#more Le Guin protagonists
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Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks..
tbh this is extremely hard to answer because I have many interests. Iām sure Iāll feel bad when I remember the hundred other characters that should have made the list. Iām not putting any Ikuhara characters because itād been too hard to pick and honestly Iād have to go through each work individually.Ā
1. Tenma from Naoki Urasawaās Monster. I donāt claim to be a complicated person, alright. I just think heās nice. every time I read Monster I get more attached to him like a little baby duck, which is what all the other characters in that story do as well so Iām valid. trying to put it into words is hard--heās just an alluring combo of pathetic, ridiculous, cool, strong, and kind. plus he kinda becomes a religious figure by the end and Iām a sucker for that shit.
2. Xie Lian from TGCF/Heaven Officialās Blessing. I read the novels this summer after watching the donghua. I was just expecting a decent BL, but what I got was epic historical supernatural fiction (and BL). Xie Lian is such an impressively written character. his story helped me deal with my own fall from grace, as it were, and was overall cathartic and engaging. plus heās my type. step aside Hua Cheng, Iād die for him first.Ā
3. Orel from Moral Orel. I love this show a lot because of its focus on the cruelty and hypocrisy of WASP America, and Orel is relatable for struggling to understand the bulltshit answers he gets to all his questions. heās a lot more innocent than I was as a kid, but I think his kind of purity plays well against the satirical, dark edge of the show.Ā
4. Reki from Haibane Renmei. most of the reasons I love her arenāt revealed until the very end of the show. Iāll say that I love her because sheās the ultimate manifestation of the storyās themes of guilt and redemption.
5. Ishida from Koe no Katachi. I just finished rereading this manga recently. if you want a character who does wrong, suffers, tries to change himself, but finds it isnāt that easy, Ishida is your man. heās such a funny, well-written teen boy, but also someone I think anyone from any background can see themselves in--the good and the bad.Ā
6. Naruto from... you know. Naruto was the first anime I became really obsessed with, when I was in middle school, and Naruto himself is the first character I can remember becoming attached to in an intense, lasting way. I loved him so much and I still have that attachment to him. heās so, so cute, and so, so lovable. when Iām done with my first round of Ikuhara vids, Iām going to download Naruto so I can make my friend a Sasuke fancam and Iām also gonna make a Naruto edit just for me :)
7. Miyuki from Naoki Urasawaās Happy! Iāve read everything by Urasawa except for Yawara, and Iām one of the only people who seems to have read Happy! I gotta say, would I pick it as one of his best works? no. I love everything heās done, but something like 20th Century Boys or Billy Bat is clearly a more serious, meaningful story than Happy!, which comes out of his transition phase between writing romantic comedy sports manga and his later thrillers. however... Happy! is one of those works which makes me lose my mind regardless of quality. and Miyuki, the main character, is just so damn adorable. I find her a very appealing, sweet character. beyond that, kind of like Monster, the entire story is about people trying to break her down, but she refuses to ever give up and I love that sort of thing when played right.Ā
8. Ged from Ursula K. Le Guinās Earthsea series. I am still digging into Le Guinās body of work but Iāve read most of her novels and short story collections. I could absolutely make a top ten list with just characters from her books. however, I managed to narrow it down to just three from this list, all from the Earthsea books. Ged is the only character who appears in all six books, and the reader gets to experience close the entire course of his life. he starts as an arrogant, careless boy and grows into a wise man. Le Guin decided not to leave him after he does his final great act, and his story continues after he loses his power. Tehanu, the fourth book in the series, is probably my favorite book Iāve ever read, Iāve thought about writing an analysis comparing it with RGU, and one of its main themes is life after loss and trauma. his story interwines with the next two characters on this list.
9. Tenar from Earthsea. like Ged, we get to see most of her life throughout the books. book 2 contains her coming of age story, while Tehanu features her as a widow, struggling between the life of an ordinary woman and her status in the mythology of Earthsea. she brings so much fire, mirth, and strength to the series. sheās someone I wish I had in my life, and if you really pressed me, sheās my favorite character Le Guin ever wrote.Ā
10. Tehanu from Earthsea. this character is a strange one to try to write about. Iāve seen people criticize her writing by saying thereās nothing to her, sheās just a vessel for the story. but I canāt agree. as someone whoās known people who went through severe childhood trauma, I think that Tehanu is written with thought and care. I love how unnerving and unknowable she is, but also how she is written like sheās any other child. the ending of her story in the final book made me sob and sob and sob.Ā
sources for the last three images because theyāre fanart: 1, 2, 3
#these are in no particular order btw..........#ty for the ask#i do love to talk about things i love!#i took off Oofuri characters#more Le Guin protagonists#some of my fav movie characters#other Urasawa characters#theres v minor characters whove made a huge impression on me like Misae from Paranoia Agent#but this is a p good summary of the characters who make me the craziest
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theres a couple of books missing from here bc they didnt tile nicely but kicks my legs... reading log so far from the first half of 2024 š«”
i wanted to share my favourites out of the above as well:
carmilla by sheridan le fanu (the og vampire novella, somewhat archaic writing style but Way more lesbian than i was expecting, v evocative of those insane girlhood friendships one has growing up afab)
the goblin emperor by katherine addison (maiaā¦ the ultimate good boy truly trying his best to be a good ruler - i felt alternatively so bad for him and rly proud of the sentiment of kindness he embodied + gorg descriptions of the goblin/elf cultures)
empress of salt and fortune by nghi vo (novella; gorgeous poetic writing, like catching glimpses of an epic fantasy story but being Allowed to fill in a ton of it yourself.. rly tactileā¦also WAMEN and a sprinkle of lesbianism š¤)
white is for witching by helen oyeyemi (magical realism prose which powerfully serves the unreliable narrator/psychological issues the protagonist has/seems to have + haunted house horror where the house is also in the characters after they leave.. i rly want to reread it already)
the dispossessed by ursula k le guin (anarchist socialist anticapitalist anti-prison anti-police theory beamed straight into my brain. made me want to move to the moon. actually nuanced in its depiction of issues in supposedly utopian societies)
annihilation by jeff vandermeer (delicious bio-horror.. weirdness aboundsā¦ really vivid pov/protagonist in the autistic broad shouldered biologist, imo very well crafted mystery but dont go in expecting to have all the answers at the end, thats Not The Point tm)
blood over bright haven by ML wang (sciona.... ur THE power hungry maniac academic ive been waiting for... this is a visceral fantasy that quite skillfully deals w gender & ethnic oppression w.o cheapening those issues for the (lowkey) romance's sake, a common gripe for me)
bride by ali hazelwood (just a freaking good time if uve been traumatized by abusive male leads ur supposed to like.. werewolf x vampire contemporary romance)
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Ursula K. Le Guin (in 1972): The protagonist of my new, genre-defying fantasy novel will be a canonically queer seventeen-year-old destined to become King of Havnor. Yes I will specify that his feelings for a manā who is well over twice ageā are romantic and I will spend a good half of the book allowing him to work through the implications of that. I will then write said older man carefully so that while he is aware of the young man's passion, and arguably takes advantage of it in order to convince him to go on a quest, there is no untowardness present. He probably thinks of our hero as more of a son, save for that one weird 'golden seal' comment. Anyway, as the main character comes of age he will realize that the type of relationship he wants with this man just isn't viable, due to the insane power imbalance caused by age and sheer competency gaps. He will have to learn that his blind idolization prevents him from seeing the object of his affections as a actual person, and that in order to be a true companion and friend he must recognize his mentor's infallibility and the inherent mortality that is the product of living. And also he likes dragons
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ursula k le guin rejected the idea that feminist fantasy could just be a gender swapped version of male protagonist fantasy stories about violence and power and thus refused to approach her more critical feminist reckoning of earthsea in its later books ie no āwhat if ged was a grilā but what she didnāt consider is that is fucking awesome when women are powerful sorcerers or magicians or etc
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ON MONDAY, I (FINALLY) MADE IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NEWEST ERAGON BOOK!
MURTAGH
āA Book I Readā
It took three very patient friends of mine to encourage me to finish reading this. I took notes the whole way through, and I am now sharing those in hope of finding loving community with my fellow haters.
Important context:
I loved Eragon, which came out when I was roughly eleven
Christopher Paolini was the first author to ever disappoint me
I used to love epic fantasy, until feminism, coming out, and learning about literary criticism made me just too mean to enjoy it
Since 2015, whenever Iāve had writerās block, Iāve found inspiration by looking at this screenshot:
Christopher has managed to create a life where his mum has never stopped doing his laundry or his editing for him. He has never worked a job in his life. He has infinite time to work on his craft, and yet, with all of those advantages, he writes the way he does. I donāt hate him, but I do want to destroy him in single combat.
LET US BEGIN.
17 November 2023
I forgot how obsessed this man is with proving he knows rare words. Picking up my phone to google the word ātrenchantā.
He really just didnāt want to say the dragon had a sharp sense of humour huh? Oh, no, itās TRENCHANT. It wasnāt even for dialogue I identified as comedy but Murtagh thought it was TRENCHANT. He and Thorn have been alone in the wilderness for too long
NOT NASUADA BEING DESCRIBED AS HAVING ALMOND EYES
Of course the protagonist has grown a beard. Heās A Man Now.
I have a theory that this book is about coming to terms with marriage. Murtagh is like āour bondā¦ our bond that lasts until deathā¦ the oldest magicā¦ only the two of us understand each other. But, weāre also trapped with each other,ā and Iām like hm. Fascinating. Say more
Instantly Murt befriends a child, to prove he is good really.
Itās so weird to read a book by a grown man with kids who is like āhow did we all start out so innocent and pureā¦ā like have you MET five year olds
This whole fork fight scene makes me feel second hand embarrassment deep in my soul. Itās SO This Guy Is The Best And Coolest
āFencing with effortless easeā I do not care how well trained he is: you cannot kill four men with long swords by stabbing them with a little fork in āfour hard impacts.ā Itās just not happening.
Iām really dwelling on the idea of magic as āimposing your willā on something. Itās very.., something. Murtagh cleans his shirt by āimposing his will on the garmentā like. Okay, I suppose in a way that is how all laundry is done, but itās. Hm.
How come heāll clean a shirt with magic but not shave with magic? Why are these books SO obsessed with beards and shaving and how to do shave and using magic for shaving etc etc, Eragon was also majorly preoccupied with this
Paoliniās got so many complexes on the page. All the āweāre half brothers and your dad killed my dadā stuff is A LOT
The naming stuffā¦ SMH what would Ursula Le Guin say about all this
Iām obsessed with how even as (gasp) an OUTCAST!! Murtagh canāt not be the coolest guy ever for any time at all. Itās like a disease
Giving the child the enchanted killing fork was the worst decision ever made. Murtagh gives her a murder weapon and is then moping like āwhatās it likeā¦ to live without killingā¦ā literally pages later.
Iām really startled that Murt is delighted to see a tiny flying magical grass boat come down from the sky and circle him instead of being like āwtf, Iām being Watched,ā which would be the true act of a man we are told is paranoid
I just got to the bit where Murtagh offhandedly says that magic users who āare the heaviestā always have the most spell reserves.
Likeā¦ā¦ā¦ what???? Magic eats your fat?? It burns glucose??
You could be a better mage if you just, ate a bunch of raspberry frogs before each fight??????
Itās food powered??? You really want to go there, Paolini????? Wizards in the candy shop, eating sweeties like Mistborns?
GOD, if only Galbatorix had chugged a bottle of red cordial before his last big fight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I return after losing my mind about this to my partner for forty minutes)
If it was āif youāre hungry you canāt FOCUSā Iād get it. But I always assumed it was like, you know how other fantasy does it? Some kind of pool of ADDITIONAL energy that you are accessing and that can be used up (until you go too far and start using life force or whatever). Like, itās CHANNELLING it that makes you tired, not that itās literal food energy.
