The Book Lair - all book talk ITT

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I agree that was probably Snyder's intent, but it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. The Persian Empire was a massive military juggernaut that went around invading and subjugating other countries in the name of spreading "freedom" and "civilization". If you were to draw a serious analogy between the Greco-Persian war and the War on Terror the Persians wouldn't be Al Qaeda, they'd be America!

More civilization than freedom, but yeah, get the point. Also, Achaemenid Persia wasn't all that bad.

[RoydGolden]

More civilization than freedom, but yeah, get the point. Also, Achaemenid Persia wasn't all that bad.

Never said they were. They were brutal and imperialistic, but so was basically every developed nation in that era.

And Persia was one of the first nations in that part of the world to outlaw slavery, which actually gives them a better claim to being champions of freedom than the slave-holding Greeks.

[SpoonyViking]

I agree that was probably Snyder's intent, but it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. The Persian Empire was a massive military juggernaut that went around invading and subjugating other countries in the name of spreading "freedom" and "civilization". If you were to draw a serious analogy between the Greco-Persian War and the War on Terror the Persians wouldn't be Al Qaeda or whatever, they'd be America!

Royd, when has American propaganda portrayed itself as a "massive military juggernaut" instead of a besieged state defending freedom everywhere?

[RoydGolden]

Royd, when has American propaganda portrayed itself as a "massive military juggernaut" instead of a besieged state defending freedom everywhere?

Fair enough if you're talking specifically about propaganda. I meant the Persian Empire in real life and its similarities to America.

[SpoonyViking]

Fair enough if you're talking specifically about propaganda. I meant the Persian Empire in real life.

Leaving aside how from the beginning I was talking specifically of "300", not real life, tell me where you saw anything close to reality in either the comic or the movie.

[Orange]

Weird, I was sure that

DON'T READ THIS SPOONY

they got together when their dragons did. Though the new book showcasing Eragon dealing with Dragon Rider paperwork but no mention of Arya corroborates this.

Anyway, the third book had it all: Political insights on the inner workings of the Rebe- the Varden, intrigue, straight up human fighting from Roran and the gang, and superhuman fighting from no-longer-a-whiny-birch Eragon. - - - Updated - - - Also, Arya DOES get a lot of lines describing her "unearthly beauty", it's just that they're pretty light on actual physical features.

I know this is pretty late but

Spoiler:

Islanzadi's dead. She was killed by Barst. I remember because I really hated the fact that she was killed by a character that was just introduced.

[Deathhappens]

I know this is pretty late but

Spoiler:

Islanzadi's dead. She was killed by Barst. I remember because I really hated the fact that she was killed by a character that was just introduced.

Huh. I had to google the name to even figure out who you were talking about, (first result is a Fire Emblem character, amusingly enough) and when I did I still had no recollection of that person or what they supposedly did. I must've been repressing Inheritance harder than I thought.

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It was a story about a society seemingly composed entirely of white-skinned people fighting against a Middle Easterner-coded society supposedly in the name of "freedom", with the Spartan queen spouting one of the Bush administration's catchphrases ("Freedom isn't free"). Zack Snyder couldn't have made the parallels with the War on Terror clearer than if he had tried.

But... literally everything you've pointed out is historically accurate. Unless you're actually insinuating that it's "fascism" for white-skinned people to defend themselves from dark-skinned people when the latter are invading the former.

[SeiKeo]

It’s ironic

[SpoonyViking]

But... literally everything you've pointed out is historically accurate. Unless you're actually insinuating that it's "fascism" for white-skinned people to defend themselves from dark-skinned people when the latter are invading the former.

Oh, yeah, "300" is a perfectly historical work, what with their lily-white Greeks, the ninja-like immortals, the political catchphrases of modern-day governments, and Spartans defending democracy. Just for starters.

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I mean, seriously, Deathhappens? I know you know what "subtext" is.

