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Neuropath isn't bad because of the body horror. Neuropath is a bad book because Bakker loves his theory so much that everyone who gets to hear about it reacts very strongly. For four fiths of the thing. Only then did Bakker catch himself and has a neighbor tell the mc to shut up. I know that later revelations change that somehow. But not enough by far. This could have been a really great horror novel. But it was written as a thriller and in this it blows.
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Jan 22, 2016 23:33
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anilEhilated posted:Depends on what you mean by premises of modern science, I guess. I have a mere bachelor in psychology but if that taught me anything it's that we have absolutely no loving idea how the mind works and all our theories stop working at different points. Neurology and brain chemistry don't fully explain identity; similarly while you can manufacture and manipulate social constructs, you cannot effectively predict responses to them on an individual basis without knowing about the person's experience (which tends to be moderately difficult to impossible). I haven't finished Neuropath, but in the fantasy books a lot of the stuff Kellhus does seems implausible - particularly the way he convinces Achamian smells more of plot contrivance than actual manipulation, the buttons he's pushing working because the author wants them to. Kellhus is the living and breathing incarnation of the Argument from Neuropath. But in a typical fantasy book the Argument would be wrong. Consider the very first chapter: He starts by explaining how the hermit's world is filled with ghosts, demons, gods and magic, because he cannot grasp where his thoughts and feelings come from. Immediately afterwards he meets some of those ghosts and gets beaten up by sorcery. genericnick fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jan 25, 2016 |
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Jan 25, 2016 00:48
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Drogue Chronicle posted:Related, while I've only intermittently engaged with online forums on Bakker's work, I don't every recall seeing anyone speculate on how the Dunyain treat their own women. How do hyper-rational products of a thousands of years eugenics campaign treat the (still?) weaker sex? Most of me thinks they'd consider them inferiors specialized for breeding, as that would be most consistent with everything else Bakker writes about women in this world, but maybe I'm wrong, I can imagine a plausible case for going more towards equal partners in the search for truth and development of better descendants. Since there is a lot of Dune in Bakker's stuff Axlotl tanks have been brought up. I don't think that will be it though. We really know very little about Ishual. We only had a few glimpses in the first book and I don't believe anything said about it by Kellhus.
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Feb 23, 2016 11:35
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Wxhode posted:Is there a good summary of the last two books somewhere? I remember very little of the Esmenet stuff and almost nothing of the ordeal. The book itself supposedly contains a lengthy "what came before" section.
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Jun 16, 2016 09:24
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I know nothing about Neuroscience but I hated the book. (Love his fantasy novels though)
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Jun 30, 2016 13:18
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Abalieno posted:Uhm, the difference between scientists and philosophers is that scientists only talk to other scientists, whereas philosophers talk to all of US. That's certainly not what Bakker thinks. That philosophers should strive to write books that people actually read is one of his main refrains in interviews.
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Jul 8, 2016 11:56
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Let me just state that I hate Amazon with the intensity of a thousand suns. All those black bars....
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Jul 27, 2016 11:13
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Pretty sure it breaks because of No-God related shenanigans, we've been hearing for books now how that bluescreens the Gods. Possible. There is also a mention of the four horned brother or whatever it was called seeing what the other gods don't see. And little Kel is connected to it since the very first scene he appears in. I don't remember too clearly but in the stories about people beseeching the Ankokji(sp?) they always get the most catastrophic outcome.
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Aug 10, 2016 11:00
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Ajokli. It's weird that he's the one who appears to claim Celmomas' soul, not Gilgaol. Didn't catch that. Some Seswatha dream? Is there any indication that reincarnation is a thing in the setting?
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Aug 10, 2016 15:31
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Akka dreams the Celmomian prophecy from Celmomas' perspective - a god appears and shows him Kellhus. Celmomas identifies him as Gilgaol, but "A crown gleamed above his brow, four golden horns, clutched in the arms of four nubile virgins - the Spoils" The description sounds very specific for it to be a case of mistaken identity. Still something to keep in mind. Just like Onkis being a head on a pole. Thinking about reincarnation: We have several instances in the text that seem to be hard to reconcile with the concept. We have Akka's explanation of soul trapping wich makes the soul seem divisible and we have people litterally go to hell.
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Aug 10, 2016 17:20
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Honestly I have no idea. She might be more important than the others:"the boatsman" posted:
Did the Nonmen break the God?
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Aug 12, 2016 21:00
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Wasn't there something in the TTT appendix? One of the Nonman heroes wrestling the named dragon? Turns out that was meant literally.
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Nov 2, 2016 01:07
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One more for chortles
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Dec 7, 2016 00:28
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Corvinus posted:Hell genuinely exists, collective belief is able to shape reality and gods (to limited degrees). I'm pretty sure the last part is wrong. Believe doesn't change reality.
