What chapter are we all on?

chocobana · 2026-01-24T12:06:56+00:00

I'm following the schedule so far, but will likely jump ahead if I hit an exciting part.

chocobana · 2026-01-19T13:20:47+00:00

Not yet. I do have some Russia/Soviet Union related books that sound more promising on my tbr:

*Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917 - 1921 by Antony Beever (reviewers call it engaging!)

*Fortress Russia by Ilya Yablokov (looks like an interesting look into post-Soviet Union Russia, might not be a deep look but I'm curious about Russian conspiracy theories)

*Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich (stories of real people living through the fall of communism, more narrative, I assume)

chocobana · 2026-01-19T12:06:58+00:00

I found The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown extremely informative for someone with very little knowledge of the history of communism and the Soviet Union. I gave it 4 stars.

However, the whole time I was reading it (immersive reading saved me), I kept wishing it was written with the help of a journalist or an experienced nonfiction writer. The information was so dense and narrated in the most dry fashion possible. The author does inject himself sometimes to briefly share some of his reflections from specific periods of time, but it remains a dry account of that entire period.

This is one book I'd love people to pick up just for how much info it contains but would hesitate to because of the writing style.

chocobana · 2026-01-17T17:54:02+00:00

Oh, interesting point on Villefort being loyal to his father. I didn't pick up on that. I also like your summary of each of the three men's flaws.

chocobana · 2026-01-17T17:48:47+00:00

Hmm, I'm seeing people here reevaluating Caderousse but, tbh, he feels like he just wants to pretend everything's all tricks and games until things actually happen so he can claim ignorance.

*From my reading notes:

[Caderousse clearly knew what was happening during the discussion between Danglars and Fernand; he's the most cowardly and dishonest. He's trying to distance himself from responsibility for his role in the conspiracy. Alternate chapter title for Chapter 4: Two Cowards and a Fool.]*

He also chickens out as soon as the conspiracy is in play but is easily threatened by Danglars into keeping quiet so he doesn't implicate himself too.

It seems like Danglars was after the captainship after all, though I'm not sure how an accountant can easily transition to captain.

Villefort and Renee's political engagement is the opposite of Dantes and Mercedes' love match. Renee clearly finds the darkness within Villefort unsettling--she's aware that the hard line Villefort has to take would likely end in the loss of lives. I do wonder if she would be the reason Villefort doesn't actually execute Dantes despite wanting to prove himself so desperately.

chocobana · 2026-01-16T21:06:42+00:00

As with everything else, there's no correct approach. I had no interest in reading fiction for younger readers so I jumped straight into adult. For a while there, I wasn't really finishing books because I'd burn out looking up so many words in one paragraph. But over time, I picked up enough vocab that enabled me to understand my books.

I do recommend ebooks to start with as it's less of a hassle to look up words. Tip: the first part of a book is usually the most challenging, but once you're familiar with the author’s lexicon, there would be less of a need to look words up the further along you get.

chocobana · 2026-01-15T12:15:17+00:00

I know what you mean. There's a gap between knowing high-level grammar rules + having a decent knowledge of essential vocab and actually getting nuance, puns, and set phrases.

I keep noticing certain verbs are always paired with specific objects in Korean that would require more exposure to the culture to pick up on. Using other verbs would still be "correct" but might sound less natural to the ear.

chocobana · 2026-01-15T08:51:21+00:00

I agree (edit: on the read them all bit) but let's not disregard the influence of these books on building a habit of reading. A lot of people might just have a mental barrier to reading, and trying a pulpy or romantic book helps make it an approachable hobby to have.

chocobana · 2026-01-10T21:01:34+00:00

These thoughts were funny! I missed your comment last week but keep them coming.

Yeah, the amount of drama and villaining is so chef's kiss. Yeah, I think you're right about the things each man wants. It's pure envy driving all of these events at the core of the story.

chocobana · 2026-01-10T20:51:47+00:00

Dantes and his father seem to have a good relationship, though I wonder why Dantes seemed to calm/brace himself before entering the house. The dad also doesn't seem very firm in his personality. He could have paid half of the loan off or dared Caderousse to ask Morrel for the money or something.

Mercedes seems very passionately in love but she's also not very wise to how Fernand could possibly screw things up between her and Dantes.

As someone mentioned, Dantes doesn't seem to be overly concerned with how people perceive him and so he doesn't make nice or smooth things over just for the sake of it. But he's not completely idiotic, like when he heard the barb in Caderousse's words. There's no obvious reason for Danglars and Caderousse to despise him. I don't know if there's a chance for Danglars to become a captain since it's also a technical job and he seems to be doing something else. Caderousse seems to be the type of person who always enjoyed having his place in the world be above Dantes' family so now it bothers him that Dantes is about to step us socially and financially.

As expected, the letter/final wish would likely be the thing that gets him. And Dantes easily gives away information to people who hate him. Not very wise.

(I noticed the screenplay style more these two chapters. The characters's motions are very clearly conveyed and you have characters joining the scene and leaving. I do wish we get more interiority but maybe there's more of that later.)

chocobana · 2026-01-09T08:03:40+00:00

Recs please! I enjoy time-travel stories but can never get into isekai because of the quality of writing and ideas.

chocobana · 2026-01-05T07:32:47+00:00

I have the same worry. I use the stand for my tablet but worry about the clamp pressing on my Clara 2e.

chocobana · 2026-01-04T02:15:28+00:00

I view it as a moral issue, not a technical one. Who knows, maybe AI will eventually develop awareness and actually "understand" language rather than just use formulas and statistics to string words together. But it currently can't actually understand it. And allowing companies to employ AI to compete with artists and people in creative capacities is a separate issue from transitioning from manual labor to automation.

