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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB BOTM OCTOBER: THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT BY SA'S OWN GENERAL BATTUTA
 
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Crashbee
May 15, 2007

Stupid people are great at winning arguments, because they're too stupid to realize they've lost.
About two-thirds through and I'm not really following Baru's motivation. Why is she leading this rebellion again? I don't see how it helps liberate her homeland.

e: ...oh.

Crashbee fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Oct 23, 2015

* # ¿ Oct 20, 2015 01:29
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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:35
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Crashbee
May 15, 2007

Stupid people are great at winning arguments, because they're too stupid to realize they've lost.
I'll nominate A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James since it won the Man Booker prize this month. It's a Jamaican novel about the attempted assassination of Bob Marley.

* # ¿ Oct 28, 2015 01:41
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Crashbee
May 15, 2007

Stupid people are great at winning arguments, because they're too stupid to realize they've lost.

Darkrenown posted:

Yeah, I got a bit lost around that point and thought the rebel-leader part was the least interesting section of the book. I did suspect what she was up to, but since I wasn't sure I kept questioning her motivation. I did think her constant "I have everything planned out, oh wait a thing I didn't plan for is happening, oh well I solved it!" cycle got a bit grating towards the end too, but overall I liked the book and look forward to a sequel.

I was actually expecting it to turn out she'd been brainwashed into giving away the rebellion's plans without realising it, making her a traitor to herself.

* # ¿ Oct 28, 2015 11:21
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Crashbee
May 15, 2007

Stupid people are great at winning arguments, because they're too stupid to realize they've lost.

Esme posted:

I imagined Lyxaxu being pronounced as someone angrily starting to call you a liar and then sneezing in the middle of the word.

Also, while I get the criticism of tragic lesbian stories on a cultural level, I don't think it holds much water on an individual one. Especially this one, where the tragic outcome was character-driven, rather than an inevitable result of their sexuality (I know that's basically what you said).

E. Actually, I'm going to go on about that because I think it was quite well done. Even in an intensely homophobic society, Baru had the option to carve out a life for herself with Tain Hu. Things ended tragically because she steamrolled over her chances to be happy, or because she wouldn't have been happy with that life anyway, not because the chances weren't there. It worked for me because I never felt like tragedy was the only option for Baru, and her character was flawed in such a way that her story ending up tragic for her anyway made sense.

Also there's a sequel planned, and who knows what might happen there.

Wasn't the point of the ending the fact that she could only live with Tain if she accepted that her relationship would be used to blackmail and manipulate her for the rest of her life? Doesn't sound like much of an option to me.

Crashbee fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Oct 31, 2015

* # ¿ Oct 31, 2015 19:02
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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB BOTM OCTOBER: THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT BY SA'S OWN GENERAL BATTUTA