dudes in a long term relationship (where you don’t need to ask for consent for every single thing every single time any more.)

[thegreymoonwtf]

Masterpost

BOOKS

C-NOVELS

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun   Heaven Official’s Blessing   Nan Chan

Silent Reading   Golden Stage   The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System   

Grandmaster of Demonic Cutivation

Currently reading:

Impermanence Calamity

WCJ vol. 01

Qiang Jin Jiu

QJJ vol. 1, part 1 QJJ vol. 1, part 2

OTHER

Persuasion

DRAMAS

K-DRAMAS

Squid Game   Kingdom   The Devil Judge   Beyond Evil   Connection

C-DRAMAS

The Untamed   Nirvana in Fire   Love is Sweet

Word of Honor   Ever Night   Broker

Monarch Industry   Killer and Healer

The Longest Day in Chang'an   King’s War   Love Like the Galaxy

Love Between Fairy and Devil   The Great Shaolin   Light Chaser Rescue

Gold Panning   The Story of Minglan   Judge Dee’s Mystery

Eternal Brotherhood   The Double

DROPPED

Lie to Love   Tribes and Empires   Justice in the Dark   

Till the End of the Moon

OTHERS

KinnPorsche (Thailand)

Black Wedding (Serbia)

E-DRAMAS 

The Tudors

Season 01, part 1   Season 01, part 2   Season 02 (eaten by Tumblr)

Season 03   Season 04

Good Omens

Liveblog   Opinion   Opinion

Medici

Masters of Florence   The Magnificent, Part 1 (opinion)

A Very English Scandal

Hannibal (opinion)

Black Sails

Bounty Hunters

Bounty Hunters season 01 (opinion)   Bounty Hunters season 02

Kevin Can F**k Himself

MOVIES

Crimson Peak (garbage)

300: Rise of an Empire (extreme garbage)

Waiting for You (Colin Morgan)

Red, White and Royal Blue (do not recommend)

The Last Lear (excellent)

[dangermousie]

reading qjj and a bit confused--xiao chiye has a bit of a playboy reputation but internally talks about how he doesn't indulge in desire. is it all an act? (until he meets lanzhou obviously)

I believe it is all an act, yes. He’s acting a part of a spoiled, pleasure seeking, content to be a bird in a gilded cage type as one of the ways to survive being trapped as a hostage in Qudu and deflect. Not to say he’s never slept with anyone or w/e, but he’s not driven by it or absorbed by it in any way and it’s all subordinated to his act.

Both SZC and Xiao Chiye wear so many masks at the start and part of the novel is the two of them shedding those masks, layer by layer. (Side note - the Xiao Dad and two sons dynamic makes me think a bit of the Xiao father and two sons dynamic in Nirvana in Fire 2.)