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Did we ever figure out the head on a pole?
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Nov 29, 2017 03:20
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vortmax posted:Did we ever figure out the head on a pole? No? Best idea is something about Ajoklis and a reference to the Decapitated.
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Nov 29, 2017 06:36
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Everything related to the gods in this series is bad. They're really boring and dumb, and the more important they become to the story the less good it becomes.
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Nov 29, 2017 06:49
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I feel like this series could have been great if he'd sat in all three books for a decade and edited the hell out of them before releasing them in one go, as he clearly did with the first trilogy. Instead, yeah, it's a mess. It was at no point clear to me that Kellhus was possessed and not just his usual insane self. Again, I just really hate the way series' are handled in this day and age and wish more authors ripped off Tolkiens workflow rather than his world.
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Nov 29, 2017 06:55
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Rime posted:It was at no point clear to me that Kellhus was possessed and not just his usual insane self. I'm getting the feeling Bakker wanted this to sound like him being possessed by great spirit / passion, and not literally controlled by something else. As in, the possessor was an aide, not a master.
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Nov 29, 2017 08:01
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vortmax posted:Did we ever figure out the head on a pole? I think it was Bakker's way of saying 'bicameral mind'.
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Dec 3, 2017 21:44
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Someone specifically asked Bakker about the concept of a bicameral mind, but in reference to Kelmomas/Samarmas, and IIRC the response was lukewarm. I don't think he really said yay or nay. The head on a pole was literally an image that came to Bakker while he was writing in a cafe or something and he wrote it in some stream-of-consciousness moment. Also referenced in several of his AMAs.
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Dec 4, 2017 00:55
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Finally finished it, then I realized I'd skipped a chapter without even noticing.  I really liked some moments, even most of them, but to me it completely failed to come together as an overall story.
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Dec 7, 2017 05:13
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Libluini posted:I'm getting the feeling Bakker wanted this to sound like him being possessed by great spirit / passion, and not literally controlled by something else. As in, the possessor was an aide, not a master. Nah, in one of his recent post-release threads somewhere he was clear that Kellhus was full-bore possessed and had been for some time. But that's something that the narrative should have carried, and evidently did not.
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Dec 7, 2017 06:18
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Well, it would certainly explain a lot.
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Dec 7, 2017 17:17
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Inchoros cosplayer:
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Jan 5, 2018 14:55
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No wings, would not bang.
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Jan 5, 2018 15:05
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Kuiperdolin posted:No wings, would not bang. No face inside face, would not accept blowjob.
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Jan 5, 2018 15:47
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Only just got up to this bit in Thousandfold Thought, but how is the title of this thread NOT “In a way, he no longer shat either”?
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Jan 17, 2018 22:01
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About half way through The Great Ordeal and minded to give up. The nonman mansion sections are nonsensical. Have enjoyed bit of this series now just want it to be over which is never a good sign. Worth persevering?
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Jan 18, 2018 14:32
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Zalakwe posted:About half way through The Great Ordeal and minded to give up. The nonman mansion sections are nonsensical. Have enjoyed bit of this series now just want it to be over which is never a good sign. The climax of TGO is one of the high points of the series. The climax of TUC.... Less so.
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Jan 18, 2018 15:05
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Zalakwe posted:About half way through The Great Ordeal and minded to give up. The nonman mansion sections are nonsensical. Have enjoyed bit of this series now just want it to be over which is never a good sign. The non man part is basically LotR Moria, which I guess you figured. Strom Cuzewon posted:The climax of TGO is one of the high points of the series. Nah, the ending of TUC is still good, just slightly underwhelming given the scope of the series.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:02
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Cardiac posted:The non man part is basically LotR Moria, which I guess you figured.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:04
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Ishteribinth was interesting. We've heard through the series how the Non-men have struggled with the weight of immortality on their sanity and now get to see the full horror of that. That whole sequence is some lovecraftian poo poo. Better than almost all of TuC, honestly.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:09
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Rime posted:Ishteribinth was interesting. We've heard through the series how the Non-men have struggled with the weight of immortality on their sanity and now get to see the full horror of that. That whole sequence is some lovecraftian poo poo. True, to be fair I start to mix up which part is in which book.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:14
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Rime posted:Ishteribinth was interesting. We've heard through the series how the Non-men have struggled with the weight of immortality on their sanity and now get to see the full horror of that. That whole sequence is some lovecraftian poo poo.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:15
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How can it be the best part when it contains neither Saubon nor Proyas?
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Jan 18, 2018 17:00
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Perhaps the best part is that which contains nothing at all.
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Jan 18, 2018 21:44
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The prose down in Ishterebinth is like the raving of an ancient race whose immortality was gifted to them by a plague that tragically killed all their editors
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Jan 18, 2018 22:56
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I think I'm going to forge on because ffs I'm nearly there, but the prose down in Ishterebinth is actually just bad and despite the time investment and some decent set pieces I've lost whatever thread of meaning these books were trying to convey. There I said it. Hopefully someone punches a dragon or something.
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Jan 18, 2018 23:37
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General Battuta posted:The prose down in Ishterebinth is like the raving of an ancient race whose immortality was gifted to them by a plague that tragically killed all their editors I forget the details but isn’t it confirmed that the last two books didn’t receive any meaningful editing at all? Like the publisher completely dropped the ball or something. At the very least, they both had a lot of typos.