Murtagh is always running or doing his sword forms or whatever and now Iām like āDUDE, NO!!!?!? DONāT BURN YOUR WIZARD CALORIES!!?!?ā
I like when magic canāt do EVERYTHING, when itās consistent or limited in some way, but I do hate the idea that itās this predictable. Food energy becomes raw magical power. I GUESS.
(A little later)
Screaming at the suggestion Thorn can tell when Murtagh is horny.
I donāt like the euphemisms. It makes it worse
The fact he canāt talk to his dragon whenever theyāre ātoo far apartā (distance never specified) is making me insane. Why did I pick up the dragon riding book if itās mostly about leaving your dragon locked up at the bike rack
I know Thorn is basically a rescue dog with anxiety, but it bothers me how much heās left on his own. The narrative just has no idea what to use him for other than speedy transport for the first umā¦ 200 pages, it seems? Heās meant to be his own creature with his own intelligence. He doesnāt go anywhere without Murtagh though. So what is he doing all the time
I think Paolini WANTS his world to be big and mysterious (his introduction literally just keeps saying things in the world of the story are mysterious) but he HAS to keep explaining everything
24 November 2023
Iāve figured out something that annoys me about the world of this book, in terms of just how the worldbuilding is not actually that magical. It has the D&D problem!!! Which is to say that every regular person on earth is Level One and every important character is like, level 12. And part of what makes that even worse is that all women in this world are level zero.
Iāve been watching my friend Chris play the first Alan Wake game and we realised that all the faceless enemies that are possessed by Evil in the game areā¦ working class men. The protagonist is this literate wealthy New York writer who is constantly killing faceless workersāfarmers, loggers, coal miners, builders. And thatās not an INTENTIONAL commentary by the game, but itās very revealing. And This book is the same in that: there is no such thing as a complicated poor person. Theyāre all either Dirty Evil or Dirty Good. Murtagh is going around, writing poetry in his head and inventing magical computer code, and then every child is an urchin who is like Oi Guvnah, and every dad is gruff, and every woman is worried.
The language used to describe everyone who isnāt a Fighting Man is so demeaning. And even then, we only need to respect the leaders of those men. The leaders are the only ones with depth who might need to be taken seriously.
Itās like Murtagh has a tally in his head where he is going āfinally, a guy who is level 6ā!
Most people in this world exist to deliver information to the protagonist.
Paolini either thinks his readers are too dumb to understand that his characters exist between scenes, or he doesnāt understand himself that we donāt need to see every time Murtagh enters a city under a new name and how he does it. Or know what he ate for dinner and how he prepared it and where he slept and what he dreamed and, and, andā
Itās weird because Paolini is being self indulgent as fuck but it is NOT fun to read. This dude really just needs to go write a survival story or somethingā¦ A guy in the woods depending on nothing but his wits and his axe and his beard and his libertarian values
I donāt understand the stakes at play. All the magic scenes with Mind Penetration are so sudden and hard to actually understand as action. And the way it works is about brute force, so the dragon is not going to be at risk of being taken over except by another, even bigger dragon
It would be fun to read the Murtagh city sleuth segments if Thorn was backseat driving a little. I think that their bond should not get thinner over distance. The fact that it does just defeats the point of a magical bond.
Why does the dragon have to stay so far away? Likeā¦ itās established that thereās a spell to conceal a dragon from sight. Dude. You could just go fucking invisible
Thereās so many decisions that just are so bonkers to have made. The whole fetch quest for information pissed me off so bad. āYou have to join the guardā (40 pages of emotions about uniforms ensue). This guy learned about plots from video games
Paolini had kids apparently, but you can tell he doesnāt really understand kids. āHow do they all start out so innocent and pure,ā says a man who has never heard a seven year old describe someone being killed by farts before.
The description of Murtagh carrying a cat that doesnāt want to be carried is very funny. I donāt know if Paolini has ever carried a cat before. If youāre carrying a cat that doesnāt want to be carried close to your chest, and you tighten your grip when it squirmsā¦ say goodbye to your nipples, my man
Itās strange how much Paolini doesnāt explore the things that seem to be the point. FOR EXAMPLE, the fantasy soul bond trope loves to say āeven during sex!??! šā because itās about INTIMACY, and some alien presence always being there. The dragon rider trope is popular because dragons are powerful and wise but also Beasts. Magic is fun to read about because it can do things that canāt be explained.
Paoliniās world is big, but nothing in it has any real substance. Nothing in it has any real consequence, and it makes it impossible to really invest in anything that happens. None of these poor city folks have a life once they leave the scene of delivering Murtagh informationā¦ or if they are a woman, delivering him a hot meal. Thereās no sense of a world that exists outside Murtaghās point of view!
25 November 2023
The towns so far donāt feel at all distinctive to me! I was interested in the one with the massive lake, but then it having this massive fish in it was the only point of interest. It would be fun to have been like āoh the fish has ruined our summer festival! Itās ruined the nobility pleasure cruises! Itās also eating fishermen!ā Or āWhy do all these fishing boats have huge spikes on the prow? Well,ā
Again, these guys are all level one in peasant dirt town. They have no capacity for individual thought and no ability to adapt.
Itās like Paolini doesnāt know what makes people and places in fantasy feel distinct, or have culture. Itās so evident in how much he HASNāT thought about. For example, the bonkers amount of restrictive gender norms that he doesnāt seem AT ALL CONSCIOUS OF? Everyone who died in the war was A Man. No women died in the war. But that hasnāt resulted in any social changes. There arenāt more women doing work, for example, like being fishermen
I remember being thirteen or so and reading the bit in the second book where Arya explains to Eragon that sheās better and stronger than a human woman, because she is an elf, so Eragon doesnāt have to worry about her in battle. I was this kid there like āman, that sucks. I assume heās coming back to that assumption later,ā andā¦ he never did. He still hasnāt. And that sucks
The dragon riders were not THAT long ago, in the world of these books. It makes me wonderāwere none of them human women? I always assumed that some were human women, butā¦ did dragons only choose elf men, elf women, and human men? If they chose human women, then even being accepted into a paramilitary dragon force didnāt change gender expectations in the rest of the world. What the fuck. Heās really never thought about this.
Women keep showing up as cunning-mysterious, as humble dirtmothers, or as innocent children. Oh my god Iām just describing maiden mother crone. Thatās all heās capable of.
I just got up to where he rescues the werecat baby (innocent girl child) and settles in to hear the stories of elder werecat (cunning-mysterious)
I noticed the Arya Problem with how Nasuada is described in this book, too. Every woman has to be the best, most capable, most powerful woman ever, to be worth the attention of The Boys. Otherwise they canāt respect her. Only two literal queens can be considered worthy of just two average guys who got pet lizards. Even then, theyāre not actual equals.
āShe still empathised for me.ā Yes, donāt worry, Murtagh, I remember thatās what women are for.
I should note that the reason Nasuada is considered so powerful and so much worthy of his love and is her strength as a person. This is proven in the Eragon books because āshe still empathisedā with Murtagh whilst he was medieval torturing her. He was medieval torturing her for likeā¦ most of a book and thatās how they fell in love. Because she could see in his eyes that this guy torturing herā¦ was Complicated. He didnāt really WANT to be medieval torturing her so she actually felt worse for him than he felt about how he was (and I canāt stress this enough) medieval torturing her
I just canāt imagine that THE QUEEN OF A WHOLE CONTINENT would still prefer the guy who sadly tortured her. Heās her top preference. Out of EVERY OTHER MAN IN THE WORLD
I put the book down until the day before I was meant to have finished the book for book club:
10 March 2024: from page 274 onwards
The evil witch is called BACHEL?????!!?!??!? Fucking BACHEL. Pronounced ābuh-SHELLā, the guide at the back says. You changed one letter in Rachel, donāt lie to me Paolini
I got so mad being reminded the evil king Galbatorix was defeated by āEragon forcing empathy upon himā so that he magically exploded himself out of guilt that I had to put the book down and complain to Charlie for five straight minutes
I guess thatās why Galbatorix made Murtagh torture Nasuada for him. He knew that if heād done it himself she would have empathised with him too hard and he wouldāve exploded himself
Murtagh has never met a single person he has respected. Murtagh is the specialest boy in all the land. Eragon had to leave the country because they were both too special to share a continent
Murtagh decided on where to go and he was immediately surrounded by armed guards who took him to where the plot was
Paolini uses the fucking word āadmixedā while discussing EATING A PIE. The flavours admixed in his mouth. Just because you know a wordā¦ doesnāt mean itās a word to deploy about eating a pie
I HATE how the only people strong enough to do the strongest magic are Elves Or Human Riders. Itās fucking magic my guy! Why is it checking your goddamn DNA! Also, hey! Wasnāt it supposed to come down to the strongest wizards being the guys who ate the most for lunch?
In a world of Magic how come every wizard battle ultimately comes down to who is a better Professor X?? I came here for fireballs, not Mind Battles. I donāt care about your Mental Wards
Hahaha Murtagh!!! Get trapdoored, bitch!!!!
Dragon panic attacks: conceptually cool but a bit ?? Like ahā¦ the plot literally comes to scoop him up and carry him away. Yet again something outside of Murtagh makes a decision for him about what to do next
Murtaghās poetry is going to make me explode myself like Galbatorix in book 4
If thereās something I like about this book so far itās just the bits where he and Thorn are camping. Not flying, because then Murtagh is using the time to think and thatās horrible. The bits where they make campfires or whatever feel like something is actually happening. A guy and his dragon hanging out
Man. The way this novel is plotted really reminds me that itās not actually that hard to write a book.
Murtagh goes to the evil village (oh yeah thereās an evil village. It is where Bachel lives. She is evil because she does magic without using the magic language). The village is called:
NAL GORGOTH
But I couldnāt remember this so I kept referring to it in my head by another, more familiar, name
Murtagh is so freaked out by finding a village with architecture that he doesnāt recognise. Heās like āMy god!!! Nasuada has to be warned!!!ā Ok but about what??? New ways of building pillars???? The art deco movement threatens the land??
Kinda fascinated by how much this village represents a threat to CULTURE. The architecture, the peopleā¦ Everything about it so far is designed to be A Foreign Threat. The inhabitants are Of All Races (except elves they are too cool too pure etc). The humans have A VARIETY OF SKIN COLOURS, which memorably never happens in Alagaesia, a continent once explicitly described in the Eragon books as only having two (2) black people on it at all (then one died) (the other is Nasuada) (the one who died was her dad)
This guy with a goatee isnāt quite human. He is maybe part urgal and he is so uncomfortable to look at! Mainly he has arms that are a bit too long!! Bachel isnāt a human and also isnāt an elf, and thatās also deeply unsettling.
Bachel also fundamentally represents a threat to THE STRUCTURING POWER OF LANGUAGE, huh??
Bachel is so far the most interesting character in the book!
Bachel has: ALMOND EYES and AMBER SKIN
Murtagh is so upset and confused when Bachel calls him āmy sonā likeā¦ Iām cryign. āBut sheās not my mother! I know my mother!!ā he thinks, in a panic.
If this was a fantasy novel written twenty to thirty years ago, then the sexual tension between Murtagh and Bachel would be absolutely insane. Alas, this is a world of abstinence, and sexuality is only ever meaningful looks between a queen and the guy who tortured her (it is weird how he keeps caressing Nasuadaās face on the gold coins)
Itās very funny that Bachel has specifically fourteen warriors. The prose keeps telling us that thereās fourteen of them. So you get Murtagh stepping forwards and then sentences like āthe fourteen warriors attending Bachel shiftedā
She seems like a perfectly normal cult leader to me? Why is she automatically a threat to Nasuada! How come the two of them canāt arrange a toxic political marriage that becomesā¦ something more ššš
Nothing annoys me more in this book than Murtagh being able to identify specific vintages of wine. It keeps happening and it pisses me off
Bachel is a half elf!!! āIt had never occurred to him that such a thing might be possible.ā This is truly and absolutely unbelievable to me. Nobody in this world ever has sex
How did it take so long to get to such an objectively cool village!!! Like this is just a cool place!!! Sorry that Nar Nar Goon is evil but like FINALLY something has style
Three thoughts at once:
Iām so bored that Paoliniās mind canāt get more interesting than temple virgins, let alone wearing white to represent ritualistic purity. Likeā¦ nobody in this world fucks anyway, why does it matter!
Murtagh should also wear white all the time
Lesbianism doesnāt count as a violation of being temple chosen. AlĆn is wearing lesbianism
Paolini has never once written a woman who is Normal. He just canāt conceive of it. You can feel how he starts sweating.
Murtagh finally realised it was a cult. What sets it apart as a cult is that the followers appear to be āhalf-witsā to him
Iām going to detransition to break his fucking neck
Paolini has learned nothing since he had a woman deliver the exact same line in like 2008. The fact that another editor just thumbsed this up. The fact that this is in a book published in 2023. Well, now Iām REALLY embarking on an antagonistic reading: thatās right, I am reading women as capable.
Obsessed with Bachel. She is a girlboss and Iām a feminist xxx
Book is constantly weird about how much she is capable of eating and drinking at her feasts and how it makes her appear swollen and bloated etc etc. Murtagh is so weirded out by this because he feels it is unfeminineā¦ as though she is not a witch and we werenāt told earlier that how much magic you have is directly equal to how much you eat. (Meanwhile he is only picking at his food and eating just enough of it āto be politeā as though this is not making a decision to have less magic than her)
She has so much charisma compared to anyone else in the book. If my choices are her or Murtagh then sign me up boys!!!
Okay but much like how this wouldāve been a VERY charged relationship 30 years ago, Iām weirdly disappointed Bachel she isnāt not described as megahot? Like the book keeps telling me about this virginal templemaiden or whatever, because Murtagh is only attracted to women he can rescue. But Iām actually just likeā¦ I think this woman is hot. Tell me more about her. Itās wild that this book is written by a guy like Paolini, who told me all about Oromisā pubic hair in 2008, and who barely thinks women are people. Yet he doesnāt want to discuss her tiddies?
This book could, and should! have started when Murtagh landed his dragon in the evil village of Nar Nar Goon. Thatās the point that stuff got actually interesting. Everything before this was literally video game fetch quest logic plotting that earned him the right to fly to Nar Nar Goon.
Boar hunt. More like BORED hunt. And then suddenly there are so many pigs, a comical number of them flying everywhere
This motherfucker using the phrase āthe boar was lying athwart himā in a sentence in an action scene????
Murtagh is nearly dead and the boar is lying athwart him?
Iām going back in time and bullying the author at school
RIP Murtagh, trambled to death by 30-50 wild hogs
Oh god every time someone knocks Murtagh out he has a vision or a bad dream or a flashback or whatever and itās so tiring
āEXISTENCE WAS A TOMB WHEREIN THE SINS OF THE PAST LAID INTERRED???ā Do you ever read a sentence that sounds so much like the author is jerking it? āAll had been lost, and there before him lay the instrument of their destructionā he is furiously jerking it oh my god. āDestroyer of hope, eater of lightā oh, god, heās still going
ā¦This book is. Weird about mothers
Murtagh flies into a rage because Bachel mercy killed a guy who was dying bc of boar trampling because āI COULD HAVE HEALED HIM!!!!!ā And the mercy killing is proof it is a cult. Because doing it Bachelās way meant the guy was too relaxed and at peace when he died
Paoliniās family were in a cult, as I understand. So itās kind of weird how much he doesnāt really understand how being in a cult works
I donāt really remember how religion works in this world, but I do remember tuning out of a long boring passage in book 2 or 3 where Eragon learned about all the gods and decided he was an atheist. Itās especially weird to be like āholy shit, an EVIL religion??!ā In a book where religion has absolutely never come up before now
Oh my god, AlƬn was whipped for being ātoo familiarā with Murtagh!!! Thatās because sheās so pure and a helpless victim girl in all white :ā((
In my mind Bachel and AlƬn COULD be in a fucked up lesbian relationship with bad BDSM etiquette. Of course Paolini canāt imagine a world where women have enough personality or agency to fall in toxic love with each other. Also even though he has people tied up and strapped down and whipped and being tortured etc in every book donāt think he knows that BDSM like. Exists. Boooooo
Murtagh: killing one guy who is dying of a punctured lung is the ultimate evil!
Also Murtagh: I know an invisibility spell, but to sneak out of my room I am going to suffocate seven men to death
Genuinely upsetting to read those men dying. He made it impossible for air to enter or exit their lungs with a word. Veins popping clawing at faces etc. God, what a way to go. So unnecessarily cruel. Yep, there goes the good guy
The main way the village is evil is that there are unsettling carvings everywhere. Paolini read some Lovecraft, but he did not understand what was up with it. Or maybe he did, because this book did get a lot more weird about Racial Purity once Murtagh arrived in Lovecraft Village
11 March 2024
Thereās a bloodstain that āfilled Murtagh with the apprehension of evilā and it confused me because these books are so gory. Earlier he killed four men with a fork. But like oh yeah I guess itās because when Murtagh murders people now itās bloodless. I guess. His murders are good you see
This chapter is called The Bad Sleep-Well you can tell Paolini thought he was a real genius for this one
Okay but why are there batsā¦ roostingā¦ in a caveā¦ at night. And why is Murtagh worried that red light will risk waking them? Animals cannot see red light?? SOME FARM BOY YOU ARE, PAOLINI
Okay I have to stop nitpicking. I have to restrain myself until my Vyvanse kicks in
āMurtagh felt a sense of not just age but antiquity. Whoever had built the stairs had done so long before Alagaesia had been a settled place. What was it Bachel had said? That the cultists had lived in Nal Gorgoth since before elves were elves... He was starting to think she had told the truth.ā
Sorry uhhhh, Alagaesia was settled?? When they talk about The Grey Ones, are they talking about a race PRIOR TO COLONISATION?????????
āHe continued forward. Deeper into the womb of the earth. Deeper into the black unknown, seeking, seeking, always seeking a farther shore, every sense razor-sharp and razor-scraped, skin all goosefleshed, cold sweat dripping down the back of his neck and gathering around his belted waist.ā
God itās so overwrought...
He found the well!!
Oh my god. The well is a natural magic hotspot and that means it āwasnāt the sort of thing that the Draumar ought to have dominion over.ā Itās a natural resource???
āNot that he would want Du Vrangr Gata to assume control over such an important location either. This was exactly what the Riders had been created for: to oversee and mediate that which could destabilize the land.ā
Murtagh is going to bring democracy to the Middle East
Heās too scared to mentally contact his dragon with Bachel around. If he was a proper horse girl he would find a way
Oh Galbatorix BECAME evil because he met Bachel and she manipulated him. Haha oh dear. No, you canāt just come to the conclusion the dragon rider paramilitary force who controls the resources are bad on your own. Not just because they sent you into the mountains when they knew it was dangerous and wanted to find out if youād be killed up there! No, a manipulation had to have happened
Itās funny to me that the evil ancient witch queen who lives in seclusion in the mountains uses the new name for the city of Uruābaen. Oh no, she knows it as Ilirea. Sheās hundreds and hundreds of years old. You know what that is? Evidence of Find And Replace, to me.
Bachelās eyes are āglowing with fevered ecstasy.ā I could make her feel that way. Also. Because, I know about sex
Always with the fucking passing out at the end of the chapter for Christopher James Paolini
NOW Bachel is being described appropriately as a hottie. FINALLY. GOD! It only took Murtagh being mind controlled in his brain but I. I!!! I could see the glorious light of truth!!
āHe followed, dumb and wildered.ā Well, not as much as that sentence. (You can be bewildered. But can you ever just be wildered????)
The dedication to making Murtagh the most pitiful little meow meow in existence in the Galbatorix flashbacks Iāmā¦ what happened to the joys of a guy who is evil because he was convinced or was tricked, not because he was fully brain abused???
The Urgals are raciallyā¦ uncomfortable. Yellow eyes and Murtagh just straight up saying āhow do you speak Englishā
The evil guys have masks and they put them on and like channel the animals the masks are of and on one hand itās an idea I THINK is cool but also combined with the everything it really has this ātribal stuff is threateningā vibe all over it
āWhat do you want, witch?ā
āI want you.ā
Obsessed with how heās shackled to a table and thereās still an incredible lack of sexual energy to this scene. This is like a day at the office for both of them.
ā¦ oh, but she is wearing claws and claws DOES equal a threat of penetration. Maybe a little sexual? As a treat??
Him being tortured reminds him of torturing Nasuada. Wow, it was their first date!
Itās just like. Itās fucked up imo. She should never kiss you Murtagh!!!
Is anything more boring than a torture scene.
Also, was he not drugged right before this scene? How is he able to mentally evade her and power his wards etc?
Iām mad that when heās brought fancy foods by AlƬn he doesnāt share his food with Ubek the Urgal
Oh my god Ubek tells him a story where the moral is just him outright saying at the end, āitās important to stay close to the people we care for, even if we donāt always fit in so easilyā lmao. Subtlety of a mallet
Is anything more boring than a torture scene? How about a torture chapter!!!1!1!1!
This chapter is interminable. Oh my god.
Oh, so we did all that and he gives in I guess. I canāt believe how little agency this man has had throughout this book????
Haha oh my god, Bachel is studying his nude and compliant body in front of her court. Telling him to turn around so she can inspect his back (no mention of his ass even though it is out, tragic). Fucking love it. Now thatās bdsm. Pledging my allegiance to her instantly.
I am BORED. I liked when he was at least doing things of his own volition!
He flies his dragon off on Bachelās orders and we get the line āNever had air smelled soā¦ soā¦ delicious.ā Cryign
GASP heās killedā¦ CHILDREN!!!!!!! I hate how it only becomes horrifying for him to have done these murders once he realises theyāre HUMAN children. Urgal children? The implication is that wouldāve been a bit tacky but ultimately fine
Prison brothers blood pact. I feel so little about this. Ubek is 5000x more interesting than Murtagh but heās been slotted into what is unfortunately a sort of magical indigenous person trope but where instead of being a human being, he is an orc. Which makes the whole trope much worse
Murtagh touched AlƬnās faceā¦ gasp! Sheās been corrupted by the Touch Of A Man!!!!! (I do not care about this.)
(I care a little. For example she didnāt touch HIM. He just reached out and she didnāt pull away. This is the biggest decision about this characterās life, and she isnāt even allowed to be the one who makes it. He decides on her behalf, and she must be okay with it. Because she doesnāt pull away or fight him off.)
(Also Paolini doesnāt seem to be aware that āa woman who has been pledged not to be touched by a manā would um. USUALLY be understood by a reader as euphemistic. Not that her purity could be forever ruined by a man literally just touching her face)
The way Paolini fills Murtaghās brainwashed dialogue with oops all ellipses makes me want to tear the book apart with my teeth
Worst: how Grieve the guy who is part urgal is perpetually referred to as āheavy-browed.ā āthe heavy-browed Grieveā Iām sorry but I missed phrenology school, is that bad??
Also if heās maybe part Urgal but Murtagh is now given a chance to making it clear that some of his best friends are urgals... Why is Grieve so distastefully described? Whatās wrong with being half urgal? My suspicion: itās the bloodlines intermingling
I suspect I can just skip every fucking dream sequence and flashback. Nothing of any value in these
This one guy, Lyreth, who trapdoored Murtagh for 2.5 seconds ages ago in the book, is TWICE referenced as holding/ touching the waists of āvillageā or ācultistā women in his dialogue tags. Thatās the full extent of it. Itās not that thereās a giggling tavern girl sprawled in his lap while heās speaking. These faceless women are exclusively sketched into existence by how a named male characterās hand is on their waist. We donāt know anything about how they are responding to his touch, which is extra in-your-face considering that Murtagh just obliterated a womanās ritual purity by touching her face without asking. And itās only ever these womenās waist. Itās not their hips or thighs or boobs. Heās not kissing their necks. Iām sure in Paoliniās mind this guy touching womenās waists is meant to read as sexual, which is supposed to reinforce that heās a scumbagā¦ but it doesnāt work because itās so impersonal. These women are justā¦ unmoving waists that he is just touching. It serves as a good illustration of how womenāand sex and sexuality and bodiesāare handled in these books. Men are never ruled by their strong and muscular bodies. Men have minds, and magic, and telepathy battles. Even when Murtagh is on a torture table or when heās naked in front of a powerful woman who is actively inspecting his body, he doesnāt feel vulnerable. He doesnāt have an ass or a dick. The wind doesnāt make him shiver. Heās just a Mind. But women, well. They only have bodies when men touch them. The course of Alinās life is defined by Murtaghās touch, and even Nasuada, a fucking queen, only gets physical description via the coins Murtagh has in his possession and his memory of the cuts and bruises he left on her body. And women also have no mindsāunless theyāre werecats or elves or half elves, the only kind of woman who are remotely threatening, the only kind of women who are āas good asā the baseline of human men. Nasuada is proven as Murtaghās equal because she was able to overcome the torture of her body. If he hadnāt tortured her, or if she had broken down, she wouldnāt have proven herself worthy of being his romantic partner.
Eragonās romantic interest also started out being tortured. Not by him, but āgirl who is tortured but is too strong to give up her secretsā was her entire characterisation for a book and a half, until he rescued her. Thatās uh. Thatās how you find girlfriends who are good enough for your protagonists.
THESE FUCKING BOOKS.
Bachel has put Thorn in a special wrought iron muzzle. Yet again, this is just objectively cool
We learn about who the cult worships: evil dragon underground. He makes fumes come out of the earth and they brainwash people and give them visions. He will come out of the ground and eat the sun unless every living thing worships him.
Really Bachel is not leading a cult she is leading an environmental rescue mission. Quick we gotta get everyone to worship this evil dragon STAT, or heās going to wipe out all life on earth.
Why does an evil dragon living under the earth with the power to eat the sun (?!??!) actually want or need to be worshipped by āevery living thingā. What is his motivation?? And why would that stop him eating the sun?
āThe sculptures would have horrified most any artist in Alagaesia, no matter their race.ā Mark this down as one of the worst sentences he has written yet!!
I realise now Iāve been misremembering multiple main charactersā names
I like Bachel telling Thorn to stay, like heās a dog. Thatās good to me
Murtagh is learning about the power of friendship to heal himself last minute, I guess
Why is Murtagh pausing to duel fucking Lyreth, the most boring man in the world. Is it because of the waists he touched??? I have never felt this man was worth any time at all
NOT Paolini specifically pointing out that Lyreth āsmelled of a cloying peach scented perfumeā and that heās physically weaker than Murtagh as Murtagh overcomes him. Lyreth was too feminine to be strong, in the end
This book is obsessed with the word āyoungling.ā Murtagh says to Thorn ādonāt kill any younglings.ā Heās fighting Lyreth but heās not worried because he himself is āno longer a younglingā. Fucking fuck off! just say youth. Child. Kid. Teenager even!! Come on!!
Murtagh going āthis is taking too longā in the duel: me at the whole book thus far
āIs wrong-think to worship Bachel or Azlagur,ā says Ubek. This is real dialogue in a book published in real 2023. Oh yeah btw everything he says is written like this
Oh, the urgalās size and brute strength makes him Murtaghās equal. I see
Grieve is legitimately yelling ākill the non-believers!!ā and calling them desecrators??? Cartoon hours
To start winning the fight, all Murtagh had to do was find his magic sword! It stores all his potency and he inherited it from his father. Freud?? Donāt worry about it
The cultists are bleeding green blood???? Does this mean theyāre not human or is it the lighting or what.
Groups of dragons are always being described as a Thunder Of. Theyāre only ever being described in visions but itās always being described as āa thunder of dragonsā, because Paolini is very proud of inventing his very own collective noun for dragons I guess
Buncha little pasty freaks showing up.
Murtaghās ultimate challenge: he has to fight one hundred gollums
Paolini inventing new guys for his dungeon at unprecedented rates
Murtagh is legitimately busy trying to think of new names for his sword NOW?? He is just going to stop in the middle of this urgent fight to go find where the bad woman (Bachel) took the good woman (AlƬn) to go āmy sword has a bad name. It could have a good name.ā Did he not have time while he was mouldering in the dungeon to think about this
Heās checking his compendium, like in video games.
Books have never been worse. If Murtagh/Paolini calls this sword Scar I will legitimately never know peace
Oh the sword is called Freedom now. Get it? Like America? Itās the most important value??
āSeeing the armor, Murtagh realized that the leather garb the cultists had donned for the festival of black smoke had been made to resemble Bachel's fantastic suit.ā
what a sentence
This is the worst
I hate how her spear has a name and a dramatic history. Like come on
Fucking mind battles again
Alin is justā¦ Iām sorry to her, but sheās not a real person. Sheās a cardboard cutout in distress
The final boss fight should not be taking place in the magical world of the mind
Now sheās calling him āinfidel?ā Okay
The ultimate battle: the structuring power of masculine language versus the primeval chaos of raw womenās emotion!!! Who will win!! Hint: Christopher Paolini wrote this!
āShe seemed merely a woman again.ā
āMerelyā is how Paolini always describes women (when he thinks theyāre worth describing of course)
Waitā¦ is the only reason Bachel has been intimidating REALLY just because sheās been channelling a tough evil boy dragon? Once the mask is gone and heās not empowering herā¦ sheās merelyā¦
Iām going to kick Christopher Paoliniās fucking ass
Murtagh feels so emotionally close to Bachel. As he splits her skull. Normal book
For real why were ALL the Riders so afraid of Bachel??? The gas fumes? Face masks not invented?? This seems pretty easy to solve like if theyād just. Sent more than one guy?
He passes out and the chapter ends of course. Then he wakes up in the city
Ah, Alin is blonde and blue eyed. She was a pale skinned virgin who needed rescuing from an evil and also foreign almond eyed amber skinned woman who was whipping her. You know how it goes
I hate how AlƬn always calls Murtagh āmy lord.ā Sheās like one of those medieval fighting game banners of a sexy woman. Sheās a cartoon.
Isnāt it a shame that when Murtagh hastily gets out of bed to bow to Nasuada he is wearing pants. So much funnier if he wasnāt
Iām so over this book holy shit
Oh, for being the apparently only sole survivor of Murtaghās obliteration of her cult and everything sheās ever known, AlƬn is being promoted toā¦ Nasuadaās maid. Thatās not what she asked for. Thatās just what sheās being told sheās going to do from now on. Fucking hell.
Nasuada is Jealous of this blonde woman and I was afraid for her because Nasuada is also famously the only black woman on the continent. But of course she has nothing to fear because only the most powerful woman in the land could ever be remotely Murtaghās equal, which she proved by being stronger at being tortured than him
She asks him to stay and she touches his hand just lightly
The END??
They donāt even kiss?!!!?!! I had to read it twice to be sure. SEXLESS BOOK.
#how do I tag this. probs not in the official tag right#Murtagh: Donāt Read It!!!#DONT READ IT#I canāt believe how much money Christopher Paolini is worthā¦ I also canāt believe he managed to father two children#man doesnāt know what women children OR sex are. how did he manage to solve that equation twice over
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Books of 2023
the list nobody asked for <3
My reading habits had gone a bit stagnant in the past couple of years so this year i made the effort to engage in reading again and wow books really are good!! who would have thought! Sharing this year's book log with the small reviews i did while reading yeah i am That kind of list lover if u feel like being nosy, (and maybe even help mi crowdsource reading recs based on my likes šš¤²?)
The left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula i Need to know your thoughts on omegaver- [gunshot] THAT ASIDE yeah. mrs Le Guin you've done it again. I can see why everyone got their brain chemistry altered by this book.
The Membranes - Chi Ta-Wei another brain chemistry altering book. would love to discuss it with a gender studies major lmao
Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie its a v atmospheric and poignant story, I know I would have loved it more if I was familiar with the rich religious/cultural background it draws from
The Masquerade Series - Seth Dickinson Crazy insane in the membrane about this series. one of the most compelling worldbuildings I've ever seen, and most importantly it features one of the most crazy wet pathetic scrunkly meow meow protagonists i've ever had the pleasure of reading about.
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides i liked the writing style of this book a lot! idk how well it holds up re: intersexuality topic, but its a very engaging read.
Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power - Jude Ellison, Sady Doyle The title says it all honestly, its a beautiful, thought provoking and engaging essay, spanning eras, pop culture phenomenons, and real life events on the topic of women and horror.
The cat who saved books - SÅsuke Natsukawa this was so cute and heartfelt, it will really make you go Ah Yes, this is Why we Love Books <333
The Locked Tomb Series - Tamsyn Muir now when people say there is a girl who is the cursed sacrifice of 2000 infants who falls in love with the sleeping embodiment of the soul of the Earth (barbie) and also another girl who is the only survivor of the aforementioned sacrifice and is. a Jesus metaphor? and also the two girls become one at some point. and every book is a different genre. and god is bisexual. and memes survived the nuclear apocalypse. I can just nod and say so true.
The Area X Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer Rotating this series in the microwave of my mind at the speed of light it's soSO GOOD!! the movie doesn't even come close honestly u NEED to read the books. and then go touch grass and be aware of every strand in a completely new way.
The Dawn of Yangchen - F. C. Yee nice read! I was more invested in the worldbuilding crumbs than in the actual story lmao, I will forever think about the HEATED airball rivalry between the air temples and about the swt greetings / bethrotal armbands.
Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex - Bernard Saladin d'Anglure starting w a disclaimer bc I feel like the topic of native colonization was ignored when it should have been way more prominent when talking about the context of where and when these testimonies were collected?? That aside it was very interesting and well put together, with first account testimonies of Inuit elders about their myths, lifestyles and beliefs.
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee i read the book after having seen the tv series (which i also rlly recommend). Very moving story about a family and its generations, from Korea under Japanese colonization to modern day America.
Her body and other parties - Carmen Maria Marchado sometimes I go about my day then I remember this book exists and stare at the wall for 30 minutes.
Dictionnaire de l'impossible - Didier Van Cauwelaert big miss. this collection of articles about "strange impossible phenomenons" sounded so quirky and interesting but i sure would have loved if the author hadnt so clearly picked a side. and also way too much church for my tastes.
He who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker Chan Im not even gonna speak about this one if you've followed me since july you know what pits of insanity and despair i'm in
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin Sometimes!! the book with pretty covers put in the "famous on socials" bookstore section!! are good!! It's about being othered it's about connection it's about diaspora it's about love and friendship and most of all it's about viddy games.
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel reading this post-covid and learning it was written in 2017 was A TRIP. Psychic damage at every page. still feeling very normla.
The Mask of Apollo - Mary Renault Ugh i desperately wanted to like this book because the setup is so interesting and full of potential, but the end result was just. flat. flat story flat characters the plot focusing on the wrong things at the wrong times i was so DONE when i reached the end otz.
