Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

Post by victorcharlie » Wed, Feb 09, 2022, 11:25 PM UTC

austinl wrote: post #47

victorcharlie wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really _really_ tried to enjoy The Shadow of the Torturer but I couldn't fall into rhythm I guess. As English is my second language, I had to struggle to know if a word was invented or just obscure English (I found that the author uses a fucktonne of the latter after I finished it). And I hate needing a glossary to read a novel (looking at you Tolkien). It struck to me like an 80s animated movie: extremely rich fro…

I couldn't imagine trying to read Wolfe with English as a second language — definitely commendable! One thing I'd recommend if you're giving it another go is to read the chapters, then listen to Alzabo Soup (the podcast) afterwards. It's a spoiler-light discussion of the book, and they highlight a lot of things I missed on the first read. Another recommendation is to try the Book of the Long Sun series instead. I act…

Hey thanks for the suggestion! :) You know, I found Severian to be really interesting as a character. I wanted to see how he turned out and expected a lot of development... But the book falls kinda short.

I always tended to stick to Sci-fi but recently I found that I didn't dislike Fantasy as I thought (I love the books from Brandon Sanderson).

Regarding the obscure English: I _loved_ learning those words as I have a thing for old and obscure words, you should see the face of my friends when I speak on _proper Spanish_ but they can't get a thing hahah ;D

Have a nice one!

Post by db48x » Sun, Feb 13, 2022, 11:43 PM UTC

sidibe wrote: post #9

The way he describes friction reminds of the book Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Good book with a giant obstacle of tons of made up vocabulary. I read that a long time ago, and now I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the story/characters and how much of it was just a different level of immersion and satisfaction from getting through the friction.

I really enjoyed Anathem, but I don’t think that the vocabulary is supposed to be an obstacle; it is supposed to be a clue. The word “anathem” in the title should be a mystery but should also remind you of both “anathema” and “anthem”. Once you finally find out exactly what it means in the world of the book then you should see how those words both fit really well. At that point you probably won’t have any idea _why_ those words fit so well, but once you’ve finished the book you should be able to see that it is not merely the author’s contrivance; it was a clue to the deeper plot of the book (or to the nature of reality, if you take it seriously enough…).

Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction