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christians-united-by-love · 26 days

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Hello! My name is Dakota, and I am many things. I'm Autistic, an avid fan of Warrior Cats, Pokémon, FNAF, TMNT, etc, a cat parent, a college student, genderqueer, arospec, pan, poly, and a partner to two amazing people! I'm also a Christian! I was born and raised under the Catholic faith, even baptized. I don't follow any specific branch of Christianity, and focus more on my relationship to my lord and savior Jesus Christ!

I want to find more people who can relate. I often feel torn between my sexuality/gender and my faith. I constantly see and hear things about how being queer is a sin, or that God hates people like us for simply being ourselves. I see and hear people claim you cannot be a Christian and also LGBTQ+. On the flip side, I've had people not believe when I say I'm queer and especially non-binary because I'm Christian, as if I can't love Jesus and believe in him while also expressing how I feel inside in terms of gender identity. It makes me feel like maybe Jesus doesn't love or want me, and doesn't find me pure enough to ever enter the holy kingdom of Heaven, being able to meet Him, God, and my deceased loved ones who are now angels.

However, I have learned that Jesus and God loves all of us. Jesus died for human sins, so that we are forgiven and our souls are saved, regardless of sin and imperfections. All He asks is that we believe in Him, worship Him, and try to follow His word- Love. I try my best to live my life with love in my heart and kindness in my actions, to speak the language of Christ and to love thy neighbor. While I am far from perfect, that's okay! He does not ask for perfection, He asks for our faith, our commitment, our repentance, our morality, our good intentions, our just actions, and to spread the universal language of love and kindness, aka the language of Christ that anyone from all walks of life deserves. If we try and we believe, and have good, moral intentions to do good and do right by our fellow humans, that is enough for Him to wrap you with His embrace of warmth and light. LGBT people are not an exception to this. We are made in His image! And we are beautiful, wonderful, perfectly imperfect, children of God. Jesus's saved. Whole and beloved.

This blog is meant to be a Christian oriented space, however, people from all religions are more than welcome to interact with posts or DM to say hello! All I ask is that respect and kindness are maintained, and that hateful comments or arguments aren't made- this includes homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, ableism, sanism, fatphobia, islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Christian sentiment, etc.

I will not be putting "Tw: Christianity/Religion" tags on this blog, purely because 99% of the posts will be somehow related to it. It kinda comes with the territory of being a faith-based blog to begin with. Consider this the official TW for the entire blog. Please block or don't follow if this topic is particularly triggering or activating for you! I want you to feel comfortable, and your mental health comes first! No one should have religion forced onto them- it is something that people will be called to and go to if/once they are ready!

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Other Mod Notes:

-Please use xe/they/she pronouns for me!

-Please use tone tags when addressing me directly! Here is a guide to them!

#christians united by love #christian #christianity #christian positivity #inclusive christianity #lgbt christian #religion #theology #kindness #kindness matters #kindness is the language of God #Jesus loves us all #God loves us all #faith #Jesus #God #introduction #i'm not ashamed #Jesus lover

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shutupineedtothink · 7 months

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I’m still s h o o k that people do not see exactly what’s going on with Moiraine throughout s2 and people are dragging her and dismissing her without an ounce of empathy for what she’s been through, so I’m bringing the full character analysis for y’all (and my own sanity). So this is a big ol in defense of Moiraine (and Lan) rant, so if that’s not your thing, scroll down now. Here we go.

I just… The AUDACITY some people have to look at Moiraine and be angry and pissed off at how she acts in S2. To not feel any sympathy and empathy for her and the monumental weight she’s under every goddamn day. There’s a reason we start with that bath scene in 2x01 – it shows you everything. How she’s just going through the motions. How she only lets herself cry when she’s alone in the water. How she literally curls into the fetal position and looks reproachfully devastated over her knees as she hugs them to her chest in a futile attempt at comfort. Not to mention the direct comparison/callback with the bath scene in 1x01, where she has both her power and Lan still, and now she’s lost her connection to both of them.

How is it not painfully obvious that every interaction she has after that bath scene is infused with a trauma response? Let’s tally up the devastation she’s been through. At the end of S1, she was 1. banished from the sisterhood of the white tower (they literally turned their backs on her), 2. was separated AGAIN from the love of her life fully expecting to never see her again, 3. was cut off from the other love of her life (that would be Lan, for the record) which is all the worse bc it’s her own fault for masking the bond, 4. was fully made to believe she’s been stilled from the one power aka an integral part of her being, AND 5. she’s “failed” her mission at the eye of the world – the one goal she’s had for the last 20 years, her life’s purpose – because instead of locking away the dark one she’s directly caused Rand to set Ishamael free.

