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I recently finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson after having read and loved his Mistborn trilogy.
I don’t know if I’m getting to be a better reader or if this book was just particularly predictable, but once all the characters were set out and their motivations were clear (besides Dilaf) it seemed like I knew exactly what was going to happen. Granted, there were some surprises, I’m unfortunately not yet entirely prescient, but the major plot points all fell together as expected. I guess it’s a testament to the book that I kept reading even though I knew what would happen. (Alternatively, I can’t put down a book even if it’s bad, once I’ve started, so that probably has something to do with it.)
I liked Sarene and the fact that she had plenty of influence and agency throughout the book, but I think she left a lot to be desired in terms of challenging gender roles. While her actions and manipulation were great, there were times that reading her inner monologue felt like Sanderson was trying to over-emphasize the fact that she was a woman. “Hey, look, she’s still a woman! She worries about things that women stereotypically worry about! But she’s also really successful at politics and manipulation, so she’s a strong female character! Raaah!” I think I expected a lot from her character, but rightfully so, as Sanderson spent a long time telling us how intelligent and forward-thinking she was, and how her culture didn’t oppress women and so on.
Apparently this was Sanderson’s first book, and thinking back on it, it’s really interesting to see the similarities between this and Mistborn. I haven’t read Way of Kings, but apparently there’s also similarities there.
Not necessarily saying it’s bad, as I enjoyed them, but it does make the books feel like more of an entertaining quick read than anything else. And sure, if you generalize enough, every story is the same, but none the less I couldn’t stop thinking about Mistborn while I was reading Elantris.
Overall, I enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it. Sanderson is a strong author and his characters are so engaging to me - I felt attached to multiple characters on both sides of the conflict, and that’s a big reason why I was so hooked.
Preliminary sketch of Chief Bei Fong from The Legend of Korra
(via korranation)
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Considering I’ve played way too many video games and love Community, I decided to break down the list of Hilda’s topics from the brilliant Digital Estate Planning by game. This is truly a testament to the absurd amount of detail the show puts into even the smallest jokes.
Yup, this is amazing - that list displayed for like two, maaaybe three seconds at most? And each line is a reference? Completely unnecessary, but totally awesome.
I’m not even going to tell you the catcalls I received in Manhattan when I lived there. It’s a shitty thing. If you are a lady chances are you know what it’s like to walk down the street and feel afraid of every dude you see thinking “is that guy on the corner going to say some shit to me? Please dude, do not say anything to meeee.” Anyway if you don’t know what it’s like to be harassed whenever you leave the house, here is an article where women talk about that: http://rookiemag.com/2012/05/it-happens-all-the-time/
This sounds like the worst? Those stories in the rookiemag article are horrifying. I don’t know what I can do to make it any better; I think I will try to berate catcallers if I encounter them? some people -.-
(via mabufu)
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1x01 Pilot
Professor Duncan: I’m asking you if you know the difference between right and wrong.
Jeff Winger: I discovered at a very early age that if I talked long enough I could make anything right or wrong. So either I’m god, or truth is relative. And either case booyah.3x22 Introduction to Finality
Jeff Winger: I mean, guys like me, we’ll tell you there’s no right or wrong—there’s no real truths. And as long as we all believe that, guys like me can never lose. Because the truth is, I’m lying when I say there is no truth. The truth is—the pathetically, stupidly, inconveniently, obvious truth is, helping only ourselves is bad and helping each other is good.
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Normally, I would just ride on the coattails of whatever end-of-the-week episode sketch Joaquim posts, because he does those better than I do/can, but it looks like he didn’t get a chance to do one this week. So I did a quick Asami painting to accompany the airing of episode 107 today. Hope you guys enjoy that one! It’s a doozy.
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…happy…mommy day…
hi mom! happy mother’s day :)