[Dullahan]

schniff,

But what about the apparent absurdity of the idea of dignity, freedom and Reason, sustained by extreme military discipline, including of the practice of discarding the weak children? This "absurdity" is simply the price of freedom - freedom is not free, as they put it in the film. Freedom is not something given, it is regained through a hard struggle in which one should be ready to risk everything. The Spartan ruthless military discipline is not simply the external opposite of the Athenian "liberal democracy," it is its inherent condition, it lays the foundation for it: the free subject of Reason can only emerge through a ruthless self-discipline. True freedom is not a freedom of choice made from a safe distance, like choosing between a strawberry cake or a chocolate cake; true freedom overlaps with necessity, one makes a truly free choice when one's choice puts at stake one's very existence - one does it because one simply "cannot do it otherwise." When one's country is under a foreign occupation and one is called by a resistance leader to join the fight against the occupiers, the reason given is not "you are free to choose," but: "Can't you see that this is the only thing you can do if you want to retain your dignity?" No wonder that all early modern egalitarian radicals, from Rousseau to Jacobins, admired Sparta and imagined the republican France as a new Sparta: there is an emancipatory core in the Spartan spirit of military discipline which survives even when we subtract all historical paraphernalia of Spartan class rule, ruthless exploitation of and terror over their slaves, etc.

[SpoonyViking]

"Spartan class rule" and "ruthless exploitation of and terror over their slaves" seem like very big things to just "subtract". "Freedom is not free" might as well be reframed as "freedom is not free, but WE'RE not the ones who pay that price".

[Dullahan]

[Deathhappens]

Oh, yeah, "300" is a perfectly historical work, what with their lily-white Greeks, the ninja-like immortals, the political catchphrases of modern-day governments, and Spartans defending democracy. Just for starters.

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I mean, seriously, Deathhappens? I know you know what "subtext" is.

300 is by no means a historical film, obviously, but none of the things you were complaining about were actually historical inaccuracies. Complain about the naked-abs Spartans, the cavalcade of monsters in the Persian side, the beardless Persia's Top Model Xerxes, right behind you on all these things. But skin colour (which seems accurate enough to me, but what do I know) and a single pithy catchphrase you could probably trace back to a superhero comic are what you go on to label the entire thing "pro-fascist imperialistic piece of shit" ? That's kind of a reach.

[SpoonyViking]

And "Alexander Nevsky" OBVIOUSLY had nothing to do with Soviet Russia fighting against Nazi Germany, no sirree.

[castor212]

Read Kingkiller Chronicle

its a weird sort of high-fantasy book, mostly because its not told with the plot of the central, its told like a diary
there isnt necessarily a connection between one events and another, things mostly just happened and it is told to us, which is actually realistic
normally i would think that this sort of story would just felt like a fanfiction with overpowered characters, but the story actually slowly tells of the actual improvement of the main character in a slowburn and realistic manner

i like it. keeps me awake at night.

[SpoonyViking]

I read the first one and liked the prose, but the plot advanced at much too slow a pace for my tastes.

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I remember feeling Kvothe was a bit too much a Nice Guy to... Damn, I forget her name. Then again, maybe that was intentional.

[castor212]

yeah, i agree that some people would find the pace the plot moves to be too slow

i guess thats exactly what the author aims

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the plot's barely there, tbh

im engaged mostly by just the daily things happening around Kvothe
the book actually makes them interesting. granted whats happening to him altogether isnt exactly common tho

[aldeayeah]

I remember feeling Kvothe was a bit too much a Nice Guy to... Damn, I forget her name. Then again, maybe that was intentional.

Denna, I guess? Hard to tell since the books get kinda harem-like at times

[SpoonyViking]

Denna, I guess? Hard to tell since the books get kinda harem-like at times

Denna, yes! Thanks!

[GundamFSN]

I like the part where Kvothe and Denna went on an adventure, stumbling upon mmmm heroin and dragon. Auri's a fun character too. The university section of the story kinda bores me since things barely happened, accompanied with your typical snotty bully and antagonizing superior(s? forgot).

Still really feels eh for Kvothe since he feels like that -insert name- MC that can pretty much do a lot of things.