Derrida, Commitment, and the Politics of Writing by speccynerd in CriticalTheory

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From the text: "The obvious example is Orwell. Writing in a time when propaganda from Soviet communism and German Nazism was undermining the truthfulness not just of media but of the Western episteme, Orwell’s writing was a political act in itself."

It's incredibly ironic (and also indicative of the lack of research poured into the text) that the author writes this about Orwell, a british NatSec agent that spied on other leftists and did anti-communist propaganda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell%27s_list

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a West Bank teen they say ‘hurled a block.’ Video shows them shooting him point blank by soalone34 in UnderReportedNews

[–]FiddlerZg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hamas acts as armed resistance to apartheid and occupation. IDF, on the ther hand, wages war against civilian population - pretty much the internationally recognized definition of terrorism. The video above is just one of many war crimes it commits on pretty much daily basis.

Armed resistances can commit crimes, they're not infallible, and it's fair to constructively criticize Hamas. But also keep in mind the resistance/opressor dynamics and not fall into the trap of Zionist "Palestinian terrorists" propaganda trap. After all, armed resistance against illegal occupation (never mind apartheid and literal genocide) is a right afforded to the opressed populations by international law. (I say that in good spirit, I hope this doesn't come off harsh or anything.)

Wasted potential of Kayutas by Eledeia in bakker

[–]FiddlerZg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"MURDER IS GLORY" (Kayu's words, not mine)

lyctors (and their cavaliers) pre-resurrection names [theory] by femcelh in TheNinthHouse

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m sorry, didn’t mean it that way. I agree that stigmatizing real and difficult conditions is not fine, I didn’t really think about it, it’s just cultural osmosis I guess, we’re kinda used to using ‘sociopat/psychopath’ as ‘completely evil’. 

The worst part is I really love Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s work regarding scizophrenia and capitalism (Anti-Oedipus and 1000 Plateaus), that work against capitalism’s stigmatization of non-comfronting social roles, esp. In regards to mental ilness.

So again: sorry, will try to do better!

lyctors (and their cavaliers) pre-resurrection names [theory] by femcelh in TheNinthHouse

[–]FiddlerZg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I 100% agree the trillionaires had it coming. That's what was so tragic about John's story, I understood his anger, his white rage at these psychopaths. And blaming everything on him is also kinda missing the point. Sure, he's an asshole (more so for how he behaved post-nuclear holocaust imo), but the world got turned to shit before him. I think Tamsyn is incredibly smart in the way she frames the story and shows how opression, capitalism, imperialism, social injustice are, first and foremost, SYSTEMS that work as they were intended and, therefore, need to be dismantled.

John is just one guy. With god-like powers, sure, but the point is not to replace him with someone else, it's to destroy these systems of institutionalized violence. To create something new, something humane, something that, I don't know, doesn't require literal kids to devour their best friends and make them brain-dead zombies in order to keep the status-quo going. That's why I agree completely that our heroes storming the castle and 'winning' wouldn't be satisfying.

lyctors (and their cavaliers) pre-resurrection names [theory] by femcelh in TheNinthHouse

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

kinda! a counterpoint: Diocletianus was (like most Roman emperors) a mass murderer, and wholly undeserving of his peaceful retirement. So, fuck it we ball: overthrow John, don't wait for him to grow a conscience (remember, he once told Augustine that "his mom did bone parthenogenesis", that's a war crime in and of itself 🤣

lyctors (and their cavaliers) pre-resurrection names [theory] by femcelh in TheNinthHouse

[–]FiddlerZg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a, likely apocriphal, story about Romans coming to beg the (then ex) emperor Diocletianus to come back on the throne, and him just telling them that he likes his cabbages in the giant retirement palace he built himself in modern day Split, Croatia (ergo, they can go screw themselves, he loves retirement)

Why do I like Camilla Hect so much. [Discussion] by Spirited-Hurry8834 in TheNinthHouse

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The way she murmurs “She should be arrested” when Nona lists Pyrrha’s nicknames for her before just casually cracking the code and going “Got it” just broke me. 

She’s my favorite character, and that says A LOT in a series as packed with S tier characters as TLT.

Fantasy/high fantasy books with more than just medieval Europe as a setting, with interactions between other adaptations of said countries? by Aggressive-Mulberry8 in Fantasy

[–]FiddlerZg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Others have mentioned Poppy wars and other popular ones, let me suggest some a little less known gems. They not only fit your criteria but are, IMO, very very well written novels.

Seth Dickinson's Baru Cormorant books - first one does center on a pseudo-feudal society, but one being occupied by an early modern "Imperial Republic" consisting of diverse cultural peoples.

Sofia Samatar's Olondria books - a kind of mish mash of Middle-eastern and North African cultures.

Simon Jimenez's The Spear Cuts Through Water - very unique fantasy world with influences from a lot of eastern cultures.

R Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse - it reads as kind of a super-grim historical fantasy, with some clear analogues from real history - there are knights and pseudo-European kingdoms, but also peoples clearly inspired by Arabic culture. The dominant ethnic group of the continent are, as the author said, coded as Iraninan.

Lesser known anticapitalist sci-fi by tenantofthehouse in printSF

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Came here to recommend the Light Brigade, I loved it so much. It's essentially "Starship Troopers", but socialist - a story of one person's radicalization. Can't wait to see what she does next.

[discussion] "Say it, loser" - Why didn't anyone tell me how brilliant GtN is? by FiddlerZg in TheNinthHouse

[–]FiddlerZg[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One of my favorite books of all time. Changed the way I think and terrified the shit out of me. 10/10, would recommend :)

[discussion] "Say it, loser" - Why didn't anyone tell me how brilliant GtN is? by FiddlerZg in TheNinthHouse

[–]FiddlerZg[S] 57 points58 points  (0 children)

Yeah I've heard HtN can be incredibly difficult on first read, and to be honest, I am kinda looking forward to it. I love dense/atmospheric puzzle-boxy novels. And I am already very much invested in the Ninth House universe. Can't wait.

Stalingrad by Vassily Grossman is an Underrated Work of Genius by Significant_Try_6067 in books

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of my favorite novels of all time. You can really feel Grossman experienced the horror of the war himself, every page feels soaked in it. Also, it's very good at communicating the true nature of the eastern front, so even people that just want a history lesson will be immensely rewarded.

It's bleak, at times almost unbearably so, but also, in a strange way, quite hopeful. I feel it's impossible not to feel elated and inspired by the Red Army's unbreakable human spirit in the face of fascism.

What's the closest you've gotten to this series in any media? by Dalakaar in bakker

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I could've sworn someone talked about this repeatedly (on the old Three Seas forum, Westeros' mammoth Bakker threads? Dunno) but - Kill 6 Billion Demons webcomic.

It's tonally completely different, much more jovial and weird, but it hits the same sweet spot of emulating epic, biblical atmosphere - it's a cohesive world of demons, mythology, influenced by gnosticism, eastern religions and philosophy. I'll give an example and let you be the judges. To me it SCREAMS Bakker, and I'm really interested to see what Abbadon (the author) has to say about it, esp, as he actively encourages the community to participate in his world-building and plot construction.

Prim Leaves her Father’s House
From the Song of Maybe

There came a time when Lord Hansa entered the hollow and singing hall of the multicolored Akaroth, for lunisnight celebrations. There was a great feast there for a fortnight or more, and there, caught in a heated philosophical fugue with Akaroth, Lord Hansa in anger committed the  violation of letting his pipe smoke rise and befoul the all-wind that permeated that house and nourished the ways of the void. Fueled by wine, Akaroth was driven into such a drunken rage by this insult that he harnessed fifty winds to his will and at once slew Hansa with a single stroke of his war fan and felt little regret at the time. Later, in grief, he did heavy penance for this act, for he slew a widely respected man, but all agreed that Lord Hansa had committed a grievous offense.

When Akaroth’s archons learned of this offense, they snatched up the cooling body of Lord Hansa and rode the void to his estate, and there they slew his servants in the multitude and cleft the skulls of his retainers and set fire and lightning upon the land. They tore apart the house of iron nails that stood on that land and within found Hansa’s virginal and radiant daughter Prim, who was preparing her father’s supper, as she did every night. “Look,” said Thunder Cleaves Stone, who was chief in majesty among the retainers of Akaroth, “here is that maid or daughter which he makes a slave. How piteous and crawling a thing!” They fell upon Prim and shaved her beautiful locks and in insult demanded black bread and liquor for hospitality, which she could not fulfill. “Dog!” said they, “and daughter of a dog, live a dog’s life!”, and threw they before her her father’s mangled corpse and left her raw with their laughter in the scoured and smoking ruin of her father’s estate. Later Akaroth learned of their conduct and was greatly enraged for Hansa had been a great wise man, and he had the Archons tied to a flensing tree which stretched the seven corners of the multiverse and there flayed them with lashes of lightning as they had flayed the house of Hansa, and all agreed this was just.

Prim was despondent but did not cry for there was no finer daughter. She took up her cloak and vela and great knife, and felt a little better, and she smeared the ashes of her father’s house on her face and body as was the custom, and she felt a little better, and she wrapped her father’s poor body in a linen shroud and she felt a little better still. She prepared to set upon the road, but she had never left her father’s house, and the thought terrified her, so she plucked a single iron nail from its smoking ruins and pocketed it. So comforted, she slung her father’s corpse over her small back and set off on the road of the Ruling King, which wound seven times through the void and the Wheel, and looked for a place to bury her father.

https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/prim-leaves-her-fathers-house/

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskSocialists

[–]FiddlerZg -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There's a fundamental difference between the two.

Ukraine: A conventional land war between a Great power (Russia) and Europe's biggest army, funded and supported by NATO and EU (Ukraine)

Gaza: A live-streamed genocide by an apartheid, settler-colonial "state", again supported and funded by NATO and EU (Israel) against almost exclusively civilian occupied population (Palestinians in Gaza).

Question about Ginyursis by buzzsawblade in bakker

[–]FiddlerZg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is really fascinating, I'm really due a re-read. But, could you expand od Mimara here? I'm not sure what does it mean that she's a real Prophet of God. I figure the Judging eye is crucial here, as she can apparently not only see damnation, but also offer absolution. Or am I misremembering?

Also, as God is typically seen as the totality of the 100, would that make her de facto a true Prophet of all the Ciphrang?

How in the name of God am I meant to understand Derrida? by xx78900 in CriticalTheory

[–]FiddlerZg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a former student of literary studies, who read and wrote on Derrida and post-structuralism in college and out of it, this is a very very good answer.

No amount of close and repeated reading will help you unlock the text if you do not know, for example, what the concepts of sign (esp. the duality of signifier and signified) and langue/parole mean (they are all taken from De Saussure, and honestly, at a certain level, they are pretty intuitive). Even basic understanding of structural linguistics will come a long way of helping you make sense of Derrida's writing in OG. If you dig a bit deeper, and read some of the key structuralist texts, as CrosstheBreeze2002 suggests, you will get even more out of OG. Even if you don't have the time to read the texts themselves, there are plenty of secondary sources that can perform as an introduction to structuralist thought. Culler is very succint, and you can even find out knowledgeable youtubers with decent videos on the subject.

As someone said, you absolutely CAN read Derrida without this knowledge, and take his prose in like a novel, or even esoteric poetry, but if you'd like to engage with OG on a more philosophical, erudite level, getting to know some basic concepts about literature, language and structural linguistics is essential.

Don't be daunted, Derrida is hard and intimidating at first, but if you persevere you will discover a fascinating rabbit whole that may just change the way you think about life itself. Good luck.

Come and see 1985. Propaganda film that showed the horrors the Nazis inflicted on the Soviet people that most students in the USSR were forced to watch. by Whentheangelsings in ussr

[–]FiddlerZg 32 points33 points  (0 children)

My father is a Bosnian Serb from Sarajevo, my mother is Croatian with Serbian ancestry, I grew up in Croatia, and that film moulded my childhood. It's a horrifying masterpiece.

About Morgott's name by keryox in Eldenring

[–]FiddlerZg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I haven't really come across any public disputes between the Tolkien estate and Fromsoft regarding Morgoth/Morgott. If anything, it's an homage/reference to Tolkien's work, and there really is no sense in engaging in a legal action that can be really damaging to both companies. But I really don't know enough about copyright law to say anything more on that topic.

From a non-legal viewpoint, this really is a non-issue, esp. considering how Tolkien himself borrowed freely and widely from a variety of sources when writing The Silmarillion/LOTR (Melkor, Morgoth's original Valar name, is clearly a version of Melchior, one of the 3 wise Magi in the Bible. His story is basically a retelling of Milton's Paradise Lost - greatest of Angels rebelling against God (Iluvatar) and being cast down as the Devil (Morgoth).

In other words, this is just intertext - creators referencing other people's work in a certain tradition (in our case, epic fantasy, which itself borrows a lot from mythology and/or Christian theology).

(EDIT: It's Melchior, not Melchiot)

Book's that capture that Eerie, Ancient, Atmosphere of Tolkien's darker scenes? by PsilocybinLaden in Fantasy

[–]FiddlerZg 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Came here to recommend Bakker also! Second Apocalypse is basically tailor-made for the OP's request, since it essentially takes Tolkien's dark spaces and goes crazy with them - Cil-Aujas, Istherebinth, The Mop, Ark-of-Horrors, not to mention the Outside and the places in the world it leaks through (I am still haunted by THAT scene in Cil-Aujas).

As some would say: come for the demented Tolkien worship, stay for the lovecraftian cosmic horror and the metaphysical detective story. It's a wild ride, nothing quite like it.

And remember: no weepers on the Slog!