You don’t think it's justified to be a little pissed off and standoffish after all of that? You don’t think the weight of that guilt, grief, pain, and loss is a reasonable cause to be distant, cold, harsh, having a little bit of a death wish? That’s TRAUMA, baby! She is absolutely wrecked, and it’s coming out in the worst way in her interactions with others (especially Lan because we’ve seen how they should be), but it’s absolutely not because she actively wants to hurt the people around her. In fact after almost every moment she lashes out at someone, we see an equally sad/grief-stricken/devastated moment from her and THAT’S the real emotion hiding underneath the anger. This woman needs therapy and understanding and patience, and does not deserve to be judged at the worst time of her life.

Ok fine, you say, but Lan IS patient and understanding with her! And she’s still an asshole to him! You’re right, Lan is absolutely trying his best and doing just about everything he can to be there for her in 2x01/2x02 (with a little help from Verin and Tomas). But 1. It’s STILL not about him, Moiraine is not obligated to respond in a certain way to her grief and pain that makes him feel better, and 2. This is Moiraine goddamn Damodred and even her trauma response is also a front to protect him, to push him away from her and what is now certainly a suicide mission to fight the dark without her powers.

This is SOOO important to really get Moiraine’s character — y’all gotta understand this: Moiraine truly loves only TWO people on the whole fucking planet: Siuan and Lan. They are also the only people who truly love her, unconditionally, with all of her flaws and imperfections. Please please ingrain that into your brain, especially for Lan, in this context. (Siuan is a whole other conversation I won’t get into at the moment.) Moiraine loves Lan, he loves her, deeply. That’s the foundation of everything they go through with each other in this season, despite what’s happening on the surface.

Once you accept that as fundamental truth, everything makes a whole lot more sense. She is a dick to him to push him away. Literally tells him he failed her to put the final nail in the coffin of driving him away, which is his worst nightmare. On the surface it seems egotistic at best, plain cruel at worst. But look underneath. Moiraine always has reasons 2, 3, 6 layers deep for everything she does.

With everyone else she’s mean to this season, namely her sister and her nephew, it’s born out of distrust (and the aforementioned trauma response). She can’t afford to trust anyone because anyone could be a dark friend. (And if they’re not a dark friend, then they become a liability and endangered.) Anything she lets slip could be used to hurt/control Rand and push them all one step closer to eternal darkness. Oh and when we see Barthanes’ true nature that turns out to be fucking justified, by the way. But I digress.

Right so why is she an asshole to Lan then? Because she doesn’t trust him? I don’t believe that for a second. These two have been on the same page, literally sharing the same headspace, for the last 20 years – she knows he’s the best person she’s ever met, the least likely to ever turn to the dark, ever. It’s an actual impossibility. So it’s not that she doesn’t trust him. She literally marvels at how courageous he must be to fight the dark with only a sword.

The true reason is: she does trust him, she does love him, and she KNOWS him. She knows that he will never leave her like this, in her darkest hour. He is both honor-bound to her (which he takes very seriously) and deeply cares for her. The problem is that now his life is in serious danger by staying with her. But there is no calmly explaining to him that he should return to the white tower for his own good and bond to another aes sedai who can actually channel, who can actually hold up her end of the partnership and protect him and heal him in return for his loyalty and sacrifice. Or better yet, find Nynaeve, who is not only ridiculously powerful and has probably the best chance of protecting him out of anyone, but who also loves him.

If Moiraine loves him and wants him safe, the ONLY option she has to protect him, the one good thing left in her life even if their bond is masked, is to drive him away. To make it so that he’ll stay far away from her of his own free will, and never come after her and her suicide mission to defeat the dark. Because she has already lost everything, she has no control over her fate anymore (if she ever had any to begin with), but the ONE thing she can still try to do is keep him safe. And hopefully, maybe he’ll be happy, one day. Her reasoning is directly confirmed for us in the last thing she says to him in 2x02 before she leaves: “Light protect you, al’Lan Mandragoran.” That was her goal all along, to protect him.

