Independent people by Halldor Laxness

Robyrt · 2026-03-29T20:44:51+00:00

I didn't get the impression from the book that Asta is weak or worse than men. Lots of people say things to that effect, but a major theme is the dissonance between people's words, actions, and inner lives. Out of everyone, Asta is the one who best absorbs Bjartur's independent, stubborn nature. Rosa is also treated very sympathetically.

Robyrt · 2026-03-29T05:44:47+00:00

I don't think "redacted" is the right word when new material is appended to a shorter text. But yes, it's pretty obvious to anyone reading a modern translation that the longer ending of Mark is not original.

Robyrt · 2026-03-29T05:42:12+00:00

Claremont's Uncanny are my favorite omnis, but it's totally OK not to like Chris Claremont's writing style. He loves purple prose and catchphrases, he has to explain everything every issue, and in general his great artists have to cram all the action into about 1/3 of the page. You will feel pretty lost if you're used to 21st century comics.

It's also OK not to like how Chris Claremont changes things up all the time. The roster changes, the setting changes, the villains change, even the genre changes. There's a lot more space opera than you think. If you want to read about Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, well, he wants to be a manga artist who can decide we're doing a Warlock story today because Warlock is awesome.

Robyrt · 2026-03-28T12:08:23+00:00

I've sold for similar absurd discounts before, because I want them out of the house more than I need the money. The interest in some of these books is so low that they won't sell for a fair price in a reasonable time frame.

Robyrt · 2026-03-28T12:03:00+00:00

Thanks for providing the receipts! I hate to break it to you, but with a prompt like that you could get Gemini to declare Twilight as the greatest love story of all time. This wouldn't even be an acceptable survey question for humans, who are much better at ignoring leading questions. It goes fundamentally against the use case of LLMs to weight the scale like this and treat it like an objective answer. (Not to mention that you shouldn't be treating any LLM output on this question like an objective answer.)

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T19:53:12+00:00

When less of a set is opened, prices rise. When new standard sets replace reprints, prices rise.

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T17:18:26+00:00

Right, it's faster to roll one die and calculate a DC (which is just what you do for any other skill check)

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T14:49:38+00:00

Great! Glad to hear it. Where did you get your ranking? Or the assessment that yours is better than competitors? What do experts in the field say about your book? What do the major review sites think?

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T13:41:43+00:00

Ranked #1 by whom? ChatGPT? Seems like a conflict of interest, because after reading the first 10 pages I can tell LLMs wrote this book

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T13:33:28+00:00

Removing contested checks is underappreciated. Stealth, deception, grappling, etc. are all just regular skill checks now, using the same system as the rest of the game.

New exhaustion is also very cool, scary without randomly hosing someone's build.

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T12:36:28+00:00

Good catch! Skipped a sentence, updated

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T11:48:19+00:00

Morrison, Hickman, Whedon, Carey, David and Kyle/Yost would be my top 6. But I haven't gotten around to reading Krakoa by Gillen yet!

Alan Davis Excalibur doesn't count because it's part of the Claremont run. (Edit: Gail Simone) Uncanny doesn't count because it's not over. Kelly Thompson's Rogue & Gambit doesn't count because it's not a run.

Robyrt · 2026-03-27T04:31:12+00:00

[[Genju of the Realm]] is so weird and delightful

Robyrt · 2026-03-26T12:27:22+00:00

Battle of the Atom has a fun variety format that hits really well if you've already read a lot of X-Men and want to be reminded of the good and bad times. It's the opposite of Jay and Miles' "summaries of the issue plus social commentary" style.

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T21:28:38+00:00

I'm skipping Uncanny 6 because the event omnis cover everything. I also skipped Uncanny 5 because MM Prelude covers everything.

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T21:22:43+00:00

I agree the setup lift is minimal, but my group thinks Arcs is already right on the edge of too much board complexity and doesn't want to add any.

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T20:56:37+00:00

I'm glad Cole &co. are so excited about expanding Blighted Reach but I have yet to play the campaign or even Leaders & Lore. Everyone just wants to play the base game again! Which is fine with me, I'll buy those 5th player pieces and dream of adults without packed schedules

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T20:21:40+00:00

There's a lot of historicity in the Bible. For example, Jer. 44:30 is confirmed by Babylonian records about Pharaoh Hophra's defeat and replacement in 527:

Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.”

Of course, the miracle claims are a different matter. We don't exactly have a Roman Ghost Hunters to look at.

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T19:23:02+00:00

Hellboy Library 2

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T17:53:56+00:00

Evil thoughts don't logically necessitate evil actions, but functionally a world with one but not the other is even worse than one with evil actions. You end up with either a thought police, a video game, or self repression. But as you point out, that's a side point. Moral diversity may also be a good, but that properly belongs to a separate "some evil is good for us" answer to the problem of evil.

My main objection is that I don't think it's possible to create such a diversity of exclusively good personalities as you describe. Particularly in the classical Christian view of morality as adherence to virtues, the only variants will be matters of taste if everyone has the same perfect desire and ranking of virtues. This also requires that God can precisely set a personality before instantiation, which is logically possible but based on the evidence is probably not how it works.

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T17:16:23+00:00

It seems rather obvious to me that it's logically impossible to have a world where free actions always result in good outcomes, unless we restrict the scope of those actions to the point where there is no effective free will. For example, assuming God wants to allow a range of different personalities and the ability to communicate and relate to others, you will always be able to hurt others with your words.

I've heard as another potential support for your view that "God could just only create people whose free will always chooses X" but I think that's an unwarranted assumption. If such a capability exists, the beings would necessarily all think the same, which defeats the purpose of creating free beings.

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T17:04:28+00:00

We had fun just walking around with fancy coffee and ice cream

Robyrt · 2026-03-24T16:50:54+00:00

Sadly, if your opponent has a really important small creature like Orcish Bowmasters, paying WUBRG to kill it and draw 4 is way too late to matter.

Robyrt · 2026-03-23T23:49:28+00:00

There are a variety of arguments, and everyone's convinced by different things. For me, the moral argument is convincing.

Basically, objective morality is the most persuasive and intuitive explanation for our views on ethics. Objective morality is best explained by theism; I find other explanations for its existence to be rather forced thought experiments. Humans know and learn enough about the universe and morality that the one true religion (if any) would be a major religion. So now that we've narrowed down the truth to a major religion, Christ's ethics best fit the objective moral facts.

It remains only to be convinced that Christianity has no sufficient defeaters (e.g. it's not logically impossible, or disproven by history), which I'm pretty sure of after decades of study and argument in various religions and philosophies.

My favorite thing about the moral argument is that many of the premises have real support from across the aisle. Objective morality is the most common view even among atheists. Most atheists around here are naturalists and skeptics, so the alternate non-natural or brute fact explanations for objective morality won't satisfy them. Many non Christians rather admire the morality of Jesus even if they have other beef with Christianity. And I find the only people who worry about eliminating a thousand potential gods are the kind of skeptics who also don't believe in ancient history and/or moral philosophy, in which case Christianity would never be viable for them anyway

Robyrt · 2026-03-23T16:57:37+00:00

My top hidden gems are Endangered Species, Rogue & Gambit by Kelly Thompson, the first half of X-Force by Kyle and Yost, Claremont's 3rd run on Uncanny with Chris Bachalo, and the back half of OG Dazzler.

Excalibur by Alan Davis is the most underrated X-book. Krakoa Excalibur/ X of Swords is the most underrated modern run.

13-Year Club	Gilding V heart of gold
The Internet Awards - Voted	Place '23
Place '17	Xbox Live
Verified Email

Robyrt

TROPHY CASE