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Jan 19, 2018 00:43
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IIRC, TGO was delayed for years as it sat in the publishers desk, only partially edited, and then pushed out the door. With how speedily TuC came out afterwards, I doubt it had any editing at all. Given the content, I wouldn't be surprised if the "confusion as to who owns the rights" was more a "we paid out an advance but we can't publish this poo poo..." until fans started a letter campaign...
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Jan 19, 2018 02:38
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General Battuta posted:The prose down in Ishterebinth is like the raving of an ancient race whose immortality was gifted to them by a plague that tragically killed all their editors This is why you're a writer and I'm not.
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Jan 19, 2018 02:43
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Rime posted:IIRC, TGO was delayed for years as it sat in the publishers desk, only partially edited, and then pushed out the door. With how speedily TuC came out afterwards, I doubt it had any editing at all. On the other hand, I’d rather have an ending with sloppy editing than no ending at all due to laziness or death of author. In contrast to GoT/WoT this was actually finished in a somewhat timely manner and without having 2-4 books with mission creep and no plot advancement. Also writing and imagination above the (admittedly low) standard of the fantasy field. As to “we can’t publish this poo poo” I wonder whether the publisher know the ending when the series was sold? The crazy things was already present in the first series so that couldn’t have been a surprise.
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Jan 20, 2018 09:13
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Cardiac posted:On the other hand, I’d rather have an ending with sloppy editing than no ending at all due to laziness or death of author. In contrast to GoT/WoT this was actually finished in a somewhat timely manner and without having 2-4 books with mission creep and no plot advancement. Also writing and imagination above the (admittedly low) standard of the fantasy field. Reflecting since finishing it about a month after release: I found it thematically perfect, but the execution awful, with the root problem being that it didn’t describe the world at all once the no-god awakened. Every other flaw could have been forgiven, with an ending that made the slog of dick-eating slogs we just went through have even a modicum of meaning. Another 20 pages could have saved the second series. Like, give us some sort of come-down. If you can’t figure out a way to achieve the feeling of being cheated and surprised that, after all this, that you’re looking for without leaving 20 dangling plot threads, hey that’s like by definition bad writing. “uh I can’t make you sympathize with this character who is murdered without murdering you.” As it is, as much as I loved most of it, as much as his exploration of what happens when the wires of sex and violence are truly crossed, as much as “A Dime Saved” made the entire thing almost make sense (Bakker really should have worked the explicitness of that short story into the series, it makes so many characters make more sense), I’m not buying another book until the final set of books is out, and people at least say that it felt like a finished story. I’ll defend the intention of trying to make readers feel that way to the death, but if I could reduce the purpose of art to a single, easy definition, it would definitely be “Stimulating thoughts (feelings being a subset of thoughts) through alternate means.” By that definition, the books are still art, he didn’t end the actual world to make us feel the robbery, but it’s riding the loving line in the same way and to basically the same degree, and sucked for the same reasons, that Punk’d was a lovely prank show.
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Jan 20, 2018 10:52
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A Dime Saved?
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Jan 20, 2018 11:35
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Strom Cuzewon posted:A Dime Saved? Got the name wrong: https://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/the-dime-spared/
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Jan 20, 2018 15:49
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Zalakwe posted:About half way through The Great Ordeal and minded to give up. The nonman mansion sections are nonsensical. Have enjoyed bit of this series now just want it to be over which is never a good sign. TGO? Absolutely! I personally loved Ishteribinth. TUC...well, that depends. I quit when a certain someone was "hung out to dry" and then the TV tropes spoilers did nothing to convince me to continue. In fact, if I did, I'm pretty sure I would burst into flames. I know about the ending and I LOVED IT! But, that's just me. Pleiades fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Jan 21, 2018 |
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Jan 21, 2018 02:40
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Lol he's actually self satisfied enough to preface his short story with "...at the very least, I think it does a good job of unseating some fairly standard human conceits"
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Jan 21, 2018 02:53
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Lol he's actually self satisfied enough to preface his short story with "...at the very least, I think it does a good job of unseating some fairly standard human conceits" Conceits like "don't write stories about raping and eating a radioactive leper"?
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Jan 21, 2018 09:25
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For an author as full of himself as he seems to be, Bakker’s command of language lets him down in some weird ways. He keeps using “trod” like it’s in present tense throughout the entire thing, at least once per volume, he continuously uses the word “guttural” in a way which makes me question if he has ever seen it defined, and at some point in TGO there’s a “you hath” which it’s like, come the gently caress on, how do you write fantasy books and not know your basic archaisms.
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Jan 26, 2018 03:20
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There's also more than one flaccid phallus, which makes me giggle everytime.
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Jan 26, 2018 04:10
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Kuiperdolin posted:There's also more than one flaccid phallus, which makes me giggle everytime. Dude really loves his phalluses
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Jan 26, 2018 04:44
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I sure love my phallus.
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Jan 26, 2018 04:46
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Nothing wrong with loving your phallus, as long as you don’t call it your little brother
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Jan 26, 2018 05:06
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