That’s the true reason she’s Like That to him. It’s all out of her love for him, and a desperate desire not to drag him down with her when she’s sure she’s destined to die on this mission. Is her strategy misguided? On the one hand yes, because she does need people to help her and she needs to trust someone, as he points out. On the other hand, she’s absolutely fucking right because look what happened with the Fade fight at the end of 2x01. Both her and Lan would have died without Verin and Tomas, and it would have been because she couldn’t channel. He is factually, logically, physically better off without her as long as she’s “stilled.”

This is why it makes sense how Lan eventually responds the way he does. He initially sees right through what she’s trying to do, he literally says he won’t let her push him away. He knows her too, better than anyone, including Siuan at this point. But he isn’t expecting her to go as far as she does, and it shakes him to his core. She tells him he failed her, has his worst fears confirmed, and then hears the words “we were never equals” and hears that she thinks she’s better than him, when she means the exact opposite. Tomas tells him to really listen but he can’t, in that moment.

But then he gets some distance, and some perspective thanks to Ihvon and Maksim, and he remembers: he loves her. He believes in her and he knows her and he knows what she’s doing to push him away (although maybe not why, when it comes to protecting him, because he doesn’t see himself as someone who needs protecting). Even better, he realizes that her situation is actually not what she thinks, that she’s shielded not stilled, and he can do something about that.

I LOVE Lan in 2x07 because he’s got Moiraine’s number now, and he will not be swayed by any further attempts (rather weak attempts at this point) to lash out at him. He just takes all the shit she throws at him, and calmly asks her what he needs to know and tells her what she needs to hear (“hopefully everything we’ve lost” and “that’s what I thought” and “you need to trust someone, Moiraine”), and is truthful with her even if she is still putting on this act with him in her fear and grief. He isn’t having any of it, he sees straight through it to the fear and pain underneath. And he literally DECIDES they are going to be okay, and then he fucking. Follows. Through.

He is not a doormat to her rage, he is not her servant, he’s not going back to her with his tail between his legs. He SHOWS UP for her in her darkest hour, when NO ONE, not even Siuan, can see what’s going on with her. That’s a true friend, a true hero, and absolute king behavior.

In conclusion, Moiraine’s behavior in s2, while not cute, is totally justified given the trauma, circumstances and everything she’s dealing with (jfc the lack of sleep alone) and makes sense in light of her ultimate goal to protect the world, which includes protecting Lan. And Lan’s response, once he figures out what to do, is the absolute correct way to handle the situation and is not weakness at all but strength in the highest order.

I’m so glad we got the payoff of all that with their conversation in 2x08 and reconnecting the bond. It was so beautiful, so earned, and reminded us of the level they’re on with each other — which is a soul connection way beyond what any of us can imagine.

#well this kind of turned into a ‘why I love Moiraine and Lan so much’ post #I could literally analyze every conversation they had in this season for days #it’s so layered and so well done #not to mention the body language/facial expressions #like if you think Moiraine is just being a bitch this season you are’t paying attention #like at all #but seriously it’s the lack of empathy that kills me the most #do you people see what she’s been through???#make this a learning opportunity bc god forbid something traumatic happens to anyone you love #and your response is to dismiss them if they react in a way that’s not ideal for you #Lan is teaching us all how to show up for the people we love #and I love him for that #wheel of time #the wheel of time #moiraine damodred #lan mandragoran #wot #wot on prime #moiraine and Lan #wot season 2 #wot s2

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katabay · 5 months

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The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights, edited with an introduction and notes by Paulo Lemos Horta, translated by Yasmine Seale

#book club tag #you have no idea how fucking hyped i am about this english translation oh my god #also. ngl. if you were excited about emily wilson's translation of the iliad/odyssey. maybe. spread that hype with yasmine seale's #arabian nights. perhaps. it is DEEPLY important from a cultural-language translation aspect esp wrt to the racist and orientalist #translation choices of earlier translations. also if you've never read any of the actual arabian nights tales. consider. reading them #....i might make a side blog just for this kind of thing. a book club side blog. i just got really excited abt this translation and wanted #to share it with all of you!!!#i will make a sideblog later

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tragedykery · 1 year

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still think that the dutch word for hippo is the funniest thing ever. sure, call it a nile horse. who fucking cares

#yeah this is the kind of stuff I think about at 1 am #elli rambles #edit: yes I KNOW it’s the same in english only with a greek etymology. I am not ridiculing dutch I was just pointing out a word I thought #was funny. I didn’t mean for this to get notes for the love of god people please stop taking this in bad faith #languageposting #language #dutch #dutch on main #ok turning off rbs bc this post is annoying to see in my notifs <3

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thefloatingstone · 10 months

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Remembered this song from a boss fight early on in NieR Automata, during which a cult of robots had come together to pantomime the concept of religion. (the robots in the game are all trying to strive for a sense of purpose in being alive by mimicking behaviour of humans who have by now gone extinct but there's not enough time to go into all of that here).

