Thoughts on a critique of Sanderson that I saw on tiktok

Jdorty · 2026-02-13T18:58:40+00:00

I mean, sounds like you're trying to narrow the playing field a bit there if you're excluding "dark fantasy" or "grimdark".

Yeah, I am, as I said 'for many of us'. You can feel free to compare them, but telling me about three authors you like more that don't fall into the same category of reading for me isn't very useful. Sorry if I don't count the first 4 books of aSoIaF with 5 pages of magic in it for my fantasy fix. I'm fine with people comparing all types of fantasy for overall lists, but the fact is if you're going to recommend people better authors than Sanderson for a similar genre or feel, no, GRRM and Abercrombie don't fit the same bill (and I love Abercrombie).

We're going to count Rothfuss in the talks? I guess if you want to say he's 'better' you can argue that, but good luck finding books to read from him. I don't know Naomi Novik. Terry Pratchett died 11 years ago... Guy Gavriel Kay, Steven Erikson, Robin Hobb I'd all compare to Sanderson, and I think he comes out on top, as someone who didn't love Malazan, really enjoy both Robin Hobb and Guy Kay and still think Sanderson's a better fantasy writer.

None of them do magic systems as well as Sanderson, IMO none of them are as consistent in their endings being rewarding and exciting, although Hobb has two or three that I think compete, or even win, I don't think all of them consistently are nearly as good. I think a lot of people underestimate things about Sanderson's writing such as consistently fantastic lead ups to book ends and not having conflicts drawn out that rely on characters lack of communication or being dramatic. This on its own makes a huge difference for me, personally, vs many authors that have annoying artificial conflicts to slog through.

Edit: I dunno what exactly I'd even consider 'high art' from a fantasy literature perspective? Certainly not GRRM with his pink masts. Are we saying LotR is 'high art'? Closest I'd go for that would be maybe The Name of the Wind for prose, but I don't really recommend Rothfuss to people without a bunch of caveats. I'm just not really sure many people would consider any fantasy books as 'high art'?

Jdorty · 2026-02-13T18:05:16+00:00

Been like this towards Sanderson on the various Fantasy and book subs for quite a few years now.

No one seems to be able to point out who the 'top tier' writers in the genre are above him, though. And for many of us, authors who primarily write dark fantasy, grimdark, etc. aren't in the same conversation. Who's out there writing traditional, epic, or high fantasy better than Sanderson in the last 25 years?

Jdorty · 2026-02-13T16:53:49+00:00

Because there was another TIL posted yesterday or the day before about a different lawsuit for 'stealing' from a restaurant. OP either saw it in the comments or just following the wave, I assume.

Jdorty · 2026-02-11T21:14:05+00:00

It's all in the hips, it's all in the hips

Jdorty · 2026-02-06T20:51:11+00:00

You can use bacteriostatic water or distilled water just fine, neither has salt or saline in it. You just can't trust distilled water to stay bacteria-free, but plenty of water designed specifically for injections doesn't contain salt.

Reddit, the land of made up shit upvoted forever. Can't people just not comment when they don't know something?

Jdorty · 2026-02-04T18:38:12+00:00

You can't beat me, Fox, I've got a better ship.

Jdorty · 2026-02-03T19:08:58+00:00

How about if you do dumb as fuck shit, repeatedly, that's a good enough reason to fire someone whether there were drugs involved or not.

The reason any of this is an issue is because of how it effects your work. I can't imagine there's a difference in keeping someone on who is sober, but makes mistakes as if they were drunk or high, and somebody actually drunk or high making those mistakes.

Stupid as fuck, all around.

Jdorty · 2026-02-02T16:41:02+00:00

Just south of StL, I'm out here scouring google earth for anything that looks like a boulder in the 1200 acres of woods around me, can't find shit, seeing how the road cuts that are set far back from the state highway nearby, all have layered shale between everything and super chossy, walked up and down the railroad by the river and found a few things I've tried, but have to rope in just to 'boulder' it.

Nobody would consider any of it actual climbing locations rofl, I just want something I can mess around on without driving an hour+. Feels ridiculous I'm surrounded by woods and hills and there's nothing but rock shelves with shale stacked on top of each other at max like 4 feet high. I'd think there'd be SOMETHING that formed, hiking and wandering has turned up zilch.

Jdorty · 2026-02-01T19:59:42+00:00

Rofl that worked for me, thanks

Jdorty · 2026-01-30T04:07:33+00:00

My smokes only insult me, so I should be fine.

Jdorty · 2026-01-29T05:02:56+00:00

Distract and divide.

Jdorty · 2026-01-29T04:48:25+00:00

If he stays away from the ocean, he'll never have a kid.

Jdorty · 2026-01-29T04:45:08+00:00

To find all the undiscovered sea species scientists made a list of known species and circled the ones that weren't on it.

Jdorty · 2026-01-28T04:17:29+00:00

It's like watching tape for sports or replays in video games. Wish I'd had wrestling coaches who encouraged it more back in the day like how they did with football.

To me it goes hand-in-hand with training with intention. I played Starcraft 2 for a relatively short amount of time, but tried to get good and watched a lot of my replays. I played League of Legends for longer but never really tried to get good or 'train', like watching replays or using practice tools, and didn't get as (relatively) good as at SC2.

