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Messages - Cû'jara-Cinmoi

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31
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 31, 2017, 12:16:36 pm »
At the risk of alienating my favorite author, I'm firmly believe piracy is a bogeyman used by large media companies.

I've read a lot of studies on the issue and if you throw out the media sponsored ones and the ones that equate each pirated copy to a lost sale, the actual effect of piracy isn't bad and even has positive benefits.

In other words, big media are skewing results in order to minimize their profits... The only universe in which this argument could have bite is one where humans are hardwired to rationalize guilt.

The more time people spend consuming free media, the less time they spend consuming purchased media, the less money they spend. You can spike your samples any which way (the way IP foes do), cherry-pick countless happy scenarios, but it all comes down to this: people spending less, and content producers struggling more.

Being a Yar is bad enough. Being one who thinks they're actually doing good, on the other hand...

 

32
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 30, 2017, 01:33:39 pm »
pirating is the worst. Sorry to hear that, Scott. Me and many of my indie author friends have all had our work pirated, too. The thing is, it's hard to tell if that's really your book there or if they've just pulled your book off amazon and are really hosting malware or other destructive programs to scam you because you often have to download their software first. Really foul ones sell the ebooks like they're a legit site but probably are stealing your credit card information in the process.

The click bait stuff I don't worry about too much for this very reason, but this was a site with my whole book available to read online. Little&Brown, I find, is pretty good at policing this stuff though. Still one has to wonder for the future. We had friends over a few nights ago who laughed that I would be so stupid to buy Bluerays for things that were free. Its got to the point where I'm apologizing for taking intellectual property seriously.

33
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 29, 2017, 06:14:48 pm »
I found the whole bloody book posted *online* shortly after. Be sure to let every Yar you meet that pirating midlisters amounts to killing professional risk-taking. Talk about shitting where you eat.

One of those days.

34
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 29, 2017, 05:54:35 pm »
It was almost certainly my own damn fault. I kept ctrl A-ing and ctrl C-ing to prevent just such a thing happening. My guess is that I simply forgot to click off the select All highlight before clicking quote on the first of the two answers that did appear.

Losing my harddrive has shortened my fuse for such things, I think. I bloody snapped.

35
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 29, 2017, 01:59:27 pm »
Okay, so I just spent 3 hours typing nonstop answering every question on the topic summary and only the last two posted... Oof...

Sorry guys. I'm shaking with rage at the moment. Not sure when I'll have a chance to get back to these... You might want to save them for the AMA.

36
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 29, 2017, 01:48:17 pm »
The glossay entry for the Apocalypse states the Mandate Schoolmen are not the recognized authorities on the subject. Who is?

The author of the entry! There's allusions to scholarly rivalry and ego sprinkled throughout the EG.

The identity of the Mutilated,  do you have their names and what are their relations to Kellhuss? They call him brother several times is that just a Dunyain thing or are they related?


Ah... my first true RAFO! Sorry Ciogli. But I can say we are far from finished with the Sons of Imimorul.

37
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 28, 2017, 10:13:40 pm »
Scott, are you The God?  It would explain how the God can be both immanent (the books are composed of your thoughts) and transcendent.

The fact that the Judging Eye can see the No-God indicates that the God isn't asleep like Moe thought nor doesn't it care like Kellhus thought, since the very fact that Mimara possesses it indicates the God has some interest in the world, right?

Did you turn Kellhus into a baby (specifically Mimara's)?

edit: Oh, and the entire time I thought Kelmomas was supposed to be twin-souled, was he actually meant to represent non-conscious human thought via bicameralism?

edit 2: On skimming through the first-book again, I came to the conclusion that rage Kellhus feels when he sees Cnaiur rape Serwe must come from The God since Kellhus has no reason to feel such rage.  By the end of TTT, Kellhus is clearly communicating with The God.  At what point between the series did Kellhus convince himself that he wasn't a prophet and was there anything specific that pushed him in that direction?

edit 3: Sosering is one of the few Ordealmen described as being Saved as opposed to going to Hell.  Why is that?  Did he not engage in the rape and cannibalism or were there other contingent factors? Similarly, why is Esmenet saved?  Do sins only count if you commit them directly?  Does burning Caruthysal not count if you don't hold the torches yourself?

I'm certainly not the God. My *brain* on the hand... And then there's the question of YOUR brain, too.

Um, Kellhus is no baby. (???)

Shrewd observation regarding Kelmomas (I wasn't sure anyone would pick up on the conversation in the tent), though it isn't bicameralism so much as the absence of identity that's the crux.

The Dunyain have vestigial emotions--the paradox is that the Logos actually depends upon it.

The Gods pick whom they Will. I think it becomes more obvious when you look at it through this lens.

38
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 28, 2017, 08:51:29 pm »

With that said, I was thoroughly confused by the ending of TUC.  I thought that many of the scenes that were unclear upon my first read would yield greater clarity upon my second.  Particularly, I felt the like the entire conclusion, from the gold room forward, felt rushed and opaque.  I consider myself to be well read overall, a careful reader and fairly intelligent.  What I am not, is a student of philosophy.  I was willing to allow for the possibility that the failure to comprehend was solely mine as I am not familiar with the deeper philosophical underpinnings of the second series.  When a reread failed to yield additional clarity I came to this forum and to Westeros to see what others had gleaned. 

I was disappointed to find the lack of any consensus.  Is the ambiguity intentional?  I feel like the end reads like a reprisal of the scene from PON where Kellhus pulls Serwe's burning heart from his breast.  The imagery is striking but the impact is lessened due to the ambiguity.  If I recall, you've always stated that the editing of the "burning heart" section was poor and that you would clarify it if you had a chance to write it again.  I still have only vague speculations regarding how that occurred even given the benefit of the whole series (was he possessed by Ajokli or interacting with the outside in some way?). 

Are you disappointed in the reaction thus far?  Are we missing something that that you, as the author, feel is obvious or is the ambiguity intentional?

Regardless, thanks for taking the time to interact with your fans.  Despite my dissatisfaction with the ending I still think that that your series is fantastic and I can't wait to begin reading the No-God in the hope that greater clarity awaits!         

I starting avoiding forums years ago simply because I found the speculation I was reading was jamming my own gears. I have good memories of Westeros, but I always hear the sound of axes grinding over there, anymore: no book is a match for ill-will, especially if it takes risks.

That said, the only book I put more work into was TDTCB, so your sense of haste actually has no basis on the composition side. I actually went through and rewrote the ending for 'clarity's sake' no less than four times (!!) based on feedback from different beta readers, which is what makes your appraisal of the 'general reaction,' to be honest, hard to believe. The Amazon and blog reviews don't reflect it.

Interpretative indeterminacy, or what I call 'Crash Space' in my philosophical work, is what this series is ALL about, so if you were expecting a traditional discharging of narrative mysteries, you were bound to be disappointed: the idea is to cue our meaning-making instincts in the absence of any definitive interpretation. Right. Wrong. Hero. Villain. Hope. Fear. Love. Hate. Life. Afterlife. Heaven. Hell. Violence. Healing. Golgotterath is the point where all these things collapse into uncertainty.

So for me, there were only a handful of basic things I had hoped would be clear enough to frame the intelligibility of what comes after. Frustration on the part of a good number of readers--we all have varying tolerances for uncertainty--is something I take as a sign of achieving my narrative and thematic goals. I would have been bummed if some hadn't reacted negatively. Blame the books, or (as seems to be the dominant reflex) blame me, the fact remains you have just had an up close and personal experience with your own tolerances. You have felt Golgotterath more viscerally than most!


39
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 28, 2017, 07:48:17 pm »
And thank you all. From a commercial standpoint, this series pretty much has everything going against it. I feel as though it's been a tight knit circuit from the very beginning, which is to say, every bit as dependent on enthusiasts as on me.

I know you will not spoil future books. But alot of speculation on Kellhus, is he the other decapitant, in the Outside and so on and so on. My question, is if he is dead, he did make it to the Outside, correct?

Also, will there be a time jump in the next series or will it pick up where we left off?

Well, Ajokli can't find him.

The next installment picks up several weeks after the disaster at Golgotterath.

Hi Mr. Bakker, huge congratulations on finishing The Aspect Emperor.  I thought the final book was the best of the lot.

If it isn't too spoiler-y, can you let us know what the image of Kellhus that everyone sees floating down from the Horn is?  It seems clear that the Judging Eye sees the Carapace beneath it, but what was making it ever look like Kellhus was there?  Was it the same kind of Tekne that the Mutilated used to project an image of Shae in the Golden Room, or was something else at work?


Yes. It's a holographic projection, simply meant to keep the Great Ordeal - and the Schoolmen in particular - pinned in place while the Oar comes rattles back to life. As Madness can tell you, I rewrote that bit a number of times trying to make it obvious-and-allusive (on a reread of the Descent and the Shauriatis ruse I think you'll notice it), but hindsight is a motherfucker when it comes to threading those kinds of needles.


One question I've had since TJE was concerning the identity of "the traveler" that seeks out the Skin-eaters in the first few pages of the prologue. Is this traveler an agent of Kellhus, the Mutilated, or someone else entirely?


Just an agent of the Ministrate, I fear. I use a lot of throwaways to hide the players.

40
Author Q&A / Re: Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 28, 2017, 06:44:27 pm »
How is navigating the postpartum world?

After birthy.


Might you be able to confirm or deny your attendance to Zaudunyanicon?


I can definitively confirm. My brother might try to make a documentary of it, actually!

Also - now that afternoon breakfast for the house is done - I do believe congratulations are in order. Seven books in and two completed series! Thank you for bending your self to the page over the past 15+ years!

Feels hard to believe, but I have the squint and the stoop to prove it!

The one burning questions I have (and that you have a slight chance of answering) is when can you disclose the title of the next series?  If the answer is now the please let us know!

Yes, the title is, and always has been, THE NO-GOD.


2. Are you currently writing said series?
3. The tapestry that Mimara comes across once reaching the Ordeal, is it one commissioned by Kellhus or is it older, maybe even ancient?

The tapestry is ancient, and it's significance is unknown to Kellhus. As for THE NO-GOD, I have scads of snippets centering mostly on individual characters, but I still have a huge amount of decisions to make.

The digestion is improving, day after day, but it's like eating a mammoth, it isn't easy to hunt it, eat it and digest it.

You forgot to mention the hot sauce...

41
Author Q&A / Unholy Consultation - *SUPER SPOILERIFIC*
« on: July 28, 2017, 04:35:11 pm »
Meat can be hard on the digestion, I know. I have a little salad I can offer, for those suffering more extreme bowel cramps.

42
Author Q&A / Re: Moe leaving Ishual
« on: June 27, 2016, 07:12:19 pm »
They had no difficulty killing themselves afterward, and he was their better, so why assume he would have difficulty?

43
Author Q&A / Re: Different Analogies for different schools?
« on: June 27, 2016, 06:54:59 pm »
They each have their own cluster of favourite tropes, just like literary traditions. They can also use different prostheses to leverage the detail and power of the semantic projections (as with Iswazi practices).

44
I actually had a version of the book beginning with Kellhus, and sticking with him as he learned the world. This is the big thing I would have done differently: Given the first half of TDTCB to Kellhus, using his gradual accumulation of knowledge as a vehicle for bringing the readers up to speed.

Otherwise, one big craft hurdle I crossed, I think, was realizing when I was writing around scenes because they were too difficult. Once I got wise to this, I began, rather masochistically, perhaps, throwing myself directly at difficult scenes, attempting to evoke situations that are typically just glossed in fiction. To me, this means the series is filled with scenes where I think, given the wisdom of writing hindsight, that I could have done better. If I had tackled something like the Entresol scene ten years ago, for instance, I think I would have mucked it up in several different ways.

45
Author Q&A / Re: Political upheaval in the New Empire
« on: June 27, 2016, 01:31:53 pm »
But everything depends on the nature of the external threat when it comes to group identification. This is why weak leaders often start wars. The instant Fanayal--who is far from Orthodox--became a real threat to the Empire, the dynamics of identification were inevitably changed. The Zaudunyani could now accuse Orthodox of Fanim complicity, for one.

Imagine the Mandarin Chinese invading the continental US during the run-up to the Civil War.

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