And this cult of robots come to the conclusion that their version of gods if they follow the human translation of the word is "the creator" which to them are organic beings. And so if they are pantomiming religion in an effort to find purpose in being alive, then through the practice of religion you are supposed to ascend to a higher state of being equal to that of the gods.

And so, if you are a robot and your creator is an organic being, what is it that separates you from your creator? That is of course the realities of being an organic being, and being tied to the reality that being organic means having to die one day.

And so this robot cult comes to the conclusion that to ascend to a higher state of being is to become as gods, and for a robot to become as a god, their creator, is to ascend to that of organic being, and to do so is to embrace what separates machine from organic which is death.

And therefore, to die is to become god.

And then they all attack you and this song plays called "become as gods". Which includes the robot cult chant of "We'll all die together and become as gods" while the choir chants in the fictional language of the NieR series which is its OWN separate dump of lore, but which is roughly labelled and understood as "The language of the gods". That being a weird translation of the GATTACA code which makes up human DNA.

....

NieR Automata is a good game. It's one of only 2 games that managed to make me bawl my eyes out at the end. Not for a story reason, but for how the game directly connects you with every other human being who has played the exact same game and the concept of sacrifice to help another in ways I don't want to spoil because if you've never played and finished the true ending of NieR Automata there is nothing in this world that will prepare you for its ending and I would not dare to spoil that for you.

Anyway I rambled a lot but it was needed to explain the full force of this song for you to understand why it's not only a banger but a banger with some deep fucking WEIGHT behind it.

(btw this is genuinely unrelated I just remembered at time of post it's the Steam Summer Sale and Nier Automata is 50% off right now but that was not the point of this post)

#NieR Automata #music #Video games #this game fucking ruined me #I finished it in 2020 I think???#I'm still not over how it tore me apart emotionally #I'll probably never be over it #Also yes these are the kinds of video games I play between this and Mass Effect's lore #which is legit big enough to be sold as a book #I plan to print and hand bind a Mass Effect book comprised of the codex actually skdkjshjakdhas #Also yes ancient language of the gods that is actually the GATTACA code you read that correctly #the NieR games are WILD #Also Nier (not Automata) is the only game I know of with an intersex main character

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crabussy · 1 year

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I want to take a bite out of someone's arm but I'm too shy

#it's ok to reblog this post and ignore the rant in the tags I don't mind at all /gen #hi guys #got another load of trauma from school #and I am not dealing with it well at all my legs have been shaking so badly for 4 hours now #had a panic attack so bad that my face went numb and the edges of my vision went black and my legs gave way #I hate my teacher she's horrible god I can't even go into it here there's so much #I'm tired of getting abused at school I've been to half a dozen schools and have not gotten traumatised at ONLY ONE OF THEM #I have no adults I can go to about this #whenever I try to talk with her and the head teacher about the situation and why I'm fucking terrified of her she acts so patient and kind #whenever I'm alone with her she will yell at me about everything I'm doing wrong and continue yelling even when I'm in tears #she will berate me and put me down and insult me directly #when she gives feedback she always puts effort into making it hurt #the language she uses for negative feedback is never what a teacher should say it's always personal and uses your weaknesses to hurt you #I get really bad intrusive thoughts about her hurting me physically because of how terrified I am of her #the worst part is she acts nice and sweet whenever she's not picking apart my weaknesses and being cruel about my disabilities #I felt so sick after that I haven't eaten since #vent tw #trauma tw #listen to my gibberish boy #ggod I hate this school

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existennialmemes · 1 month

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I do not respect the English Language, you cannot burden me with its irrelevant rules.

#shitpost #shitposting #language memes #English is not a respectable language #its rules are wildly inconsistent because #it's not a language #it's an aberrant chimera of like at least 5 different languages #no uniformity #just different grammar systems hideously sewn together in defiance of god #and not the sexy kind of defiance of god

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divinekangaroo · 18 days

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Started reading Lymond Chronicles after @deadendtracks' comment that SK must've read them too / based Tommy on Lymond....

and like i'm what, at ch3 or 4 maybe and...

yeahhhhhhhhhh XD

#i don't mind what crimes i commit as long as they've got a sensible purpose #johnnie the offsider gypsy #by god i'll give you one night to remember the head of your family by (says the elder brother)#also vaguely robin hood ish / will scarlet etc #i do like the very very different prose (same affection for it that i had for the different prose in the Witcher books)#the purple proseness of description which somehow is still very sparing (no long descriptive paragraphs just 1-2 thick sentences) versus #the intense vernacular used in dialogue. i am mildly over the homogenisation of the 'no style' style in current sf/fan genres #the interesting thing is how Dunnett herself in the a/n says how she was trying to craft a certain persistent masculine trope/character #not her exact words but this undercurrent 'Type' of criminal out there #and tommy and lymond (class difference aside) sit in that space #the other thing i think tho.did SK do it from the beginning or did he start to lean harder into that after seeing CM in S1 #I feel certain routes/themes wouldn't have worked with a different kind of actor and later seasons built more and more on CM's strengths #like the descent into S5/S6 imagery and the sheer symbolic/poetic language wouldn't have worked with statham at all...if it ever got there #tim mielants to steven knight while contemplating cm ordinarily drinking his coffee 'he has become the embodiment of my brothergrief'

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tibli · 6 months

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i think people have a tendency to overlook just how emotionally-driven dirk is as a character. probably because he has a tendency to try and mask it with the whole 'oh im doing this because i have everything planned out and this is the most logical course of action' shtick.

i know heart as an aspect is more in reference to a person's soul than it is to their emotions, but goddamnit dirk thinks with his heart okay!!! he may try to act like the logical one but he is RULED by his emotions!!!!

#homestuck #dirk strider #he gets so deeply attached to people #and he feels things so strongly but has convinced himself that hes some kind of emotionless robot #thats false bitch!!!!! his outward emotional expression does NOT reflect his internal feelings!!!!!!#thats why i adore his relationship with roxy because she is very much a 'heart-on-her-sleeve' person #and i think that is a quality he envies bc it allows her to get close to people instead of alienating them #dirk may not express much through body language #but he is SO expressive with the actions he takes and thats really important!!!!!#your friends love you dirk!!!!! stop shitting on yourself!!!!!!#sorry im just thinking about like. how he was treated post-homestuck #i just dont feel like meat dirk is like. accurate to his character idk #like yes he does tend to like. try to pull strings in the bg bc he thinks thats whats best for people #but he also like. comes of as a fucking creep in the epilogues in a way that just wasnt present in hs proper #idk how to explain it but it just feels like his character got fucking ASSASSINATED in the epilogues. j*ne too for the love of god

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aefensteorrra · 5 months

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very strange when people arrange plans to hang out with you as if it's an appointment. literally saying "I'm free for one hour at lunch or two hours each evening"?? I don't want that. just say "we can do something in the evening" and let it be that. people are busy, I get that and I'm not mad about that, but there are tactful and human ways to talk about it and this is not it

#I find it hurtful #have never had any other friend use this kind of language #and I've told her I feel lonely and just get a “that sucks” or a :/ face irl #god. if a friend told me they were lonely I'd ask if they'd like to do something asap #offer to go round and just exist together #not a “that sucks! I'm free for two hours on this day though but then I'm super busy”#how do you find new friends

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unbidden-yidden · 2 years

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I may regret asking this, but I have an interdenominational, interfaith question about the literalness of the Bible for folks who are familiar with the doctrine of the more conservative denominations of Christianity.

So in the more traditional branches of Judaism, it is generally held that the Torah was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, word-for-word. However, the other two sections of the Tanakh are not literally the Word of God, but rather the words of the prophets and important sacred writings (poems, histories, etc.) Now, obviously there is a spectrum of beliefs and more liberal Jews will attribute the five books of Moses to more earthly sources, while still holding them as very sacred. However, even the strictest of orthodox Jews still interpret the Torah and base their understanding of halacha on the Talmud and commentaries. Bottom line: in Judaism, the absolute *most* amount of sacred texts that form the Hebrew Bible that are attributable to God as God's direct words are the books of Torah, which are still interpreted by human beings to be able to be put into practice.

However, I have come across an alarming amount of Christians who say they take the [whole?] Bible literally. I genuinely don't understand what is meant by this, as only the first five books were ever attributed to God as direct revelation, and so even if you assume that the New Testament is also 100% verbatim word-of-God revelation (which I don't know for certain if these Christians do assume that) you're still missing the vast chunk of the Prophets and Writings from the Old Testament.

So I guess my questions are: When Christians say they 'take the [whole] Bible literally,' what do they actually mean by this in practice, since even the Hebrew Bible (never mind the whole Christian Bible) has tons of apparent contradictions that can only be resolved through interpretation? Is this actually common and/or historical doctrine? Or is this American Christianity being bizarre, especially in the last 50 years?

Do Christians who hold by this concept make a distinction between the books of Torah and the rest of the Bible? If not, how do they get around the fact that the other books were not verbatim revelation?

#christianity #judaism #like #I was raised Christian #but not like that lol #my church growing up was the equivalent of a Reform shul #well #more like a Reform/Conservative Midwestern hybrid shul #you get the idea #we had a couple whackjobs who thought the world was created in 7 literal days #but they got scared off when both me and our organist came out in the same year #and the pastors and majority of the congregation supported us wholeheartedly #that and they switched to using gender neutral language for God #Anyway #suffice to say I was not having that particular kind of indoctrination directly fed to me at church #it didn't make sense to me then and makes even less sense now #every hour is theology hour around here apparently

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coquelicoq · 9 months

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it's interesting, a few people on my post yesterday about the dandelion dynasty told me they were taking it as a rec for the series, but i didn't actually recommend the series in that post. it's making me think about whether i would rec it to people, a question i hadn't fully considered yet (as it is a very different question from "do i like this book?"). so this is me figuring out the answer to that question. i'll keep it spoiler-free (though i make no promises on brevity).

i just finished book 3 (of 4) and each installment has left me more invested than i was before, but the series started out very slow, and i didn't really get into it until halfway through book 2. i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people bounce off the first book; i didn't, but only because 1) i almost never give up on a book that i've started (it's a character flaw of mine 😕) and 2) my trust in ken liu is ridiculously high because the other stuff i've read by him is so beloved to me. so my reaction to feeling kind of meh about book 1 was "okay, let's see where he's going with this" rather than "i guess this just isn't my cup of tea."

i should say that the problem might just be my own ignorance/lack of familiarity with the form. i don't read a lot of epic fantasy - in fact, lord of the rings is the one series that i have given up on reading a couple of times because it just left me totally indifferent. so if you like epics, you are starting out way ahead of me and can maybe just ignore the rest of this post lol, but i think i had to adjust to what the form is asking of me and what it's best suited to accomplish before i could get fully on board.

the main thing i struggled with is the writing, like the actual sentence-level mechanics of voice and style. this surprised me, because i usually find his writing very beautiful, or, when not beautiful, i can get a sense of the effect he means to achieve by employing a certain style. but in this series, the writing came across as kind of awkward and one-note to me at first, and i couldn't see a reason for it to be that way.* the dialogue especially - different characters don't really have different ways of speaking, they all feel pretty much the same. this was one of the main things i had to adjust to, but i do get it now. i don't just mean that i got used to the style and it doesn't bother me anymore, though that is true; i mean that i now understand the effect he means to achieve by employing this style, which gives it purpose and inextricably ties it to the story he's telling (this becomes especially clear in book 3, as it's directly related to a major theme of that book). if the style were different, he would be telling a different story; that's the sign of a successful execution, i think.

i said in the tags on yesterday's post that one reason the series doesn't have much of a fandom on here might be that the characters aren't natural blorbos. of course every character is probably the blorbo of somebody somewhere, but i don't know that these characters were designed to be blorbos, if that makes sense. not that they're plot devices either! every single one of them is conflicted and complicated and compelling, and most of them are followed over a period of many years, so we see them develop as people over time. but there is no protagonist, for example. you could also say that every character is a protagonist. the "list of major characters" at the beginning of book 3 is six pages long, and there are stories to be told about each of these characters, and none of them are told in isolation. but in a way, the characters themselves are not the point, or if they are, it's in aggregate - it's in the ways they're all complex, the ways they all have motivations that make sense to them (and that make sense to us, once we get to know them). and it's about power and the roles that the characters play in their society, rather than the roles the characters play in the story. or maybe those are the same thing! because ultimately, the main character of this story is the society. and the plot is the history of this society, rather than the journey or life of a single person or handful of people.**

