IntenseDebate - ZeynepD

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Lords and ... · 0 replies · +3 points

I think you've caught the melancholy in that idea perfectly.

(That by itself isn't a spoiler, I shouldn't think.)

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Lords and ... · 1 reply · +14 points

Auditors, ice giants, and eldritch wossnames are omnihomicidal and must be stopped, but they’re still not “bad.” Why elves? I guess because they’re uniformly sadistic, with enough intelligence to be self-aware and free willed, and thus held responsible for their actions.

That, and that, and they treat people as things. Playthings, but ultimately, things.

What's the greatest sin---maybe the only sin---in Granny Weatherwax's book?

What did Om learn not to do with respect to his believers (and also taught the other gods not to do, by means of some arm-twisting), in Small Gods?

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads \'Lords and... · 0 replies · +8 points

So, so very useful site, although it's very off-topic:
http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html

Though it accepts common trade names in the US, you can also search with the active ingredient/generic name of pretty much everything, and can also look for interactions with food and alcohol too.

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Lords and ... · 0 replies · +7 points

I maybe wouldn't go so far as to call them assholes, but they are powerful, and know their power, and not necessarily good for the sake of being good (with a few, late exceptions), and can be arrogant. Oh my Eru can they ever be arrogant.

(See also: Fëanor. And sons.)

I had always found it significant that Galadriel's response to Frodo offering her the Ring was to perceive it as a test ("I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel."), because it implied to me that she found it possible, within herself, that she could have "failed" and gone the other way. Later, when I read the Silmarillion, I realized that she had been much more warlike in earlier days, and only later had turned all of her steel will into opposing Morgoth and later, Sauron.

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Lords and ... · 0 replies · +2 points

Good observation, and it makes sense narratively. Granny and Nanny can be shown overcoming new obstacles, but character arcs... at their time of life, well. (And Granny probably can't be having with them anyway.) So if you're going to write a character arc---and if you write a good novel, you should write a character arc---it'll be Magrat's.

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +7 points

OK, BRB having nightmares about that Simonetti cover forever.

The alternate US cover is the hardcover I have, and I like it quite a bit---I used to use the turtle as an icon on LJ, with the notation "De chelonian mobile." (Guess?) I think my favorite in this batch is the Adult UK Cover, with the Woodcut cover coming a close second.

Kirby, could you spoil anything else? You've got this one corner empty there?!

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +5 points

Oh, Mark:

V qba’g guvax ur’f na ngurvfg ol nal zrnaf; oryvrs cynlf gbb urnivyl vagb uvf obql bs jbex.

And now I really can't wait for a number of future books. Ubtsngure, Srrg bs Pynl in particular. I mean, look, seriously (book destroying spoilers for one of the Watch books):

...naq abj gur tbyrz jnf nzbat gur havirefr. Vg pbhyq srry vg nyy nebhaq, gur chee bs vg, gur ohflarff, gur fcvaavat pbzcyrkvgl bs vg, gur ebne...

Gurer jrer ab Jbeqf orgjrra lbh naq vg.

Lbh orybatrq gb Vg, Vg orybatrq gb Lbh.

Lbh pbhyqa'g ghea lbhe onpx ba Vg orpnhfr gurer Vg jnf, va sebag bs lbh.

Qbesy jnf erfcbafvoyr sbe rirel gvpx naq fjreir bs vg.

[...] Abg Gubh Funyg Abg. Fnl V Jvyy Abg.

Bs pbhefr Znex vf evtug gung oryvrs vf n znwbe, znwbe gurzr va Qvfpjbeyq. Ohg gurer'f n qvfgvapgvba orgjrra "oryvrs znxrf guvatf erny"---gung'f gur Qvfpjbeyq gurfvf---naq "V oryvrir va [vafreg guvat urer], zrnavat V guvax vg'f erny." Qvqnpglybf' cbvag nobhg gurer orvat ab cbvag va crbcyr oryvrivat va gur Terng Ghegyr be abg cynlf qverpgyl vagb gung, gbb. Ubtsngure va cnegvphyne vf tbvat gb fpernz nobhg gur sbezre. Srrg bs Pynl ynlf gur "Cengpurgg: uhznavfg be abg?" dhrfgvba gb erfg, naq gura znxrf n tbyrz jnyx onpx naq sbegu npebff gur qvfgheorq rnegu gb fgbzc vg shyyl qbja sbe tbbq zrnfher.

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +6 points

Yes, this. I'm not entirely sure that it was the Ephebians' stoning that killed Brother Murduck, let's say.

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +6 points

Yes, (almost) all of this.

Small Gods is a turning points of sorts, and exactly because of what you said (and you put it excellently, so I'm going to quote it again):

"It is one of those books where you sometimes struggle for things to say about the story -- because the text already says so much. "

Yup. That's exactly how I feel about this book, and I had struggled to put that to words before. Maybe the closest I came to was when I mentioned that about certain themes brought to the fore in Reaper Man, some things weren't in the subtext or appearing as satirized mirror-images any more, but incorporated into the tale right there in the open ("We must care. For if we don't care, we don't exist."). In this book, that happens every three pages at the least.

8 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +4 points

That applies to me too, but I don't view that as a problem since there was approximately negative percent chance that I wouldn't reread and re-reread Small Gods.

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