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Jan 20, 2017 13:26
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Let's be honest. They exist in Bakkerverse because they were in Dune. Edit: Beaten. genericnick fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jan 21, 2017 |
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Jan 21, 2017 16:37
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Sephyr posted:Kellhus is stupefied by blades of grass after first leaving his fastness, but not by regular, non-broodmare women. His daughters are not half-broodmare, or even close. There was the question of why a lot of his kids were monsters.
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Jan 24, 2017 01:01
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I remember it being clearly implied that at some point he himself sees the halos. Also Serwe sees them on the skinspy.
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Jun 17, 2017 02:10
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I think the boatman's song is the only connection to a time when the nonmen still were mortal coming up in the text itself. There might have been something in the TTT Apendix.
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Jun 20, 2017 05:00
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Cardiac posted:Going through GO again at the moment and I still haven't figured out the head on a pole? Since physically swapping heads is something he can do it might just have been his own head? Edit: Concerning the ending I think the split was a terrible decision. Also the lack of Kellhus POV made the buildup to the ending a bit unpredictable. His possession got worse the closer he came to the Ark according to Bakker AMA, but we had really no way of knowing that since normal Kel was already undecipherable. Also doesn't explain why he went back. Becoming the god of hate makes him miss Esmi??? Also interesting that Anko couldn't find him after his death. Is his soul hidden in the second head he carries? Or is there any connection to the second instant we have of missing souls, the Nonman Erratic that gets killed by the Ciphrang? genericnick fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Aug 7, 2017 |
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Aug 7, 2017 09:48
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Cardiac posted:Everything of the end of TUC is heavily hinted on in TGO. But at least to me, very little of it was obvious until after TUC. Doesn't. He gets replaced by the WLW.
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Aug 10, 2017 08:04
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kcroy posted:
It is heavily implied that the Dunyani are actually Shae. They talk in sequence just like the wretches. And apparently get possessed easily.
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Aug 17, 2017 11:09
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Number Ten Cocks posted:Short for the name of the reputedly dead Consult human sorcerer guy. It's not true, though, he changed bodies mid sentence and it's totally implausible he beat five Dunyain rather than five Dunyain used their super intelligence to mimic his body switching talking in order to influence the other Consult by making it seem like they're him, but better. Counterpoint: The Dunyani are actually chumps. Moe cuts out his eyes to get skills he sucks at, big Kel gets meat puppeted by a demon god and little Kel personally ruins his fondest dreams and ends in the Box. . Then there is the survivor who just selfdestructs.
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Aug 18, 2017 09:50
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I mean it starts right in the prologue where Kel gets his rear end handed to him by magic after declaring confidently zhat there is no such thing and doesn't really stop until big Moe gets stabbed by his son because he was confodent that he knew how caisality works.
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Aug 18, 2017 10:03
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Sephyr posted:Skin-spies only appeared in the last 20 years and seem more complex than doglike humanoids with Nonmen faces, so obviously the Inchoroi can still use their Tekne to creat new stuff. It'd be a workable solution, yes, but as it stands it's just fanwank, Nah, Skinspies are several hundred years old. They were the reason the Mandate were groping in the dark. But Skinspies were the only piece of bio engineering done since Sil died, as far as we know.
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Oct 2, 2017 09:29
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Pleiades posted:
Don't think that is how it works. The last two books really show what a good editor can do for you. Mostly the cannibalism goes on for far too long. The idea that he split the book so he could put more of that in there is mind-boggling.
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Apr 21, 2018 03:22
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wellwhoopdedooo posted:That is, in fact, how it works. Radiation knocks neutrons and protons out of the neucleus, and formerly stable atoms become radioactive as they decay further. It’s why water that was used to cool reactors isn’t safe to dump into rivers. I'm pretty sure the dosis you get from being downwind when the nuke goes off is quite a bit more intense then what you'd find in the human body after a few days. Also most of the activation of other material is caused by neutrons and I doubt you really have to worry about that much if the target is still walking. Edit: What I'm saying is that eating radiation Lepers is mostly a long term health risk. genericnick fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Apr 21, 2018 |
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Apr 21, 2018 05:05
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I feel he missed a lot of plot beats in the last two books. The whole cannibalism thing starting with eating Sranc didn't really go anywhere much. Or rather it went everywhere but never arrived.
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Apr 21, 2018 06:27
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:even if you wrote the best book in the world it would automatically, retroactively become very Bad as soon as Jordan Peterson wrote a gushing intro for a re-release What???
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Jan 6, 2019 15:02
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Sure, I'd read it at some point. Though hopefully he gets an editor who hates his guts. The last two entries really needed a work over. And be only one.
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Apr 28, 2020 16:09
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