Babel - R. F. Kuang LOVED the worldbuilding in this, the "lost in translation" system of magic is one of the most interesting things ive ever read. I think theres something about the writing in general that didn't win me over completely?? but all in all a very good
Red Ocean - Han Song This sure is a Book. That i've Read. its so profundly strange and unlike anything ive come across that i dont even know what to feel about it. i think 90% of my confusion comes from Not Getting Cultural References so if someone has a "red ocean explained" essay plz send it my way bc i couldnt find one.
#taking with me into next year Chromorama and The seven moons of Maali Almeida#anyway blease talk to me about your fave books!!#or about the ones in this list!!#send post#books
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THE BEST FICTION I ENCOUNTERED IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2024!!
Due to what I feel is the most in my wheelhouse re: ability to give a critical defense or determine artistic quality, and also so I won't be here ALL DAY, this list will include books, comics, interactive fiction, and one short video webseries I really liked. It will not include movies, TV shows, non-IF games, or nonfiction, although I do also enjoy/partake in those things.
Everything on this list was new to me this year with the exception of the comic strip Junk World; however, Junk World released as a zine fairly recently, and I forgot to mention it on my end of 2023 list, so I feel fine putting it here. "New to me" does not mean something necessarily released this year, so I have put the year of release in parentheses next to the work where I know the year of release. A couple of these books haven't actually come out yet (I read ARCs); I've noted that when describing them and they will also be on the end-of-year list so people don't forget about them. : )
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Novels and Novellas!
Cuckoo, by Gretchen Felker-Martin (2024): This is a blisteringly angry book: a constantly burning blow torch pointed at homophobia, transphobia, and, especially, the pervasive scourge of hidden, ignored, and socially approved child abuse. Yet Cuckoo has great tenderness for its immensely damaged protagonists, and also takes the time to flesh out and empathize with some of its odious antagonists. This nuanced characterization provides a necessary counterpoint to the rage that fuels the novel, and makes it more moving and memorable than most other politically charged, hyper-violent works of fiction. There are quiet moments of connection and sorrow that are going to stay with me far longer than the scenes of dynamite explosions and shoot outs with shrieking, starfish-faced cops.
Failure To Comply, by Cavar (comes out in August 2024): Reading Cavarās Failure to Comply, I couldnāt help but think of the recent David Cronenberg movie Crimes of the Future. Both deal with dystopias in which bodies and their modification are strictly regulated, and people with unauthorized bodies form a vibrant, perpetually imperiled subculture on the margins. Both use this conceit to speak metaphorically about the plights of trans and disabled people, although Failure to Complyās characters are also presented as literally, textually disabled and trans. But, although Crimes of the Future is often accused of being a āweird movie,ā Failure to Comply is undeniably much, much weirder. Cronenberg is super normal compared to this.
Maej, by Dale Stromberg (comes out in September 2024): a doorstopper I found difficult to put down and finished inside a week; a work of very unapologetic genre fiction thatās equally unapologetic in its intelligence and dedication to doing strange, creative things with language; a high fantasy story I actually liked. The setting is the city of Sforre-Yomn, in the country of Hwoama, whose culture combines elements from across the continents of Asia and Europe. But Hwoama is matriarchal: men are subordinate to women, who dominate politics, business, the military, and nearly all other professions. As a result of this fact, almost all the major characters in the novel are female. By turns this presents a fun, simple, mischievous inversion of maleness as the unmarked default state for fictional characters, and meaty commentary on the social construction of sex, sexuality, and gender. Stromberg has cited Le Guin as an influence on Maej and, in the most complimentary way possible, this influence is evident.
Wrath Goddess Sing, by Maya Deane (2022): I listened to the audiobook version, read by the lovely voice of Katherine Pucciarello, so I can't vouch for whether I would have enjoyed the novel (as much) in text form. However, the audiobook was an engrossing tale of bronze age sandal, sword, and sorcery. Although it is based on the story of Achilles, readers who want a very po-faced historically or mythologically faithful retelling would be wise to look elsewhere; that said, I for one have little interest in retellings that do not bring a lot of new stuff to the table, so I was happy with all of the strange, interesting, surprising directions this one went. I loved the bizarre, often horrific depictions of the gods; this book really captured the feverish, molten, giddy, and terrifying feeling that accompanies magic and spiritual encounters in real life. Like I said, this is essentially a lavish work of epic sword and sorcery, and I think it is best to set one's expectations through that lens.
More Bugs, by Em Reed (2024): A slow-paced existentialist character study/slice of life about a cynical, depressed butch woman going through a quarter-life crisis after circumstances force her to move back to her sleepy central Pennsylvania hometown and back in with her disapproving mother. Also a f/f age gap romance. Also a magical realist/sci-fi story about shapeshifting alien beings. It's unique, and I connected with it a lot.
Read and Then Burn This, by Rysz Merey (2024): Ah, young love! Have you ever been nineteen, shallow, insecure in your art, inexperienced in the world, and making poor sexual decisions? Haven't we all. This is a book about that. I find the relatively small scale of the proceedings, and the emotional numbness/constipation of the characters, makes this feel all the more sordid.
The Woods All Black, by Lee Mandelo (2024): This one has a couple flaws that bugged me while I was reading, but it's a revenge-horror romance story about two trans guys (or arguably: a trans guy and a butch) in 1920s Appalachia and it has blisteringly hot, graphic sex scenes of both the "regular" and the "monsterfucking" variety, so-- pretty much impossible for me not to enjoy overall! I thought the depiction of how 1.) people in the past conceived of transness differently than most people do today, and 2.) different trans people often conceive of their own transness differently, even if their embodiment is very similar, was nuanced and quite well done.
Short Story Collections!
Grime Time, by Ivy Grimes (2023): Some of the oddest short fiction I've read in ages! Grimes' surreal stories tend to be very brief, and they're almost always impossible to categorize. They deal heavily with ambivalence and ambiguity, two of my favorite things, and often end up unsettling the reader not because of anything particularly ominous or awful that happens in the narrative, but because it's very unclear what actually has happened, how the protagonist feels about it, and how the reader ought to feel about it. The definition of "really makes you think!" Grimes' prose is simple and clear, with minimal description, yet very distinctive. Often reminds me of Leonora Carrington.
White Cat, Black Dog, by Kelly Link (2023): Predictably enough, another all-bangers instant classic from Link. These stories are all based on fairy tales, with some following the original fairy tale quite closely and others taking very loose inspiration from the fairy tale or mixing and matching with elements from different tales. My personal favorite, the standout in an excellent collection, was "Prince Hat Underground," which is a really beautiful story about being in a long term relationship with someone you love but don't always get along with or understand, about accepting the inevitability of death and loss, and about what a fairy tale romance looks like when the people in the fairy tale romance are middle aged men on the cusp of old age, rather than wide-eyed young people.
Individual Short Stories!
"The Earth and Everything Under," by K.M. Ferebee (2014) is a slightly grotesque, surreal, fairy tale-like novelette about grief and witchcraft. I strongly suggest you read it at the link.
"The Clown Watches the Clown," by Sara S. Messenger (2024) is also slightly grotesque, surreal, and melancholic; it's about a young person in a space opera cyberpunk future who's caught in a rut. Again, you can and should read it at the link.
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night," by Octavia Butler (1987) has been anthologized in a few places and shouldn't be too difficult to track down, but I'd never read it before. It's an incredible work of sci-fi that deals with mad liberation/disability justice and also with (as in much of Butler's work) the idea of biology as destiny: to what extent are we at the mercy of our bodies and instinctual drives, and to what extent do we have the power to decide what we'll do with them? How do the stories we tell about certain kinds of bodies and medical conditions affect our ability to see that potential for choice, for agency, or just for things to turn out in a different and better way?
Comics!
Kiara's Junk World rules. I love the skillful inking, the cute animal characters, the playful and sardonic wit, the erudite references.
Interactive Fiction!
In a.c.d's The Beach That Makes You Old, you have to help a patient trapped in an evil hospice/psychiatric facility. (2024)
In K.A. Tan's Labyrinth, you play as the Minotaur, on the last day of his life. (2024)
Both games are free to play, with a play time of about forty-five minutes to an hour if you want to get all the endings/explore every aspect of the narrative. If you've never experienced interactive fiction before, it takes no special gaming skill: you just click through different links!
Video!
Mr. Samuel's Teatime Stories, dir. Yara Asmar (2024) is a distorted, Lynchian faux-children's show. Unlike, say, Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared, the tone is much more eerie, elegiac, and somber-- or, occasionally, surprisingly sweet-- than darkly comedic and satirical (which isn't to say there are no jokes or funny moments). I found it really moving by the end.
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"I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kidās fantasy crossed with a school novel, good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited."
- Ursula K. Le Guin
It's been understandably popular to take pot-shots at Harry Potter lately because of JK Rowling's truly disgusting and reprehensible comments lately. This quote above by Le Guin, which I agreed with even while a teenager, got me thinking about my own views on the series and apropos to nothing, I felt this was a better place to expound upon them than Twitter.
I have a knee-jerk dislike of the very human condition of saying we, "Always knew something," after the fact, that we "Always knew" someone problematicā¢ļø was problematic or we always knew this thing that was popular was Bad Art after it became less popular. I find it intellectually dishonest.
So I'll preface all of this by saying: I had minor issues with the Harry Potter series back when it came out that went against the mainstream view of it, in that I thought it had many good qualities as a book series, but not enough to warrant its popularity compared to other, similar YA and fantasy series. I was genuinely baffled by its superstar popularity but as a fantasy book reader in the days before it was easy to access online fandom, I would take what I could get and I certainly didn't mind fangirling about Harry Potter stuff with friends even if it wasn't my #1 favorite series of all time. I enjoyed the fanfic for Harry Potter immensely so that allowed me to sort of blend in with those who enjoyed its popularity. (Special shoutout to MY favorite Harry Potter book of all time, "Harry Potter and the Battle of Wills" by Jocelyn over on fanfiction.net, that was MY Harry Potter series lol.)
So here's the thing, it's easy to say, "I always hated Harry Potter" or "I always knew it was trash" and that's a lie. For me, the truth is:
I enjoyed Harry Potter much like I did many of the fantasy series of its day.
What they had going for them was their pacing, whimsy, and inherent mystery structure in the first 3 books. They're fast, fun, easy reads with a likable protagonist. They are not bad books. But as Le Guin says, they're stylistically ordinary and imaginatively derivative. There's a lot of books like them.
I did not think the books were better than Pratchett, or Gaiman, or Garth Nix, or Dianne Wynn Jones, or any of the many other fantasy authors I was reading at the time. I was confused by their popularity as compared to better books like Pratchett's Discworld which, while popular, never got a theme park made for them in terms of order of magnitude popularity.
Now, JK Rowling on the other hand I had some issues with from the start, if not the ones that emerged later with her being a bigot. It is worth mentioning for the sake of intellectual honesty that decades ago, she gave a lot to charity and was a voice for tolerance in the early 00's when Bush/Blair, the Iraq War, etc were in full swing. It makes it all the more heartbreaking and baffling to see her swing towards bigotry on LGBT+ issues. Truly, a lot of young people first learned to stand up to fascism and be accepting of those different from them because of Harry Potter, just like they did reading the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card, and in both cases it's absolutely heartbreaking and so very confusing to see these authors fall to the very dark side they wrote against in their books. I have no answer for how or why this happened. I don't say this to make an excuse for either of them, simply to express confusion and mourn the loss of someone who was once a voice for some level of good in the world.
Now, my issues with JK Rowling were writerly, and they are the ones I feel somewhat empowered to say I "always knew" and "always had an issue with" and that, like the worst sort of hipster, "I talked about before it was cool".