(sidenote, there will be a period during book 1 when you will think to yourself, "wow, all the women characters are super one-dimensional and the narrative doesn't seem to respect them." this is on purpose. just keep going.)

the plotting is intricate while also feeling very organic. he's got dozens of plates in the air at once, he's maintaining them over a long period (these books are MASSIVE), and he's somehow making it seem like a real history, not like an author pulling strings. i haven't finished it yet, but my guess is that he's going to pull off a very satisfying conclusion that's at the same time very open-ended. definitely looking forward to it.

and the worldbuilding. oh, the worldbuilding. this is some of the most detailed, complex, realistic*** worldbuilding i've ever encountered, and he covers SO much ground. you want linguistic worldbuilding? you got it. philosophy? it's here. psychology of empire? coming right up. the nitty-gritty of everyday governance? buddy, pull up a chair. mechanical engineering? how much time you got?? (it better be enough time to read 3504 physical pages, because that's how long this series is.) and he's drawing on chinese history and cultural narratives rather than slapping lipstick on a tolkien clone (see his comments here, but stop reading at "In this continuation of the series" if you want to avoid spoilers). he WILL go on for a hundred pages about a single invention, but it's SO interesting that he is allowed. this is a story about how technology (including language, and schools of thought, and agriculture, and...) shapes, and is a product of, its time and place and people, so again, this is all to purpose. but it's also just. really cool.

the last thing i'll say, and this is mainly for other ken liu fans, is that one of the things i most love about his short stories is how they tap into emotions i didn't even know i had, as though they're reaching inside of me and drawing to the surface ways of experiencing consciousness and love and mortal life that i had no idea were in there. this series is not causing emotional revelation for me in the way his other stories do, which isn't a bad thing - i don't mean to say the series is not engaging or that it inspires no emotions! i just mean, iykyk. if you've read the paper menagerie and are expecting that experience, you will have a better time here if you leave those expectations at the door. i am invested in this book because it's engaging my intellect, curiosity, sense of wanting to find out what else the characters will learn and what's going to happen next...less because it's turning my heart inside out inside my chest. and like thank goodness, because i don't think i could survive four entire 900-page books' worth of that! but anyway. word to the wise.

tl;dr: yes, i recommend it, especially if you like epic fantasy. if you're a fan of ken liu's other work, this is quite different, so just know that going in!

*this opinion is of course subjective and not universally shared. for instance, see this review of book 3 (full of spoilers, so don't actually read it lol) which says "There's Liu's voice to hold onto, though — beautifully deployed here and fully in command of the language of his imaginary universe." so ymmv. maybe it's an epic fantasy thing.

**this is making me realize that the story is commenting on this very thing through a tension between bureaucracy (founded on interchangeability) and monarchy (informed by a specific personality). dude. that's so meta!

***though sometimes i'm like, "really? you scaled up that invention to use untested on the battlefield in the span of like two weeks? sure, jan." so sometimes he falls down a little on translation of ideas into logistics, but it makes for such a great story that i'll allow it.

#i kind of want to call it epic science fiction rather than epic fantasy #i know the categories are very porous. but if you think of fantasy as having 'magic' and scifi as having 'technology'#this is scifi #there's no magic. unless you count the gods creating weather patterns etc. to help or hinder their favorite mortals #but i don't count that as magic #okay i guess maybe Gitré Üthu is magic...but again that's a god thing. so there's a gray area #the aesthetics are more fantasy than scifi. these terms are meaningless though so just ignore me lol #another thought. it occurs to me that some of the style choices he's making might be related to comments of his that i've read #on translation...and how when he translates a story he tries to retain a sense of it having been written in a different idiom #he likes people reading a chinese story in english to be able to tell that it was not originally written in english #this story was originally written in english irl. but in the world of the story itself they are speaking other languages #like for instance page 1 of book 1 features the lyrics of a song. they read kinda awkwardly. but don't translated lyrics almost always #look like that? because the rhymes and cadence and number of syllables etc. are so dependent on the language of origin?#the dandelion dynasty #ken liu #the grace of kings #the wall of storms #the veiled throne #my posts #links #wow this is NOT how i planned to spend my evening. and yet here we are. time to shower and then start thinking about bedtime #why does everything take me so long???? how are people so fast. ugh. it takes me hours just to have thoughts #and then writing them down? fuhgeddaboutit.

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