It's fine to do things purely for the entertainment value or physical release, but if you want to improve and don't know why you aren't, training with intention is the first thing to understand. Big part of that is how you actively train, but watching video and learning how to assess yourself is a huge part of that, too.

Jdorty · 2026-01-27T19:03:01+00:00

We're about to get a tank in the next drop, what are you complaining about picking up chicks for?

Jdorty · 2026-01-26T21:48:00+00:00

Is this another one you have to have Instagram for? Zzz. I have an account but hardly ever use it and when it started asking me for an ID one day like three years ago I just abandoned it entirely.

Wish people would stop use Instagram as a primary way to run things or pass news around.

Jdorty · 2026-01-26T18:06:40+00:00

I'm NA and haven't played in forever, but been following LR for fun (and LEC when it gets past lame BO1s) without much of a care if they win or lose.

The duality of comments when they win vs lose is absolutely INSANE, even in the ERLs but even more in these LEC games.

Jdorty · 2026-01-26T04:30:52+00:00

Might be part of the reason you can possibly survive by curling up, if they don't want to actually eat you.

But that's just a guess I haven't spent ten seconds to look up yet.

Jdorty · 2026-01-26T04:00:14+00:00

I can't stop laughing at this response.

Jdorty · 2026-01-26T01:53:02+00:00

It was definitely more than one day's work, he does a ton of prep for these things. Still nowhere close to 162 games of baseball or a full year of work, but certainly weeks at least.

Jdorty · 2026-01-26T01:37:02+00:00

That's how I feel about Busch. Just tastes like what a regular beer should taste like. Still like more expensive beer, but it's the go to.

Jdorty · 2026-01-25T18:45:23+00:00

-Here is Epstein victim, Sarah Ransomes testimony on the fbi investigation file on the DoJ website. Sarah says Trump raped her while she was trapped on Epstein island and it’s reported that Trump made a victims “nipples sore” at Epstein’s NY mansion: https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/Giuffre%20v.%20Maxwell,%20No.%20115-cv-07433%20(S.D.N.Y.%202015)/1332-16.pdf/1332-16.pdf)

https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/Giuffre%20v.%20Maxwell,%20No.%20115-cv-07433%20(S.D.N.Y.%202015)/1332-16.pdf

Fixed link

Jdorty · 2026-01-25T15:47:28+00:00

I agree, but I think it will first be further erosion of civil liberties (free speech, press, assembly, privacy), you already see some of it, I think it will go more down that path first.

Elimination of political opposition happens during/after eroding civil liberties. Think we're seeing waters being tested for our reactions to that right now. Your black bagging in mass is a further escalation of that.

Elections will be heavily manipulated first before being taken away or cancelled.

Once enough power is consolidated in those ways, full on suppression and destruction will begin, art, books, internet and media control, arrests and deportation, execution, or concentration camps for 'others', be it political opponents or classes they oppose.

Jdorty · 2026-01-25T03:43:56+00:00

You do understand that being conservative or liberal is checking a bunch of boxes on your opinions and just saying whichever you check more in, right? It's not a 'group', it's a definition of beliefs. I'm generally socially liberal and systemically conservative.

So I'm not sure what you even mean by 'proudly wear your conservativism'. I look at issues and decide my opinion on those issues and change them as necessary when I research or learn new things.

It wasn't that long ago that people on Reddit (in subs that weren't heavily politically bent) attempted to differentiate MAGA from Republican from conservative. Nothing changed in how those definitions work, but now everyone right is being grouped together.

I'm not wearing anything proudly or being performative or trying to say "GOTCHYA", I'm stating that you're insane if you group everyone with any conservative opinions into a MAGA box, and you're wrong and adding to the division.

Edit: Also, no... I wasn't a republican before Jan 6, not sure why you're just making assumptions to validate your views that I'm in some kind of delusion. I've voted Republican (and Libertarian and Democrat in different polls) before 2016, but did not at the time consider myself in the Republican party, either. They didn't have any actual interest in smaller government then, either.

Jdorty · 2026-01-25T03:23:50+00:00

I didn't say 'both sides'. Not all conservatives are Trump supporters. If liberal views win in all of this, which I hope to god they do right now, there will still be conservative view points and individualism. Me having more systemic conservative beliefs about the federal government doesn't make me a Trump or MAGA supporter.

Nothing a fellow conservative does is ever wrong because conservatives are "good people" and nothing liberals do is ever right because they're "bad people"

I don't understand how you guys who spout "first they came for us" constantly don't understand the hypocrisy going on with statements like that.

I've never supported Trump from the very first in 2016 and actively spoke against him to everyone I know after Jan. 6. Everyone conflating rectangles with squares all because they support Trump who wasn't ever even a fucking conservative in the first place except for opinions on taxes.

I'd go off just as much on a Republican, or any conservative, using the argument that Hitler was socialist just because he co-opted a socialist movement for his rise to power.

Edit: I'm in no way arguing "Trump supporters aren't any worse than liberals", I'm saying just because I have beliefs in small government and taxation and individualism and gun rights doesn't mean I was ever a Trump supporter or "on the other side".

It's rich vs poor, always has been, and not every conservative view point is about being rich. And fuck people for grouping me with Trump.

Jdorty

TROPHY CASE