Really my dislike began when JKR very famously said in the early 00s that she didn't read any fantasy before writing Harry Potter. Considering how derivative it is (heck, Neil Gaiman already had a YA series about a black-haired wizard boy with a scar) it left one wondering if she was lying or she truly was that ignorant in the genre in which she wrote. Either way, not a good look, and it soured me towards her pretty permanently as an author.
Terry Pratchett, the author I would actually follow into Hell, criticized her for this comment and got a lot of flack for it, asking how in the world she could not realize she was writing fantasy. This solidified my opinion of her as something of a hack, even if she had stumbled upon a winning story. Neil Gaiman also chimed in saying he didn't feel ripped off but seemed to tacitly agree with Pratchett that her lack of institutional knowledge about fantasy was odd.
As a big fantasy fan of the early 00s, I can say that fantasy was still a bit of a forbidden genre (at least in the Anglosphere), one not taken seriously. So for JK Rowling to be asked if she wrote fantasy had a layer of nuance, basically she was being asked if she meant to write a fantasy novel, ie, in a "lesser" genre, barely above dime story penny dreadfuls in value.
No one literary would admit to writing fantasy at the time, it was a whole thing where if you admitted to writing fantasy you were "downgraded" as an author in terms of prestige (Stephen King went through a lot of this). BUT, if a fantasy book achieved popularity, it was labeled as "literary" so the literary folks could claim ownership of the quality genre fiction, and never have to admit that "literary" is a genre and not a mark of quality (a deep-seated rage button issue for me and a rant for another day).
So when JK Rowling said, "She didn't know she was writing fantasy." That meant something. And what it meant was she was throwing the rest of the genre under the damn bus. With her visibility she could have helped actively tear down the biases against fantasy (something she did indirectly with the popularity of her books). Or she could have simply had humility and said she wasn't as versed in the genre as she should be given where her book ended up being shelved, but there's a lot of good works there and she's honored to be among them.
She did neither. She stuck to her ignorance (what would become a common trait of hers, apparently) and did very little to elevate others in the genre, or the genre itself, and indeed, seemed to try to distance herself from it in what was the safe move at the time.
I cannot stress enough how intellectual dishonest, arrogant, and safe it was for popular writers who got dubbed "literary" when they were in fact writing genre fiction to cleave to that title of literary, guard it jealously, and refuse to acknowledge that literary is a genre of its own, not a mark of quality. To be labeled "genre fiction" was to be considered "lesser" and that stigma is still out there, though much lessened by the wave that began with the Lord of the Rings movies, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and the Marvel films making so much money and really setting up genre fiction to at least be seen as lucrative if not artistic. We have come a long way from how fantasy was viewed 20 years ago.
JK Rowling also said she wrote no other books before Harry Potter. That's another puzzling instance where either she's lying, sold her soul to the Devil (and hey, maybe she did and he's collecting by making her turn into a frothing bigot), or was simply a more lucky and less skilled writer than people realized. Every writer has a closet full of short stories and novels they've written before publishing their first work. I can't stress enough how bizarre it is for her to claim she never wrote anything else before putting pen to paper with Harry Potter, that simply does not happen. Then again, her later books make it seem more likely that is true.
Writerly aside, but JK Rowling is utter garbage at structure. She lucked into the perfect scaffolding for a basic plot with the Harry Potter school year, but as Fantastic Beasts and her other, non-school based plot structures reveal, she didn't realize what a crutch that was for her because the woman does not and has not learned how to build a plot that isn't strung up on the structure of a school year for building tension and story beats.
Look, JK Rowling has always been a weird author. She really did come out of nowhere in terms of previous works. She doesn't acknowledge her peers in the genre that built her fortune, not even to confess that while she didn't know about them, she's now learning about a wonderful rich genre out there. She went the other direction and disavowed fantasy (it's possible she backtracked since and had nice things to say about the fantasy genre, I'd love to hear it if so).
There was in fact always subtle bigotry and a ton of tokenism in the Harry Potter books. That said, in the 90s, that was pretty par for the course, and she deserved some kudos for making the books so explicitly about fighting fascism, even if I'm not sure she fully understood her own themes.
To say these books were unpopular or that they had no writerly merit at all is intellectually dishonest. They were popular for a reason, mostly because they're fun. However, they were not unique, there were many like them, she got very lucky and it's bizarre how little she's acknowledged this or her peers. Of all the negative tendencies any human has, I'm shocked and dismayed that her tendency to stick to her ignorance like she did with the wider fantasy genre is the one that won out and was transferred to LGBT+ issues, to the point of doing active damage to her works and brand. But as her attempts to branch out from Harry Potter have further confirmed, JK Rowling was always a stylistically ordinary writer. Her mean-spiritedness didn't stand out as much in the 90s but it absolutely does now and it's ugly how she leaned more into sticking with the moral heights she reached at that time rather than trying to learn and grow as a person.
JK Rowling went full Whedon and figured because she was slightly ahead of the curve in the late 90s that she had nothing more to learn and it hurts when people who are creative, people whose job it is to have empathy for other walks of life, never learn or grow and stick to their old laurels that are increasingly out of date. I personally don't think myself as a hardcore Harry Potter fan, I have no horse in this race for the redemption or lack thereof of JK Rowling or the book series. I can only offer my view as a fantasy writer and someone who grew up through the cultural phenomenon of these books.
But, as usual, Ursula Le Guin was right, I agreed with her then, and her words have only borne out more and more with time.
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If things go according to plan I should be publishing my first book, The Children of Magic, this evening. Though itās possible that it wonāt appear on Amazon KDP instantly.
But until then, I just wanted to write a little bit about my experience with writing the book. I had so much fun writing it and it was fascinating to watch it change and evolve during the process. The original idea came after reading The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynn Jones. I really loved the book but I was also really frustrated with it. The main premise was that a person from the real world subjugated the people of a fantasy world and paid them to put on a grand performance where people from the real world will come in and play the part of the hero and defeat the āDark Lordā. It felt like one of the themes of the book was how we force fantasy to be a very specific way to suit our expectation of the fantasy genre which only hinders the genre because fantasy can be literally anything. And for the most part I think the book does display that, but I didnāt feel like it stuck the landing at the end.
So I started to daydream about the concept of a kind of parody fantasy world that was super generic fantasy on the outside but once you dig deeper things arenāt what they seem. I canāt remember where the book started idea wise, but I know magic was a main focal point. I wanted to create a unique magic system that defied our expectations of magic, with a main question of āwhat came first, magic or manā always being at the forefront of its creation. In a magical world is magic just something that existed before people and people learned to harness it in a similar way to fire? Or was magic a way of connecting and changing the world by man made means, almost like technology?
The same thought process connected to my main characters, I have a character named Sam because you canāt have a fantasy book without a Sam, but I made him a protagonist. I had a farm boy destined for greatness, because you have to have a farm boy character but I didnāt make him a hero destined to save the world or the center of a great prophesy. I have a man from the real world that gets transported to this fantasy world beseeched by The Dark Lord and he is put on the quest to slay the great evil, but the man in question is just a kindly old man who gets accidentallied into the quest for reasons he doesnāt quite understand but heās just happy to be going on a fun fantasy adventure. And thatās without mentioning the fun things I do with the goblins and The Dark Lord.
This book is my love letter for fantasy and my admiration toward some of the all time best fantasy authors like Tolkien, Diana Wynn Jones, Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, and so many more. I wanted to create something that is reminiscent of fantasy but something that takes the tropes of the past and plays around with them until something new is created and I feel like thatās exactly what I did.
I donāt know how many people will read it, but if I can reach even a few people with my characters, then I will be incredibly happy.
I hope I will be able to make a post tonight with news of it being published and available to purchase. But I want to make sure everything is as perfect as I can get it before hitting that button.
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Hello! You seem like someone who reads a lot to me so I was wondering if you have any recommendation on books like 'Princess Mononoke' thank you so much! Your pinned post is amazing I hope someday be smart as you, you must read a lot and that's impressive
honestly don't know if this is supposed to be some kind of bait but I'm just going to respond to it as if it wasn't
unfortunately I don't really read all that much anymore, at least not outside of uni, and I can't really think of anything that truly feels like princess mononoke, but here are some books that came to mind as close enough:
descriptions under the cut!
the word for world is forest by ursula k. le guin
probably comes closest with its very strong environmental message, as well as themes of war and colonisation. it does have some magical and spiritual elements here and there, but still very much falls on the side of sci-fi rather than fantasy, and lacks the whimsical nature even the darkest of ghibli films at times possess. nevertheless my top recommendation!
lanny by max porter
if you're more interested in explorations of the mysterious character of nature, then you'll find that here. lanny also explores the relationship between humans and nature in a very interesting and unique way, and the way it's written makes it an almost dreamlike experience. it's a narrative of much smaller scale, but reading it is kind of what I imagine it must feel like to be part of a forest.
silver in the wood by emily tesh
speaking of being part of an enchanted forest, this little fairytale was basically made to be adapted into a ghibli movie. mythical forest creatures, fae law, gay love and a bit of a gothic twist ā maybe mononoke isn't necessarily the best of miyazaki's works to compare it to, but it's not hard to imagine something like this story unfolding somewhere in those ancient woods.
ghost wall by sarah moss
this one might be a bit of a stretch, but I think it's worth a shot. a feminist narrative set in the woods and also very deeply thematically rooted in nature, with a subdued dark tone and occult atmosphere. the female protagonist's relationship to her wild and tamed environments is central, and throughout the novel there is a kind of quiet violence unsettlingly simmering just beneath the surface. I think san herself would love this book.
(honourable mention:
the buried giant by kazuo ishiguro
this is an honourable mention because I haven't actually finished reading it yet, but so far I think it might deserve a place on this list!)
#the word for world is forest#silver in the wood#the buried giant#ghost wall#lanny#ursula k. le guin#princess mononoke#ghibli#book recommendations
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We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.
Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)
Tales From Earthsea:
I don't think it could have been better, but it was just so off from from the books it was mainly drawing its inspiration from (I mean, I had no interest in seeing that weird weaver guy decide to off himself in the boat, but still).
Studio Ghibli is the perfect studio to capture the Le Guin vibe and yet Goro torched it so hard for no reason
To give credit where it is due, the film has some good settings and animation. Unfortunately, its beauty is only on the surface, and it is the worst Studio Ghibli movie Iāve seen. (Iāve seen almost all of them but Earwig and the Witch.) The plot is a collage of random bits of context from the first four books of the series, as well as its own stuff. It really is not the same story at all. I may have enjoyed it more if I had seen it as a child before reading the books, but not covering all the events exactly isnāt the only issue, itās just worse. It takes the moral complexity and sensibility of the original and turns it into a typical fantasy war between good and evil (the Japanese title even translates to Gedās War Chronicles) with emphasis on physical violence, in which evil is personified as a goth queer-coded villain whose death resolves everything. It completely misses the point of the books, which gives no such simple answers and is more focused on the darkness within everyone than an external battle. Where is the nuance? It also whitewashes everyone: most of the characters in the book are dark-skinned, but in the movieā¦
I was also bitter that they did my favourite character, Tehanu/Therru, dirty. Sheās supposed to be horribly scarred and disfigured on half her body and reviled by people as a monster but in the movie sheās just a pretty girl with a red mark on her face. In the books, she doesnāt appear until the fourth book, Tehanu, which takes place after Lebannen is grown up and ruling a kindgom, and in which she is a mostly-nonverbal child. But here sheās aged up and thrown into the earlier story to give the protagonist a love interest and the film has him stay with them so it can focus on their romance. Even though a plot-relevant part of his character as well is his lack of interest in women and not settling into a relationship despite the peopleās wishes.