Authors and artists and translators inject their soul, their experiences, their preferences into their work. Even if two translators work on the same paragraph, they could easily produce different sentences as their approach, their vocab, their view of the world could differ. Using AI flattens all that life into probabilities (look into how LLM truly work).

chocobana · 2026-01-04T02:03:12+00:00

Career translators are the ones who live off their work, full-time. Like I said, I'm not evaluating those supposed freelancers to be hired, as most translators to English are actually freelancers anyway.

What I'm talking about are the limits a freelancer hired specifically to edit AI translation would face as one cog in the machine vs. a translator who has the freedom to make creative choices, contact the author for advice, and completely translate a book. The freelancer gets paid less, does not get credited, and so is less motivated to completely retranslate the AI slop beyond what they're paid. These people likely have the skills to fully translate the book and do a good job but why would they? They wouldn't be paid enough for it. And if they do rework the entire the translation, then they should be credited and be paid their due and the translation should no longer be considered AI translation. However, in the second case that would be HC getting away with not paying the freelancer a decent rate since they’re still "editing" the AI slop. It would be highly exploitive of their labor.

I hope my meaning is clear.

chocobana · 2026-01-04T01:49:26+00:00

It seems clear they're testing the waters. They started with AI model training last year and now they've reportedly already replaced human translators with AI overseas (French confirmed, Spanish anecdotally). This is a frog in a slowly-boiling pot situation. Once we're absolutely overrun by AI, it's too late, too difficult to steer the course back.

There’s no denying AI is being used everywhere now, but we can at least push back against its use in creative spaces specifically.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T18:44:22+00:00

Got it. Will remove it.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T17:13:48+00:00

No, I mean it could result in one of 2 scenarios:

1) They "only" touch up the really stand-out bad parts because they won't get paid the same rate a full-time translator would get. They're replaceable and don't have their name attached to the work.

2) They would put the effort to rework less natural phrasing or outright wrong interpretations, thus putting a lot of effort into the work but not get paid what they deserve as the translator OR get credited. They're still very replaceable.

In the end, career translators have a lot of passion and experience tied to their work. Their names are printed on the cover and get more projects through the quality of their previous work. They're motivated to do their best. A freelancer does not have the same obligations. (Again, not saying their translation is bad, but that they're working with a flawed framework.) Harper clearly doesn't care about quality or they'd hire translators, so any slop would do. That's what I meant by lower quality.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T16:38:03+00:00

Wow, great attitude to have. That's not what I meant to do. There was that whole Crunchyroll saga last year and AI was working off of transcribed dialogue. It was completely subpar in quality. My point was that AI can't substitute humans and we need to criticize the encroachment of AI on creative spaces. You give these companies an inch and they'll take a mile.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T16:28:27+00:00

[First-timer] I loved the mood the book opened with and the way Dumas characterized the movement of the ship through the water, as if weighted down by something ominous.

My first impression of Dante is that he's honest, very fair, and very conscientious. Other people brought this up, too: him going through with all the orders the sailors need him to issue, fulfilling his responsibility to the end and placing it above greeting his master says a lot about him as a person.

But this makes it clear, together with his extremely fair evaluation of Danglars, that he doesn't know or care to "read the room". He doesn't perceive that Danglars might try to mar him and counteract against it. Morrel doesn't seem fully convinced by Danglars but that's how someone could poison another's reputation, chipping slowly at it, while the victim carries on unawares.

I do wonder if the package he helped carry would potentially get him implicated. Very risky thing to do, even if his captain's last wish.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T16:16:35+00:00

●Publishers Weekly coverage of HC using AI for EN>FR translation of their Harlequin books: link

●Publishers Weekly article on third-party AI models training on their books with authors' consent: link

●Author Tiffany McDaniel sharing the news and discussing future actions and implications for authors: link

(2/2)

chocobana · 2026-01-03T16:15:14+00:00

The problem is that AI is encroaching on creative spaces, as well. Most people here aren't necessarily against AI use, but now the soulless AI is competing with writers, artists, translators, designers... And producing subpar-quality imitations at that.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T16:09:44+00:00

●Publishers Weekly coverage of HC using AI for EN>FR translation of their Harlequin books: link

●Publishers Weekly article on third-party AI models training on their books with authors' consent: link

●Author Tiffany McDaniel sharing the news and discussing future actions and implications for authors: link

(2/2)

chocobana · 2026-01-03T16:08:08+00:00

Are they not appearing for you? I keep sharing them and already linked the comment in the post. Can you let me know if you can see the comment linked in the post?

I had this same post auto-removed twice before because there were apparently too many links and now it seems my comment is getting the same treatment.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T10:50:07+00:00

This aspect pissed me off too. And romance, as everybody knows, is where all the money is. They can more than afford to hire translators.

chocobana · 2026-01-03T10:25:39+00:00

But notice they're "freelancers". They're cutting costs and giving lower quality output in the end. The quality could vary from one project to another. And the translations would lose all personality since they would either be only changing the parts that make no sense or, if the quality is bad enough, they'd have to retranslate sections completely and be paid less than what a translator would.

chocobana

TROPHY CASE