Basically, they whitewashed, heteronormatized, macho-ified, and de-nuanced the narrative, and also took out the feminism.
On top of this, trying to cram the whole series into one movie is just not a good idea, and it would have been better to just decide on one book to adapt and do more justice. And yet they still added in so much that didnāt happen. When you have that much material to cover, you donāt have time or budget to be putting other things in, mate. Turning four books into one results both in a mess. Abridgment is one thing; taking particular aspects of different parts of the timeline and combining them in different ways is another. It doesnāt make a lot of sense. Itās in an unfortunate middle area where it doesnāt follow the source material but also doesnāt give enough context that people unfamiliar with the source understand. For Earthsea fans, itās infuriating; for others, itās confusing. Also, why did they name it after the fifth book, which is a short story collection that it doesnāt reference whatsoever?
The failure of the movie is upsetting because the books are sooo good. Yet, it was the highest-grossing Japanese movie of the year, and did win a couple awardsā¦ The Bunshun Kiichigo awards for āWorst Directorā and āWorst Movieā.
The Golden Compass:
The Golden Compass isn't even the title of the book! It's called Northern Lights! And now there are editions of the book with the wrong title on them. Enfuriating. Anyways, the movie tries to follow the books story and fails completely because they don't kill off a character because they wanted a happy ending when that character being dead is crucial to the story in the third book. Also they made Mrs. Coulter blonde. Unforgivable.
They remove the ending of the book so it has a happy ending and I guess leave it for a better beginning to the second movie, only of course they never made a second movie cause the first one bombed. They also rearranged the order of the events, and, more importantly, made it lose its bite by removing darker elements and removing explicit critique of the catholic church by making the antagonistic magisterium way more generic
Terrible movie. The acting is awful, especially Mrs. Coulter, whose character in the books is chilling because of her smooth, sweet nature that belies a deep sinister calucating mind. Plus they butchered the story and took out any mention of the church as the main villain for fear of offending Christians. This ultimately defeats the purpose of the book. I hate this movie so much it's unreal
#tournament poll#the golden compass#his dark materials#tales from earthsea#earthsea#a wizard of earthsea#northern lights
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I've never won National Novel Writing Month, but I am participating for my 7th time (not consecutively) this year. In the past I've always enjoyed receiving the Pep Talks from published authors, which are essentially like letters of encouragement to all of the writers trying to pour out the first draft of a novel in a month. A few of the ones I read, especially in my first year of doing NaNo, really stuck with me so I was very delighted to be asked to contribute one this year. You can read my Pep Talk here on the NaNo site but I will also post the full text below the cut. And to anyone doing NaNo this year-- good luck and keep writing!
instagram / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my book / redbubble
I wanted to be a writer long before I knew I had anything to say.Ā
I had a childhood immersed in stories. My parents took me to the local library every week, where I checked out stacks of fantasy novels. I would pick up any book with a dragon, elf, sword, castle, wizard, or spaceship on the cover and my heroes were the authors and illustrators of these magical worlds.Ā
At some point I started to wonder about these writers. Who were they? What were their lives like? I began to pay more attention to authorās notes and was astonished to discover that many authors I loved mentioned each other in their acknowledgements. In The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke thanked Neil Gaimen, Terri Windling, Ellen Datlow, and Charles Vess. In Stardust, Gaimen thanked Clarke in return, and also Diana Wynne Jones. Ursula K Le Guin and Robin Hobb wrote blurbs for Patrick Rothfussā Name of the Wind. In Finder, Emma Bull thanked Terri Windling, Steven Brust, and her husband, Will Shetterly. Tamora Pierce, George RR Martin, Peter S Beagle and Kelly Link all blurbed books by Ellen Kushner, who thanked more people than I have space to name.Ā
Holy shit, I realized. All of these authors know each other! Theyāre friends! This was followed by a second thought: If I want to meet them, and especially if I want to be friends with them, maybe I should publish a fantasy novel myself.Ā
That realization gave me a new goal, but no specific pointers on how to pursue it. I started out as many young authors do: I began writing long fantasy narratives with orphaned protagonists, extremely derivative of the fantasy Iād read as a teen. During multiple successive NaNoWriMos I chipped away at a YA novel about a boy and a dragon. I started drawing a webcomic about a thief who tried to rob a monastery only to be foiled by a witch with the same plan. These stories had characters, settings, and some plot but what they didnāt have was themes. They didnāt ask any questions about what it means to be human, and they didnāt touch on any of the big concerns I was wrestling with in my personal life: gender, sexuality, and identity.Ā
It took the rather painful experience of a literary agent telling me my fantasy work was unpublishable before I set my early stories aside, stepped back, and changed the direction of my writing towards exploring the big, vulnerable themes I had been shying away from.Ā
What I discovered is that instead of making writing harder, facing these themes head-on made writing easier. In my earlier work I had frequently hit writing blocks, places in my outlining process where I felt like I was wading through mud. When I didnāt know what I was trying to say on a meta level with my story it was often hard to decide what should happen next at the plot level. I would send my characters from location to location, but Iād be unsure of what they should do there, because I was unclear on how their actions added up to a larger picture. That feeling of being stuck and uncertain over what should come next fell away when I started focusing more clearly on expressing my bigger themes. Suddenly the path forward felt smooth. All it took to follow it was bravery and persistence.Ā
I also achieved my initial goal in wanting to be a writer. I have now met and befriended many other authors, not the same set that I idolized as a teen, but different writers who are exploring many of the same themes and questions in their work as I do in mine. I have friends, colleagues, co-authors, and writing partners to thank in my acknowledgementsā often more than I have space to name.Ā
During this month, I know many of you are focused solely on pouring out the words. That is very important, but I recommend you take some time to think about the larger themes of your story as well. What message, hope, fear, question, or truth are you trying to communicate to the world through your writing? I promise that clearly articulating your themes will help you tell your story and find the friends and writers who will become your community.Ā
Good luck, and know that I am writing alongside you, and rooting for you!Ā
Maia Kobabe, Fall 2023
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"Somehow, Le Guin invents new forms of Humanity."
Ursula Le Guin: ( was literally just trying to write her indigenous characters experiencing culture from the pov of someone who is completely removed from the western world )
I think it's super sad that the more popular Ursula becomes again, the more her ingenious and sincere work with indigenous protagonists become more of a spectacle, because people just approach her work from a very weird place.
Like tumblr posts talking abt Estraven's gender made people read the left hand of darkness expecting that Estraven's only character was to be trans, and they leave tlhod saying it's "boring" and that it has no plot. Like that's so sad to me. Estraven IS trans if you're going to approach it from a western point of view, but to the Gethen, whom are indigenous, Estraven would simply just be a person whose gender / identity was never challenged because there was no rigid gender binary coil enforced to begin with.
You can say that having a different gender that isn't cis man and cis woman no matter what culture, is trans anyway, transness covers all genders that are not cis, and that's true, it is simply a natural progression of that word, but that's people from non anglophonic (and often non western) cultures to adhere, again, to a structure of gender that westerners built.
A lot of the world's queer cultures was not allowed to naturally evolve without literal forced assimilation and colonialist pressures, like today if you're non American, the way non american lgbtq ppl today talk about stonewall and Pride is just lacking in cultural relativism. So much of TLHOD is Genly deconstructing his own dogmatic view of the world by loving someone whose reality he could not understand, and it sucks that that entire point the story was trying to make is lost under the western lens it was so desperately trying to shatter.
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Trope chats: Magical worlds
Magical otherworlds have been a staple of storytelling for centuries, captivating readers with their imaginative landscapes, otherworldly beings, and the promise of escape from mundane reality. From Lewis Carroll's Wonderland and C.S. Lewisās Narnia to more recent examples like J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World and Philip Pullmanās His Dark Materials, these fictional realms offer authors a rich canvas to explore themes of identity, power, morality, and transformation. However, while otherworlds provide powerful opportunities for symbolic and thematic depth, they also present narrative challenges, including the potential for escapism, overcomplication, or detachment from real-world concerns. This essay examines the use of magical otherworlds in fiction, explores their symbolic potential, highlights the pitfalls they present as a literary device, and reflects on their broader societal influence.
Magical otherworlds allow authors to break free from the constraints of reality, enabling them to craft unique settings where the rules of physics, time, and space are often rewritten. This creative flexibility grants authors the ability to build worlds that reflect their thematic concerns in more explicit ways than realism might allow. For example, in Aliceās Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll uses Wonderlandās dreamlike, nonsensical structure to explore the absurdities of Victorian society, as Alice navigates a world where the familiar rules of logic no longer apply.
Similarly, in Tolkienās Middle-earth, the geography, history, and cosmology of the world are carefully constructed to reflect a deep sense of myth and morality. Middle-earthās races, from the noble Elves to the humble Hobbits, embody different aspects of human nature, while the vastness of the world reflects the epic scope of the battle between good and evil. By inventing an entirely new world, Tolkien was able to express universal themes like heroism, sacrifice, and fellowship on a grand, archetypal scale.
Magical otherworlds also offer the freedom to explore alternative social orders and power structures. In Ursula K. Le Guinās Earthsea, for instance, the magical world is governed by a delicate balance between the forces of nature, magic, and knowledge. Le Guin uses the worldās unique magical system, rooted in the importance of true names and equilibrium, to explore themes of power, responsibility, and the interconnectedness of all things. These narrative frameworks enable authors to craft stories that question real-world assumptions about society, culture, and morality through the lens of fantasy.
Magical otherworlds often serve as metaphors for the internal journeys of their protagonists, reflecting the psychological or emotional states of the characters who enter them. In C.S. Lewisās The Chronicles of Narnia, the childrenās entrance into Narnia from the mundane world mirrors their transition from innocence to maturity. Narnia functions as a liminal space where they face trials that ultimately shape their moral and spiritual development. Aslan, the god-like lion, represents divine grace and the possibility of redemption, while the White Witch embodies the seductive but destructive nature of power and temptation.
Similarly, in Neil Gaimanās Coraline, the "Other World" reflects Coralineās desires and fears. On the surface, it appears to be an idealized version of her own reality, offering her the attention and excitement she craves. However, the world soon reveals its sinister undertones, with the Other Mother representing a perverse version of maternal loveāpossessive, controlling, and ultimately destructive. Gaiman uses the otherworld as a psychological battleground where Coraline must confront her fears and assert her autonomy.
These otherworlds function not just as physical spaces, but as symbolic reflections of the charactersā inner lives, allowing for a deeper exploration of themes related to identity, growth, and transformation.
Despite their versatility and thematic richness, magical otherworlds come with several narrative challenges that authors must navigate carefully.
One of the main criticisms of magical otherworlds is their potential to encourage escapism. Worlds like J.K. Rowlingās Wizarding World or J.R.R. Tolkienās Middle-earth are so immersive and detailed that they can draw readers into an extended fantasy, where real-world concerns are momentarily forgotten. While escapism in literature is not inherently negativeāreading offers a refuge from the pressures of daily lifeāexcessive reliance on escapist worlds may prevent readers from engaging with reality, particularly if the narrative glosses over real-world complexities in favor of idealized or overly simplistic solutions.
For example, some critics argue that The Chronicles of Narnia promotes a worldview that is overly black-and-white, where moral dilemmas are resolved through divine intervention or clear-cut battles between good and evil. This simplicity, while appealing, may limit readersā ability to grapple with the more nuanced and ambiguous moral challenges they face in real life. Escapism becomes a pitfall when the narrative fails to translate the lessons of the otherworld back into the context of reality.
While magical otherworlds offer authors great creative freedom, they also present the risk of overcomplication. In some cases, world-building can become so intricate that it overwhelms the narrative, distracting from the characters or themes. Extensive lore, convoluted magical systems, and excessive rules can lead to a loss of emotional resonance, as readers become more invested in understanding the mechanics of the world than in the story itself.
George R.R. Martinās A Song of Ice and Fire series is a case in point, where the sprawling geography, political intrigue, and history of Westeros, while richly detailed, occasionally overshadow the emotional journeys of the characters. When world-building becomes too dominant, it can detach readers from the human elements of the story, reducing the narrative to an intellectual exercise in deciphering the complexities of the otherworld.
Another pitfall is the risk of creating worlds that are so alien or fantastical that they lose their relatability. While authors like Tolkien or Le Guin succeed in grounding their otherworlds with familiar emotional and philosophical themes, some stories may veer too far into abstraction, leaving readers struggling to find emotional footholds. For example, highly surrealist otherworlds, such as the landscapes of Kafkaās The Trial or The Castle, can challenge readers to the point of frustration, as the bizarre environments may not provide enough narrative grounding to foster connection or understanding.
Magical otherworlds run the risk of becoming irrelevant to contemporary concerns if they fail to engage with real-world issues in meaningful ways. A well-constructed otherworld should, in some way, reflect or comment on the real world, even if its connection to reality is metaphorical or symbolic. If the world remains purely fantastical and self-contained, it may struggle to resonate with readers, who look to stories as a way to better understand or engage with their own experiences.
In contrast, successful otherworlds often act as mirrors to real-world issues. For example, Philip Pullmanās His Dark Materials series creates a fantastical multiverse while addressing philosophical and societal themes such as the conflict between science and religion, free will, and authoritarianism. Similarly, Gaimanās Neverwhere uses a magical underground London as a metaphor for homelessness and social invisibility, offering commentary on class inequality and the marginalization of the vulnerable. These stories succeed because they link their fantastical elements back to real-world concerns, offering readers both imaginative escapism and critical reflection.
Beyond their role as narrative devices, magical otherworlds have a broader societal impact, often serving as reflections of collective desires, fears, and cultural values. They can symbolize utopian dreams, societal critiques, or existential questions, providing readers with a lens through which to examine their own world from a different perspective.
Magical otherworlds often symbolize the desire for escape from societal constraints, offering readers a space to imagine alternate realities where the limitations of the real world no longer apply. In times of political turmoil, economic hardship, or social unrest, these worlds provide a refuge where different rules and possibilities exist. For instance, The Wizarding World in J.K. Rowlingās Harry Potter series offers a space where young readers can imagine themselves as empowered and significant, in contrast to the often alienating or disempowering experiences of adolescence in the real world.
The overwhelming popularity of fantasy worlds like Middle-earth, Narnia, and Westeros speaks to a collective yearning for places that offer clear moral structures, heroism, and adventureāelements that may feel lacking in contemporary society. These worlds tap into a shared cultural nostalgia for an idealized past or a more meaningful existence, where individual actions can directly influence the fate of the world.
Magical otherworlds also serve as tools for social critique, using the distance from reality to highlight injustices, power dynamics, or the dangers of unchecked authority. In dystopian fantasy worlds, like Margaret Atwoodās The Handmaidās Tale, the fantastical setting is not a space of escape but a warning about potential futures. Atwoodās world reflects anxieties about patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, and the erosion of womenās rights, providing readers with a critique of contemporary power structures through the lens of speculative fiction.
In a similar vein, Terry Pratchettās Discworld series frequently uses its absurd, comedic setting to lampoon political corruption, bureaucracy, and societal hypocrisy. By exaggerating real-world issues in a fantastical context, Pratchett forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths about their own society while still allowing them to laugh at its absurdities.
Magical otherworlds often symbolize the process of transformation and self-discovery, acting as metaphors for the internal growth of the characters who journey through them. In works like The Wizard of Oz, the magical land serves as a place where Dorothy confronts her own fears, discovers her inner strength, and ultimately realizes that the qualities she seeks were within her all along. The otherworld acts as a crucible for character development, where external adventures reflect internal struggles and growth.
In this sense, magical otherworlds are not just places of fantasy, but spaces of metamorphosis. Whether through physical journeys or spiritual quests, these worlds challenge protagonists to confront their deepest desires, fears, and ethical dilemmas, leading to personal revelation or transformation by the time they return to the real world.
Magical otherworlds in fiction offer a powerful means of exploring complex themes related to identity, morality, and society. They provide authors with narrative flexibility, allowing for psychological depth, symbolic richness, and alternative social structures that reflect on the real world. However, these worlds also come with potential pitfalls, including the risk of escapism, overcomplication, or detachment from real-world relevance.
As literary devices, magical otherworlds resonate deeply with societal desires and fears, offering both a refuge from reality and a critical lens through which to examine it. By carefully balancing imaginative freedom with thematic depth, authors can harness the power of otherworlds to create stories that are not only entertaining but also deeply meaningful. Whether serving as metaphors for personal growth or as allegories for social critique, magical otherworlds remain enduring and influential elements of fiction, reflecting the endless possibilities of human imagination.
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Thank you so much for these many recommendations, i will definitely read some of them. I finally ordered lord of the rings, always wanted to do it but I finally did it.
I would love a separate rec list of less new books and overall classics. If you have the time of course. I always have a hard time finding new books for myself or to gift to other people.
Sure! And I'm ecstatic to hear you bought lotr! Another one to be welcomed into my fold! This list is decidedly less organized, but here's a list of more classic/ older works I always recommend or gift to people.
Anything written by our beloved Neil Gaiman. He's most well known, especially in this sphere, for "Good Omens" cowritten by Terry Pratchett, and rightfully so. If you've never read anything by either author, it is absolutely worth the hype, and even if you've watched the tv show, it is so incredibly funny and wonderful. "American Gods" is also phenomenal and very well known from its tv show now, but my personal favorite of Gaiman's is "Anansi Boys." No one does urban fantasy like him, and his works will always be the gold standard for me for this genre.
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. There's 41 books in the series so it's a mighty undertaking, I myself haven't gotten through all of them yet, I think I have about ten books left. They are so wonderfully funny and philosophical and witty. I don't recommend reading the books in the order Pratchett wrote them, rather there are collections in the series you'll want to read in order. The Death collection and City Watch books are my favorites but there are many more than that you may like better.
"The Princess Bride" by William Goldman. This is one of my favorite books of all time and while the movie certainly gets the vibe, it's a whole different animal. It's just so incredibly funny and fun and smartly written, and I've given it to many family and friends for Christmas and birthday presents.
"The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch. This is commonly regarded as a fantasy genre must and I often vehemently disagree with what's considered a "classic" but I have to side with the powers that be in the lit community on this one. It's just damn well written and character driven in the exact kind of way I love in stories. If you start reading it and think "oh look morally gray thief characters doing a heist" just remember, Lynch published it in '06 and pretty much wrote the template for everyone who has copied him since.
Anything by Ursula Le Guin although I read the "Earthsea" series first and would recommend starting there as well. She just really is that bitch, it doesn't get better written or more observant of life than her. Outside of Tolkien I don't know if there's anyone I admire more as an author than Le Guin. Her prose are not only stunningly gorgeous, but line after line after line hits like a sucker punch to the side of the head for how she makes you see life and yourself in new ways. āOnly in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky.ā
The Redwall series by Brian Jacques! I love them so dearly, they're fun and beautifully written and full of adventuring that only forest animals with swords are capable of. I do recommend reading them in order, or at least the original "Redwall" before you dive into the rest of the series, but "Taggerung" is my favorite.
This is a more divisive rec nowadays but Kurt Vonnegut. If you read "Slaughterhouse Five" in school and hated it I don't blame you, it's not my favorite of his and not what I urge people to look to if they want to fall in love with him like I did when I was a teenager. My favorite Vonnegut is "Sirens of Titan" and "Breakfast of Champions." Do look at content warnings for "Sirens of Titan" and I've seen a lot of vitriolic reviews of the book in recent years by younger readers, but I absolutely think it's worth the read and the shining glorious example of what I mean when I say protagonists aren't meant to be liked or morally right.
And speaking of squicky divisive recs! May I tell you about our lord and savior of "oh god I don't know if I can get through this" Margaret Atwood? Most people know her for "Handmaid's Tale" but I first read "Oryx and Crake." Seriously, read the content warnings, but Atwood is known for writing the best of speculative sci-fi for a reason.
Anything by Octavia Butler. My intro to her was through "Bloodchild" which I highly recommend, and I think is the perfect introduction to her brand of unnerving brilliance. She is most well known for "Kindred" and rightfully so.
"Perfume" The Story of a Murderer" by Patrick Suskind. It's weird, by god it's weird, and it's one of my absolute favorite "classic lit" novels. In 18th century France a weird little freak of a guy with a super sense of smell winds up murdering a bunch of people to make perfume. It's fantastic and the quintessential, I will not morally justify this, but boy am I enjoying reading about this little creep.
"Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh. I also love "Filth" and "Porno" by him. I think Welsh is brilliant at characterization, especially when most of his characters are morally bankrupt and terrible. But what he does best is make you feel for these characters who have often put themselves in these terrible positions. They're just people, and life is shitty, and I don't think anyone writes that better than Welsh.
"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. O'Brien made a career of writing fictionalized recounts of his time in Vietnam. I love everything he's written, he is one of my favorite modern lit authors, but "The Things They Carried" is his best known work and what I first read of his. It's brilliant and beautiful and sad, and it was the first time I ever had to put a book down and read in chunks because it affected me so emotionally.
Cormac McCarthy, any and everything he has ever written. He's best known for "The Road" of course, and it's certainly worth the read but "Blood Meridian" is my absolute favorite of his. His stuff is brutal and wry and full of the dry irony that only the bleakness of reality offers, and by god is it well written.
And finally I'll leave you with a single nonfiction recommendation. I try to keep those minimal when I know that's not usually what people are looking for when they ask for reading recs. But since I'm giving a list of books I have often gifted, I can't NOT include this one. "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl. I read this at 18 and it had a profound impact on how I think and view life. Any time someone I love has gone through a difficult time I've bought them their own copy.āFor the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.ā
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The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin - 4.2/5
I can hardly describe how much of a pleasure this was to read this after spending almost 5 months going through the Hyperion and Endymion duologies. Simmons' is good at worldbuilding and crafting grand, multifaceted narratives, but his actual writing is vanilla as hell and such a slog to push through sometimes. Ursula K. Le Guin on the other hand writes such poetic and beautiful prose that every paragraph feels like a paint stroke. Reminds me more of the visceral Gibson except Le Guin is much softer with her abstractions.
Really really loved the world and concept of society that Le Guin has created here. Despite being intentionally soft on the actual sci fi elements, Winter is one of the most believable "alien" societies I've read about. I enjoyed the way in which Le Guin plops the reader right down in the middle of this world and lets it's culture and geography unfurl slowly as you read. It's another refreshing technique to see after all of Simmonsā boring frontloaded info dumps. The people of this planet are also hard not to love. Even when they are actively working against our protagonist(s), there is something equally perplexing and endearing about their behavior.
I think I enjoyed the first two thirds of this book a bit more than the last. Without giving away any spoilers, the pace shifts heavily near the end. It goes from an exciting story of shady political intrigue and societal exploration into a really long travel phase that takes up most of the last third, and then the ending is just kind of sad and abrupt, but also hopeful. I'm not complaining though, I loved the relationship between Estraven and Genly, and the whole thing was beautifully written. Ursula K. Le Guin could write about ice melting for 200 pages and it would read like a breeze. I feel like there's a lot of little nuances and reflections of real life that would benefit from multiple reads, so I'm definitely putting this in the "re-read asap" pile.
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Going to read the Burning Chrome collection of short stories by Gibson now before jumping into Contact by Carl Sagan, which I'm super excited for :)
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